Whet Your Appetite Wednesday - Body Shots

Body Shots is available from Ellora's Cave

Reed Walker leaned his massive frame against the wall. His leg bent, his boot-clad foot tapped against the wall to the rhythm of the bass drum. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, as his eyes gazed upon the singer crooning the soft rock ballad. She was gorgeous by every standard of the word. Long flowing black hair, dark mysterious eyes, her arms sleeved in tattoos. Dressed only in black leather pants and a matching leather bra, her rock-hard stomach revealed she worshiped the gym but Reed wasn’t here for the singer. She wasn’t his type any longer. Another time, another place maybe. Not tonight. Tonight, he was here for the owner of the bar.

Looking to make some extra cash doing something they loved, Reed and his fellow band mates decided to reunite after a ten year hiatus. Reed, having always been the businessman of the group, took on the task of going to different bars and clubs to see if they were interested in adding his band Foul Play to their lineup.

When he walked into Crimson Nights he thought he was walking into a dream. Never in his wildest imagination had he thought he’d come face to face with the only true love of his life—Sierra Allen.

The look on her face when he walked up to the bar and asked to speak to the owner was one of shock. Like seeing a ghost. And that’s how he felt. Oh, she’d cut off most of her long red hair but she couldn’t deny the scar on her right cheek. It had faded some over the years and she tried covering it with her hand most of the time they spoke but he knew it was her. She told him her name was Laura but Reed knew better. Those haunting green eyes couldn’t be mistaken.

He went along with her charade, though it killed him deep inside. She had run away from him after the car accident without so much as an explanation. The weeks he spent by her side, holding her while she cried over what she felt was a deformed face.

The painful recovery from the shards of glass that cut her, when the windshield shattered. He stood by her side, loving her, wishing he could take away her pain. Wishing it was him who suffered instead of her, only to have her up and vanish when she was released from the hospital.

Now she was pretending she didn’t know him. It didn’t make sense. He’d let her go a long time ago but this time he wasn’t going to leave without finding out why. It was the least she could do. She owed him an explanation.

She shocked him when she agreed to let his band play. He fully expected a flat-out “no”. Why would she want his band playing there if she was hiding her identity? Was it a ploy to make him believe she was this Laura she pretended to be? Or was she feeling the connection too? If it was to prove her charade, she was sadly mistaken. Reed wasn’t stupid enough to be fooled by a haircut or name change.

Reed would wait until the night was done and the bar empty before he confronted her but he would and when he did, Sierra had some explaining to do.

He scanned the crowd. The place was full of drunks. There was a table full of college-age guys looking like they had been served one too many. They were getting rowdy and Reed had a feeling before the night was through there’d be trouble. He eyed the group of young guys doing shots. They were hooting and hollering to the singer requesting she flash them some boobs.

Reed cringed. It wouldn’t be long. He cased the bar searching for any signs of a bodyguard. Nothing. What was Sierra thinking? She couldn’t possibly run a bar without the help of bouncers. What did she do when patrons got out of hand? She couldn’t wait around for the local police to come. Christ in this small town it could take forever.

He swigged the ice-cold Corona and reverted his attention back to the bar. She was laughing and carrying on with a group of women sitting at the bar. She looked happy. A small stab of pain filled him. In some ways he wished she wasn’t so happy. He wished after all these years she regretted walking away from him, disappearing without so much as a goodbye. But that didn’t seem the case. Just the opposite.

He did notice from their brief conversation that she wasn’t wearing a wedding band on her left hand. That was a promising sign. At least there wasn’t a husband for him to contend with. Because Reed was determined to get his answers and get this woman out of his every waking thought once and for all.