“Excuse the expression, but it looks like you’ve seen a ghost,” Ruth says to me.
“Yeah, kind of.”
I watch as Aiden talks to a few of his friends and then looks over at Eoghan, who is back behind the bar and looking straight back at him. Thankfully, Aiden and his friends leave and I breathe a sigh of relief. Boy, do I regret telling Aiden about being at Murrough’s tonight. That was so fucking awkward. But Eoghan coming to my rescue—not that I needed rescuing, I think—just does something to me. And while I should care very greatly what my boss now thinks, I’m much more curious about how Eoghan really feels about me. He’s always been my friend. He’s always been one to protect me and take care of me however he can, but this was different. This was territorial. This made me feel like we belong to each other and there’s a part of me that really hopes that turns out to be true.
But I glance back to the bar and Eoghan’s serving yet another female customer, this one dressed as a sexy lobster. Come on, man. How can I compete with the dozens of women that circle him like he’s prey on any given night?
“Earth to Julie,” Ruth says, and snaps her fingers in front of my face.
“What?”
“Are you all right?” Ruth asks, as if she asked five times before. She probably did.
“I need a drink,” I tell her.
“Great, me too. It’s Halloween!”
She grabs my arm and we both go to the bar. Dylan serves us a couple of shots of tequila with some lime slices and a shy smile as he watches Ruth.
The DJ starts playing Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” and Ruth shrieks, “Yes!”
“Oh my God, Ruth. You crack me up.”
“Another shot for us, Dylan, then we’re gonna go dance. We’re officially on break.”
He laughs and looks over at Eoghan, who is finally smiling a little after the skirmish with Aiden.
We down our shots and then go out to the dance floor to do the “Single Ladies” dance, which I am terrible at and Ruth does as if she’s some weird Irish Beyoncé. It’s a moment that will stick with me forever.
After the song, we head back to the bar and laugh with the guys for a little while and then go back to serving all our happy patrons, with a couple drinks in between for us, too.
Liam, who’s wearing some devil horns, has spent most of the night cozy in the corner with a woman dressed as Hermione Granger. They’re having a good laugh when I come around with a whole slew of shots they ordered.
“Here ya go, Liam.”
“Cheers, lassie.”
“No problem,” I say with a sloppy smile.
“You’re still coming to Baltimore with us tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I tell him and it’s true. I’ve been looking forward to it every day since he invited me.
“This is the photographer, Eoghan’s oul’ doll,” he tells Hermione.
“Oul’ doll,” I repeat, and laugh at that. It sounds so funny.
“Oh wow, nice to meet you. I’m Katie.”
“Julie,” I reply, and we shake hands.
“Those photos are class. You’re really talented.”
“Thanks,” I reply, and the buzz I’m feeling makes room for a good dose of pride.
“Here, have one on me,” Liam says, and passes me one of his shots.
“Sláinte,” I say, as if it doesn’t sound completely stupid in my American accent. Damn, that hits hard.
I head back to work, but the more buzzed I get, the more I blatantly stare at Eoghan. He’s so goddamn hot, and I wish so much I had the courage to pull him by that tight black shirt down to my face and attack him with my mouth. I’m practically drooling about it, which has got to be sexy. I don’t care. He’s been having a fun time behind the bar, but thankfully I haven’t seen him take any shots with any of the women that hover around his station.
So, with a few of my inhibitions dropped, I find myself taking a little break at Eoghan’s stretch of bar. “Not drinking?” I ask him.
“I’ve been drinking,” he answers, and shows me a beer he’s been keeping beneath the bar. He puts it back, and then grabs the bottle of tequila off the shelf behind me. “It’s tequila you’re drinking, right?”
“Observant.”
One side of his mouth lifts up as he pours it into two shot glasses and passes me one, with a lime and the salt shaker.
“Culturally cliché,” I say, and wink at him as I lick my wrist and then shake some salt on my skin. He watches me closely with dark, dark eyes.
I pass him the salt shaker and he licks his own wrist while looking at me directly in the eyes. It’s one of the sexiest moves I’ve ever seen and everything below my waist melts.
With our wrists extended in front of us and our shot glasses in hand, we both stare at one another.
“Sláinte,” he growls, and we both lean down and lick the salt off our wrists, then down the shots of tequila and suck the limes hard.
He immediately pours us a second one. I tilt my head to the side and figure, why not?
We don’t say anything as we both put salt on our wrists and then lift our shot glasses, but this time, before I can lick the salt off my own wrist, he takes my hand and pulls my wrist to his mouth and licks the salt off, so slowly and with so much devotion. My mouth falls open as I watch the act and I feel utterly worshipped, as if I’ve suddenly ascended to goddess status. He offers me his own wrist and I take it to my mouth, licking the salt off with the tip of my tongue while looking up at him, trying to give back as good as I got. His jaw tightens hard and my thighs, which were already pressing together, rub back and forth as I try to ease the ache I’m feeling for him. Our eyes lock on one another and we drink the second shot in unison.
“So, this is happening,” Dylan notes from beside us, but neither of us responds to him. We don’t even look his way. Instead, we both suck our limes for a long time and I start laughing a little. Eoghan doesn’t laugh. Not at all. Instead, he raises his eyebrow at me, as if asking if I want to go another round. I give him a slight nod and he pours.
This time, he preps my wrist first by licking up from the wrist with a broad warm tongue and my mind goes there. It wonders what his tongue would feel like between my legs. Then he adds the salt and licks again. I’m going to melt right on the spot. I do the same for him, savoring the taste of his skin, and now I want to taste him…everywhere.
“Sláinte,” I say this time and Eoghan smiles, apparently at my successful use of Irish vocab.
I watch Eoghan lick his lips and stare down at me. We drink and it burns much less.
I grab for a lime, but there isn’t one for me. Eoghan is holding the wedge between his teeth. He leans across the bar and offers me his mouth.
I have forgotten all of my reasoning about why it might be a bad idea to do a body shot with my roommate. Logic has flown the coop. It did three shots ago. There’s only Eoghan and his hot, sexy mouth and that lime.
I step up on the bar rail and lean over the bar, grip on to his shirt, and take his mouth with mine. We suck the lime together and share the wedge between our mouths as our tongues occasionally collide in the chaos. I need more, so I quickly pull back and he looks shocked…maybe distraught. I take the lime out and go back to his mouth as quickly as I can and he gasps, happily taking me back. His hands go into my hair and he has me pinned in place.
“Oh my God,” I hear Ruth say from a few feet away, but I don’t care.
I’ve lost sight of everyone and everything except this kiss. I think I hear Dylan call out Eoghan’s name, as if he’s trying to stop him for some reason, but we don’t acknowledge him.
In a wave of fast motions, Eoghan pulls back and comes around the bar, then he’s leading me onto the dance floor like he’s done so many times before, but this time it is so utterly different. We get right into the heart of it and he pulls me close to him. One of his hands glides up my arm and reaches into my hair. I’m hit with a huge rush of pleasure and I separate my legs as much as possible in this tight, tight dress to let his thigh in between.
Yes.
This is going to be so good. I need it. I need him.
“God, Juliana, this is…” he starts and then kisses me again. It’s wild, and urgent, and so ridiculously public. I love every second of it.
After the shock factor of what I’m doing ceases, I realize that I’m kissing Eoghan. My Eoghan. And goddamn, he’s good at it, probably from all the practice he’s had over the years. He possesses my mouth as if it will never belong to anyone else again and presses us together so tightly, it’s as if he can’t get close enough to me.
We come up for air for just a second, and then Eoghan lifts me off the ground with one arm and pulls me up to his mouth again....