just getting started. After tipping in an ounce of syrup, he flipped the shaker into the air and caught it in the same hand—behind his back. Not a single drop spilled.
She laughed. “Hey! Good party trick.”
“Bartending paid the bills through law school.”
Teagan sat straighter. Interesting. He came from money—earlier he had mentioned inheriting a law firm—but he hadn’t necessarily relied on it. Maybe Jacob Stone was more her type than she’d thought.
Unlike her older brothers who had accepted jobs with the family company, Teagan had decided to go it alone. The boys had dubbed her The Wild Child, but there was more to her opting out than that. Lately, however, she’d thought about going back. Everyone was on tenterhooks waiting for the next attack. She should be there for her family now.
Jacob was pouring juice into that shaker like a pro.
“Working and studying full-time was a challenge,” he said. “But I loved every minute. Passing the New York State Bar was always my dream.”
“Do you have a specialty?” Remembering the situation back home in Australia, Teagan leaned closer. “Like criminal law?”
“I deal in reputations. Defamation. Libel.”
“Oh, like that case in the news a while back.” She recalled the details. “A big-name movie director sued a magazine after they claimed he had indecently assaulted someone.”
“The magazine lost.” He smacked the juice bottle down like a gavel. “We won.”
Get outta here. “That was your case?”
“Done and dusted, Your Honor.”
Congratulations were in order. But there was a downside. “The amount that director wanted was insane. The magazine worried it would ruin them. That people would lose their jobs.”
Jacob studied her before adding a scoop of ice to the shaker. “Not my responsibility.”
“Meaning, you’d done your job.” Had brought down the kill.
“Meaning, if you turn your back on the truth, spread malicious lies, and you come up against me—prepare to pay the price.”
Jacob didn’t seem agitated. Rather, he looked determined, like Teagan’s oldest brother Cole when he was stuck in commander in chief mode. Wynn could be the same way. Focused, Grace called it. Even Dex, the chilled middle brother, could switch on that don’t mess with me trait when need be.
Frankly, the entire family—and their goliath media and news corporation—was known for keeping its eye on the target. Never letting a prize get away. Way too intense for The Wild Child, even if Teagan’s father reminded her every chance he got that she shared the same name. That the same blood ran through her veins. He’d said that she couldn’t hide from who she was. DNA didn’t lie.
While Jacob screwed on the shaker’s lid, Teagan joined him behind the bar. “Mind if I try?”
He handed it over. “Be my guest.”
She gave the shaker a few slow rotations before going to town. As ice clinked and liquid swished at warp speed, Jacob’s eyes widened.
“I’m all about protein shakes, not cocktails.” She put a hand on her heart. “I swear.”
After she poured the mixture into their glasses, he proposed a fitting toast. “To the truth, the whole truth.”
Teagan touched her glass to his. “So help me, God.”
She sipped then sighed. Fresh and light and...yeah...
About that toast.
“I need to come clean,” she said, setting her glass aside. “I have a confession to make.”
“Well, if you need a good lawyer...”
She returned his lopsided grin then admitted, “This is actually a first for me, too...being here with you like this tonight.”
His smile changed. The look in his eyes, as well. “As in, two people who just met leaving a party together?”
She nodded. “Needing to be alone for an hour or two.”
That amber gaze turned ravenous again. When he stepped closer and a hot palm skimmed beneath the back of her hair—when his head deliberately angled and lowered over hers—it didn’t matter that he wasn’t what Teagan thought she wanted, needed, maybe even deserved. As his mouth covered hers, there was only one certainty that seemed to shine through. One truth that couldn’t be denied.
She was indeed her father’s daughter. A Hunter by name. In many respects, a Hunter by nature. And tonight, damn it all, she was hungry, too.
There were times when things felt good. Felt right. There were others when forces conspired or stars aligned and what happened was out of this world.
Like now, Jacob thought, being here with this woman who had come out of nowhere and left zero doubt as to what she was thinking. Where they were heading. Her words alone would have sufficed. The definite yes in her gaze was the icing on the cake.
Let’s do it.
As Jacob claimed the first kiss, he felt her dissolve, her two arms coiling around his neck. After blindly setting his glass on the counter, he caressed the curve of her hip while his tongue swept the seam of her lips and they parted. Then she craned up on her toes and pressed her breasts against his ribs. As the kiss deepened and her fingers knotted in his hair, he only grew more certain.
They would need way more than an hour or two.
When Jacob drew away, he kept his gaze on her lips. “Things aren’t going too fast?”
A smile played at the corners of her mouth as those gorgeous green eyes drifted open. “Not for me.” As she nodded, a waterfall of blond hair cascaded over her shoulder. “How about you? All good?”
So good. Particularly now that she was flicking open every shirt button down to his belt and tracing arcs over his pecs with her nails. Needing to keep up, he found the zipper at her back and eased that baby all the way down. As the gown slipped and rustled into a glittering puddle around her heels, he worked the shirttails from his pants and cast his shirt to the floor. Then he brought her close and claimed her mouth again.
Only now that wasn’t nearly enough.
He bent at the knees and caught her around the waist. Then, inch by inch, he lifted her until her silver heels fanned the air a foot above the ground. And that’s how he carried her to his bed. Step by step.
Kiss by kiss.
From the minute Jacob had held her on the dance
