Free Taste for Trouble by Susan Sey Page A

for free alcohol.
    He
rolled that first taste around his mouth, forbidding himself to swallow until
he’d savored it. Then Drew poked him with a sharp elbow and said, “Seriously, will
you look ? It’s totally her.”
    Will
closed his eyes and let the scotch trickle down his throat. Then he threw the
rest of it back in a single gulp. Fuck it.
    “Which
one?” he asked.
    “The
blonde,” Drew said, his dark eyes glued to a pretty little thing with curves
that, even in a waitress uniform almost made up for that salad spinner haircut.
“God, how can you not remember her? From Maxwell’s? Last night? I tried to get
her number for hours. Ordered all kinds of drinks I didn’t want.”
    Will
remembered that. He’d drunk most of them. He set his glass down on the bar and
forbade himself another for at least an hour.
    “She
told me she was leaving for Tucson in the morning.” That was true confusion in
Drew’s voice. No anger, no petulance, just hurt wonder. “She lied to me.”
    “They’ll
do that.”
    “But why ?” Honest bafflement now. Will shook his head in disbelief. Kid was
an optimist, sure. Just wired like that, lucky him. But he’d have to be purely,
willfully ignorant to think any woman was going to choose him when James
Blake, superstar, was sitting across the table all alone. “I really liked her.”
    Will
didn’t bother to enlighten him, just made a non-committal noise and turned back
to the bar. He thought about reducing the interval between drinks to half an
hour. An hour was starting to look unreasonable. Good thing he’d treated
himself to a couple quick shots before leaving the house. He’d had a feeling
tonight was going to be a total cock-up and he’d been right. As usual. The curse
of his genius IQ.
    A
movement in the mirror behind the bottles caught his attention and he turned to
see James and Bel exiting the bathroom. Together. She gave his shirt a furtive tug,
as if to make sure she’d retucked it properly, and it sent a black rage rolling
into his stomach.
    Their
new nanny couldn’t be bothered to scramble Will an egg but she had no problem
fucking his brother in a bathroom stall her first night on the job. Proving
once again that there was no limit to James’ magical luck.
    He
checked his watch and gauged his level of sobriety. Even if he adopted the new
half-hour-between-drinks policy he was still looking at 25 minutes until the
next scotch. And while he wasn’t precisely sober, he wasn’t anywhere near drunk
enough to endure 25 minutes of James’ post-coital glow. Not with this ugly urge
to break shit crawling up his throat. He needed to bleed it off, he realized
dully. Break something small before he broke something big. It wouldn’t satisfy
the itch but it would take the edge off. He hoped.
    He
turned to Drew, slung an arm around his brother’s neck with a heartiness he
didn’t feel.
    “Hang
on, now. That waitress lied to you?”
    “Yeah.”
Drew didn’t look at him. He was still tracking the not-into-him hottie as she
wove expertly through the crowd with a tray.
    “That,
my brother, is an insult we can’t be expected to bear.”
    Drew
finally looked at him, those big brown eyes suddenly wary. Maybe the boy wasn’t
purely stupid after all. “What? No! Will, don’t—”
    “Oh,
but it’s my pleasure.” He smiled and Drew actually took a step back. “Pay attention,
now, son. Justice is about to be served.”

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Bel frowned
critically at James’ backside and nodded. “It’ll do,” she said.
    “As
long as I don’t try to sit, stand, run, walk or move.”
    “Right.”
She smiled and it felt deliciously evil. Goodness, where was this coming from? Why
was she having so much fun torturing the poor man? What had he ever done to
her?
    Oh,
right. Now she remembered. He’d torpedoed her life-long dream with his
thoughtless mouth and his stupid brothers, and hadn’t had the good grace to
even remember her face later. She’d made him eggs and