Holy fucking hotness!
I peeked over a shelf of vinyl records at Matt Stallworth’s hulking body. It filled the entire doorframe, leaving little room for light from outside to pass through. He took a step inside and my thighs squeezed tightly together.
Someone betrayed me. Was it Jenny or Ethan?
I stumbled backward and caught myself before I tripped over my own feet and fell to the hard tile floor. My mind raced and I retreated to the stockroom, where I paced back and forth with my hands on my hips. Matt Stallworth played professional baseball and was best friends with Jenny’s fiancé, Ethan.
He’s gorgeous but so not your type, Kelsey.
I’d only dated guys who played guitar. They were the type who screamed into microphones and then leaped off the stage into a crowd of drunks bobbing their heads to music pounding through speakers. They were average guys with little money and only a dream of signing a big record contract. Basically, I dated guys who loved music more than they loved me.
What in God’s name is he doing here?
Guys like Matt went out with cheerleaders and prom queens, not chicks who wore tattered Levi’s and Led Zeppelin T-shirts.
“Damn, K, you gotta lay off the tweaker shit. Keep it mellow, mannn.”
I whipped around to face my boss, Twilight Mickelson. I had no idea if Twilight was his real name, but it definitely suited him. His giant beard hung down in front of a tie-dyed Grateful Dead shirt and his eyes were glossy and red, per the usual.
I froze in my tracks. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
He giggled, hard. I couldn’t tell if it was because of my current predicament or his medicinal-induced state of euphoria. It was probably a little of both.
“Naw, mannn. I’ve seen this look before.” He held up a wrinkled finger that trembled in the air. “This is about a boy, ain’t it?”
“No!” I shot back, but my face heated and had to be bright pink.
Asshole.
Twilight had to be in his sixties, though we’d never discussed his age. He often told stories of his hippie days that never seemed to have ended. I’d been able to figure out his age range from his tales of promiscuous sex and drug use.
He held out both palms and twirled his body in a circle, his silvery beard and long hair flowing through the air.
What in the world is he doing now?
“Free love is all around us, K. It’s like a force field. You gotta embrace the aura.”
“Oh for the love of…I’m going back out there. Pull yourself together, old man.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and I appreciated that a little bit. It took my mind off the gorgeous athlete standing out in the middle of the store.
“Hello?” Matt’s voice called out.
I pushed through the back door and strode out between two record displays.
Play it cool, Kelsey.
“Yes, I’m here. How can I—”
Our eyes locked.
Tingles.
So many tingles.
Going off between my legs like fireworks. Ugh!
“Oh, hi. It’s Matt, right?”
He smirked like he knew the exact game I was playing. He and Ethan and their constant smirking. I told myself it was their cocky, assholish nature, but I knew better. They were both really sweet guys, but there was something about athletes that just rubbed me wrong and I found it hard to get over that, mainly because most of the time they were cocky assholes.
“Yes, that is my name, Matt.” He stared at me like he knew that I knew his name.
I stared back like I knew that I knew his name but that he shouldn’t just think that everyone should automatically know his name because he could hit one of those baseballs really far.
His eyes worked down my body and I could practically feel the heat from his gorgeous blues searing me like a blowtorch. They finally worked back to mine, and I put a hand on my hip and cocked it to the side. Jenny always said it was my tell when a hot guy was in front of me, but I always maintained it was my “I’m not taking any bullshit” stance.
“Sorry, I’m horrible with names sometimes.”
A lie.
And I certainly wasn’t horrible at remembering a beautiful face like his.
“Can I help you find something?”
He licked his lips slightly and his stare heated me up even more. “I think I found what I was looking for.”
Gah—help me! This man and his mouth. I wonder if he uses it that well in other ways?
“Is that so?”
He started toward me and my heart rate kicked up to a punishing pace. If he didn’t stop walking my words were going to morph into utter gibberish.
“Yeah. Found it.” His eyes locked on to mine.
I turned to move out of his way and my back hit the record display that was behind me. I jolted forward into him and he reached down and grabbed me by the shoulders with a grip stronger than any I’d ever felt before. Nerves skittered through my body when my breasts pressed against his rock-hard stomach. He had on one of those tight elastic shirts athletes always wore and my tight nipples grazed along the ridges of his abs.
