A gentle bartender might
have what it takes to mend a relationship-phobic detective’s broken heart… but
first they have to admit they’re dating.
Keenan Day could kick
himself for letting the hot, dark-haired stranger he met outside a strip club
get away. Instead of a phone number, he gets a punch in the face—from the
boyfriend of his prospective employer at the Cowboys and Angels bar. When two
cops come to check up on him, one is the sexy stranger, Detective Nate Gordon.
The initial attraction
hasn’t cooled, and though Nate is leery of commitment, one hookup turns into
another until they’re seeing each other in everything but name. After a recent
nasty breakup, Nate balks at being part of a couple, and Keenan agrees, even
though that’s all he’s ever wanted.
Just as they reach a
standstill, a crisis shows them what their friends have known all along—they’ve
already moved way past hookups. Now they just have to decide how to move forward.
Cat gives this one 3
Meows with a 3 Purr heat index...
This is book three and can
be read as a standalone but if you read the first two you will have a better
understanding of the other characters especially Gideon and Dan ( book One). I
had figured this would be Ramon and Mikey and was surprised at the new
characters Keenan and Nate. I did like them though.
I loved the first two
books but have to say I was slightly disappointed with this one. I felt it had
a few loose ends and the end got a bit rushed.
Having said that I loved
all the characters especially Karen, Keenan's sister and Ramon. The story is
cute and interesting and an allover good romance.
Excerpt…
Chapter 1
KEENAN DAY looked up
at the pink neon sign above the door, so bright it seared his eyes.
Mane Event.
There was a lion wearing a
pink jock strap.
A lion wearing a jock.
Keenan’s night had officially gone to hell.
He glared at the woman
standing next to him. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Sarah.”
“Nope.” His darling sister
wore a shit-eating grin along with her teal satin dress and killer heels that
could take a man’s eyes out. The color didn’t match the jock strap in Keenan’s
opinion.
“It’s a strip club,” he
pointed out.
“I know that.” Of course
she knew that. She’d just forgotten to tell him. What was she thinking?
“A strip club full of
naked women isn’t my idea of a good night out.”
If anything, her smile grew
more vicious. “It’ll be full of women, Keenan, but they won’t be the ones
taking their clothes off.”
His jaw dropped, and he
stared at her in horror. “You’re not getting me in there.”
“I thought you liked naked
men.” Her expression was way, way too innocent.
“I do. But the women scare
the shit out of me.”
She rolled her
eyes. “Keenan, you’ve got three sisters, a mom, and a batshit
great-auntie.”
“As I said, women scare
the shit out of me.” He started to back away, but Sarah grabbed him by the
upper arm.
“Oh no, mister. You come
back here.” If Sarah’s grip got any tighter, she was going to leave bruises,
and she pointed at the door. “Just get in there.”
The viselike grip around
his bicep didn’t lessen. She wasn’t going to let him run. “When you said you wanted
to go out for the night, I thought you meant a club or a bar,” Keenan whined.
“It is a
club. You’re not a kid, Keenan. You can handle a couple of men shaking their
asses. It’s Mane Event’s opening night. My friend Rhonda got the tickets, and
there’s a whole group of us going.” She didn’t sound remotely apologetic.
Keenan saw his chance to
escape. “If there’s a group of you, you don’t need me then.”
“Sarah!”
He turned to see three
women clad in bright-colored dresses and in high heels waving their arms
frantically in their direction. Oh no, there was Rhonda! He had no chance of
running away now.
Sarah grinned at him in
vicious triumph. “Here they are.”
“I hate you,” he muttered
as the women rushed toward them, using their heels as lethal weapons. Pedestrians
scattered like a parting of the waves. No one was stupid enough to stand in
their way. Keenan braced for impact.
“I know, brother mine.
There, there.” Sarah patted him on the cheek.
She was totally
unrepentant. Keenan got it. He’d ducked out of his great-aunt’s eightieth
birthday party, claiming he had to work and leaving Sarah to handle twenty
octogenarians. This was payback, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Fine. A couple of hours in a room full of screaming women, watching men gyrate around
a pole. He liked men. He loved naked men. It wouldn’t be a
hardship to watch the show, and as soon as it was over, he’d head for his local
bar to recover his nerves. He could make it a good session as he didn’t have to
work until the late shift tomorrow.
Sarah’s friends reached
them. Keenan knew them all by face if not name. At twenty-eight, he was ten
years younger than his sister and had grown up with her friends. Some of them
treated him like he was seven years old. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and
when he was working, he had a reputation for being intimidating. Where his
sister and her friends were concerned, Keenan was still that skinny kid they’d
been forced to babysit.
