Sit! Stay! Speak! by Annie England Noblin

“Addie, sugar, what do you want?”
    â€œNot a mango margarita.” Addie rolled her eyes. “I’ll take a Guinness and a shot of bourbon.”
    â€œI like you,” Jennie replied.
    Addie took the shot. The warm liquid slid down her throat. It had been a long time since she’d had a drink like that.
    â€œHey, Vic!” Jennie shouted to the man behind the bar. “I need a rum and diet for the lovebirds over there.”
    Wanda gave Addie a sharp jab in the ribs. “Don’t look now.”
    Jasper Floyd sat at a booth adjacent to the bar, and he wasn’t alone. There was a woman next to him. They were sitting close to each other—unnervingly close—having a conversation that appeared to be very private.
    Addie sucked in air. Who was this woman? She didn’t look familiar. She looked like she had come straight from work with her smart blazer and matching skirt. Her jet black hair fell in a perfectly straight line at the middle of her back. Even from where Addie was standing, she could see the woman’s perfect olive skin. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
    She was perfect.
    The woman stood up and started to walk toward the bar. Lord, she was tall. Addie felt like a bug waiting to be stepped on as the woman passed her in her four-inch heels. Addie turned away, her hands groping for the glass of Guinness. The glass tipped on its side, sloshing half of the contents onto the floor and onto Addie.
    â€œShit!”
    The woman stared at Addie for a few seconds, her face emotionless, before turning her attention to Vic. “I’m sorry, but I ordered a drink a while ago and have yet to receive it.”
    â€œWhere’s the bathroom?” Addie asked Wanda.
    â€œIn the back,” Wanda said. “Want me to go with you?”
    Addie shook her head. “I’ll be back. Get me another shot.”
    She stalked off toward the bathrooms, toward where Jasper was now sitting alone. That was just all she needed—to be covered in beer and have to talk to him, while he was here with a gorgeous woman. Addie tried to ignore Jasper as she passed him, but he cut her off at the door.
    â€œWhat happened here?” Jasper’s gaze wandered from Addie’s face to the front of her dress, which clung damply to her skin.
    â€œI spilled beer on myself. Move, please.”
    â€œYou should be more careful.” He made no attempt to move.
    â€œYou should bite me.”
    Jasper ran his teeth over his bottom lip and replied, “Is that an invitation?”
    â€œAre you drunk?” Addie leaned in closer to him. He didn’t look drunk.
    â€œNo. Are you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell, now that we’ve got that settled . . .”
    â€œGet out of my way, Jasper.”
    Jasper’s eyes danced over her body playfully. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Jasper stepped aside, allowing Addie passage.
    â€œThanks,” she said, shoving past him. “You’re a real gentleman.”
    â€œAre you mad at me about something?”
    Addie turned back around to face him. “What are you talking about?”
    â€œYou seem angry.”
    â€œI’m not,” Addie replied. “I’m just wet, cold, and smell like stale beer.”
    Jasper opened his mouth to respond but thought better of it. Instead, he pushed her back into the alcove between the bathrooms. He pressed her up against the wall, his eyes pleading with hers.
    The heat from Jasper’s body coupled with the cool wood of the wall against Addie’s back was too much for her to take. She grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him down to her level, where their mouths met for the first time. He kissed her with such a hunger, such a desperate hunger, that Addie forgot about everything else except his lips on hers—everything except being the answer to whatever it was that he needed.
    When Jasper finally pulled away from her, he was smiling. “You don’t smell