1
NATHAN
Tonight was the night I was going to make him mine.
I took a deep breath as I stood outside the door to the hotel bar and went over the plan in my head again. For the last three weeks, I’d been popping in to see Duncan while he worked, watching him, waiting for the perfect moment.
Everything was planned out, and I’d even booked a suite at the hotel for the evening so I could give him the night he deserved. All I had to do now was walk in there and convince him to give me a chance.
Not that I thought it would be difficult. We’d been flirting for most of the time I’d been coming into the bar to see him, and I’d made it clear I had money. But if I couldn’t, then I had other methods of persuasion.
With a final shake of my shoulders, I flung off any doubt I had and walked through the doors with a smile on my face. A smile that slowly slipped as my eyes darted around behind the bar and I didn’t see Duncan.
I took in the cheap Halloween decorations, the coloredlights pulsing throughout the bar instead of the usual annoying fluorescent beams, the red runner down the length of the bar, and the supposedlyfestivecobwebs and plastic spiders strategically placed along the glass on the back wall.
But there was something—no,someone, missing.
My steps slowed as I got closer to the bar, my head cocking to the side as I replayed our conversation from the other night in my head.
My eyes drifted closed and I could see him clear as day. Duncan McCallister, a pretty boy with blond hair and a killer smile that he flashed as he served me drinks from behind the bar. He’d told me he was working tonight. I knew he did. So why wasn’t he where he was supposed to be?
The betrayal was like a knife, carving out my soul.
“Nathan?”
My eyes flashed open and I turned to see who had called my name. There weren’t many people here who knew my name. I’d made sure of that. I spied the bartender at the other end, in the middle of taking care of another customer, giving me a nod and holding up a finger indicating for me to wait a moment.
I stood there, watching him work. His hands were large but handled the glassware with a delicacy that spoke of experience and his smile was easy and effortless. But it did nothing for me. Not the way his athletic build filled out his tight-fitting black T-shirt and tight jeans that seemed to be the bar’s uniform or his olive complexion and dark eyes and long, wavy hair that he had tied back in a bun.
Then again, he would do, to work off some steam and tension that suddenly filled my body.
But that hadn’t been the plan and I hated to deviate from a plan. He had me curious, though, so I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the bar and waited for him to finishwith his customer. I watched him like a lion stalking a gazelle as he made his way to where I stood.
He watched me with equal curiosity and I wondered what all Duncan had told him about me. Considering he knew my name, it was obvious he’d talked to his coworkers about me and a part of me preened at the thought, while another part cursed at the inconvenience.
“Duncan’s not here tonight,” the bartender, whose name I wasn’t sure I ever knew, told me as he continued to look me up and down. The gleam in his eyes was a giveaway to the fact he thought he was the one on the prowl, but he had no idea the danger he’d just walked into by approaching me.
“Yeah, I can see that.” My fist clenched at my side, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t keep the harsh bitterness from my tone. It wasn’t this man’s fault, but I didn’t care about that. What I cared about was the fact Duncan had lied to me. He’d ruined what I had so carefully planned for the two of us.
The other man gave me a grin as he slid my usual beer order my way.
“Doesn’t mean you have to leave. First one’s on me.” He shot me a wink as another customer flagged him down from a few stools away.
I sneered at the drink as though it had personally offended me, refusing to drink it.
“Did he say why he wasn’t coming in tonight?” I asked before he was able to get too far away.
He shot me another grin as he threw the reply over his shoulder and kept walking. “Oh, he’s working tonight. He just got bumped up to bartend a wedding in the ballroom tonight because the original bartender got the flu.”
What the fuck?
I stormed out of the bar, furious with the way the asshole bartender had been jerking me around. I wanted to kill himjust for fucking with me, but I knew I couldn’t draw that much attention to myself. I roamed the halls of the hotel, slipping into the employees only section.
There had to be a way into that ballroom where the wedding reception was taking place. He was in there. And he wasmine, whether he knew it or not, his life was mine for the taking.
From the first moment I had laid eyes on him at the bar, I knew he was meant to be mine. I’d watched him, wanted him, waited for him. The timing had to be perfect.
And it had been.