I was done for.
“You okay?” He looked down and smiled.
Matt towered over me and I looked up at the slight hint of concern in his bright blue eyes.
I couldn’t do anything but nod—well, that and worry if he could feel how hard my nips were with my tits pressed up against the thin fabric of his shirt. He leaned down like he was going in for a kiss already.
Oh my God! Is this actually happening?
At first excitement rushed through my veins and my palms started to sweat. Then I began to think how presumptuous this guy must’ve been if he thought he could just walk into my place of business and kiss me whenever he damn well felt like it.
Inches.
He was inches from my lips. I stared at his beautiful mouth and didn’t think I could stop him if I tried. At the last second his eyes darted to the display I’d just run into like a bumbling idiot, and one of his strong, calloused hands reached out and snagged a record from behind me.
He leaned back and released me, then held the record up to his face.
“New Spinderellas album. I’ve been looking all over for one.”
What the what? How did he even know who the Spinderellas were? What was going on here?
I glanced back by the door and Twilight was doing a half-spin like he’d done in the breakroom and smiling his face off. I shot him the bird where Matt couldn’t see and then waved him away.
He grinned and pushed back through the door to the back of the shop.
My gaze moved back to Matt, who stared at the record the same way he’d stared at me before, like he wanted to make out with it. I clutched my palms into fists, suddenly a bit jealous that I wasn’t the center of his attention any longer.
Pull yourself together, Kelsey!
I let out an obvious fake cough.
Matt stiffened to attention and his stare moved back to me.
That’s better, Matt. Eyes on me.
I wanted to slap myself for behaving like a teenage girl.
“Sorry. These guys rock,” said Matt.
“Yeah, I know. They’re playing at the Rooster tomorrow.”
“I know.”
I caught myself fawning over Matt once more. I shook myself from some fairytale celebrity daydream I was currently stuck inside.
“Probably because I just told you.”
Matt chuckled and shook his head.
I faked a glare. “So what are you doing here? You can get that record anywhere. And don’t you guys have someone who does all of your shopping for you anyway?”
“Maybe I like shopping.”
“Do you?”
I cocked my hip out again and tried not to bite my lip or twirl my hair or enact any of my other girly ploys that I currently wanted to do in front of him.
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I heard the customer service was good in this place.”
From Ethan, I’m sure.
“And who’d you hear that from?”
“Anonymous sources.”
“Oh really?” I shook my head at him, trying to hide a smile.
He nodded back.
“Do you even have something to play that record on? It doesn’t spin on a phone.”
He took notice of my obvious sarcasm but it didn’t faze him one bit. “Yeah, I do actually.”
“You’ve never even heard of them, have you?” I nodded to the record.
“I thought the customer service in this place was supposed to be good?”
He showed me that sexy smirk again.
“If you’re not happy maybe you should take your business to an establishment that’s a better fit.” I folded my arms across my chest and pushed the ladies up to give him a better view of what he was going to be missing out on.
He leaned down like he had before and my heart tried to pound its way out of my rib cage.
Oh my God, what’s he doing?
As he leaned in I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to move in for a kiss.
Don’t do it, Kelsey. Stop yourself!
Just as I was about to involuntarily toss every inhibition out the window his head veered to the side so that his mouth was next to my ear.
“I happen to think I found a perfect fit. I love this band and I have two tickets to the show. I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow.”
He stood back again and put the record on the shelf then turned and walked toward the door.
I stood there with my arms still squeezed tightly around my body.
Holy fuck!
He didn’t even ask me out. It was more like a demand. I should’ve told him to go screw himself or made up some kind of excuse. He couldn’t just come into my workplace and command a date like that. What kind of girl did he think I was? Who the hell did he think he was? It’s not how I operated.
“You don’t even—”
He froze in front of the doorway and didn’t bother to turn around before cutting me off mid-sentence. “I know where you live. Be ready at seven.”
Oh. My. God.
Who the heck was this guy? Was he stalking me? Jenny was about to get a phone call as soon as he walked through the door. There was no way I was going to go on a date with someone that demanding. I told myself this over and over, but something inside of me couldn’t let go of one tiny little detail.
I would, in fact, be ready at seven tomorrow.