“Keenan, you’ve grown so
big.” Rhonda grabbed his shoulders and air-kissed his cheeks. She was a tall
black woman, almost as tall as his six feet, with huge eyes and a wicked smile
that lit up the room. Keenan loved her. Tonight she wore a tight red dress. If
he were straight, he would have been transfixed by the way it displayed her
ample assets.
“You only saw me last
month. I can’t have gotten bigger since then.” He hugged her warmly and then
greeted the other two, who wore equally eye-popping dresses. Yeah, he was
pissed off with his sister but he liked her friends. The lipstick over his
mouth and cheeks? Not so much. Neither was he keen on Rhonda grabbing his chin
and using a wet wipe on his face to remove the lipstick. He felt as though he
were three years old.
“Sarah said you were
coming tonight,” Rhonda said as she scrubbed away. “Do you know what you’re
letting yourself in for?”
Keenan was damn sure
he wasn’t coming tonight, and no, he didn’t have a clue. “It
was a total surprise,” he said through gritted teeth. “Rhonda, leave me some
skin.”
“Uh-huh,” Rhonda drawled,
and there was a wealth of meaning in those two words. “Still, you like guys.”
He did like guys. He also
preferred to be the one stripping them, but that was a conversation he wasn’t
going to have with Rhonda.
As he wasn’t allowed to
escape back to sanity, Keenan followed them into the club. Sarah was behind
him, her beady eyes boring into his back. He swore the doormen gave him pitying
looks as he handed over his ticket.
“You could run now,” a
black-clad guy with a shiny bald head murmured, and the other one snickered.
“No, he can’t,” Sarah said
as she gave Keenan a shove.
Keenan threw the doormen a
water-closing-over-his-head look, but they just laughed and turned to the group
of women chattering noisily behind them. Traitors.
Inside the club the noise
was deafening as music pounded out its beat and a flock of women chattered
loudly. Keenan’s party was led to an empty table near the back, much to
his relief. He did notice he wasn’t the only man in the room. A few guys,
dotted here and there, sat with wide eyes and the same rabbit-in-headlights
expression Keenan probably wore.
The women sat down and
sighed with relief as they took the pressure off their feet in those killer
heels. Keenan squeezed between Sarah and Rhonda.
“I need a drink,” Rhonda
said. “It’s been a long day.” Rhonda was an assistant district attorney who
worked hard and played even harder.
“I’ll go to the bar,” he
said to Sarah.
“What?” She cupped her
hand to her ear.
“I’ll go to the bar,” he
yelled, and this time she nodded.
The women gave him their
orders and started chatting to each other. They could get table service, but it
gave him something to do and a chance to escape for a few minutes. As he
crossed the room, a woman stood in his path, swaying in time to the music. From
her unfocused eyes, she’d already sampled the contents of the bar. He tried to
step around her, but she stopped him with one red-taloned hand on his chest.
“You’re wearing too many
clothes.” She hiccupped brandy fumes and tried to focus on his face, but her
eyes kept sweeping downward.
Keenan held his breath
against the fumes. Did she think he was… oh hell, no. “Lady, you’ve got
the wrong end of the lion.”
She wasn’t listening.
“You’re supposed to wear the aprons and nothing else.” She giggled.
He was bewildered. What
was she talking about? Salvation happened in the form of Rhonda, who stepped
between him and the woman. “He’s mine, sister. Hands off.”
The woman blinked and
glanced between them. Keenan edged closer to Rhonda. “High-five for hooking
that one!” She gave Rhonda a clumsy high-five and weaved away, probably in
search of other prey.
Keenan kissed Rhonda on
the cheek. “I love you.”
Rhonda winked at
him. “She’s got one thing right. You’d look dead cute in one of those
aprons.” She pointed over to a guy wearing nothing but a short apron and heavy
boots as he made his way through the crowds with a tray of drinks.
Keenan winked back at
her. “Yeah, I would.” And it would never happen in a million years… unless
the right guy asked nicely.
She flashed a smile at
him. “You just stick close to me tonight, pet. I’ll keep you safe.”
They both knew she lied.
Rhonda would eat him alive. Keenan dropped another kiss on her cheek and
inhaled her floral perfume. Then he went off to the bar, hoping no one else
mistook him for an employee.
Keenan survived the short
journey with only a couple of pinches to his ass. The blond-haired, blue-eyed bartender blinked at him over the heads of the women.
“You sure you’re in the
right place?” the bartender asked, as Keenan finally shuffled to the front.
“No,” Keenan yelled over
the roar of the crowd. “Whiskey is the only thing that will make tonight
better.”
Sue is a Cranky middle-aged author
with an addiction for coffee, and a passion for romancing two guys.
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