Avriel Kaplan: Well dressed, well groomed, beautifully handsome, quiet and brooding and exactly the kind of man Ariel Declan doesn't need to know. But, that is not for her to decide.
Alexander Kirk: wickedly handsome, well known and well liked, egot...
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Everything changed the night he arrived at the bar just after her shift started. She noticed him as he walked in the door. He nodded to Austin, a beautiful well-muscled black man, who was positioned next to the door. That was curious, she had never seen him standing there before. He was usually just a few feet away from the end of her bar. Before she had a chance to wonder, her thoughts were pulled back to the mystery that usually sat at the end of her bar.
His movements were sure and graceful, almost too graceful, as he easily wove his way through the crowd to take his seat. She watched him move completely unaware that she was watching him until he looked up at her with his mesmerizing, brilliant green eyes shining. They seemed to reflect all the light in the club right back at her.
His eyes were not just any green. No, they just had to be different. It wasn't going to help her. Even from across the club they looked like green agate, a beautiful combination of blue and green. His complexion was fair while his hair and beard were dark almost black. He was well dressed in clothes that fit his shape perfectly and meticulously groomed. The rich color of his hair and eyes created a beautiful contrast to his fair skin. The shirt he wore that night was a deep and rich blue denim. It pulled out the blue in his eyes. He was wearing a black leather jacket, as usual, but this one was different from any that she had seen him wear before. Did he have a closet full of black leather jackets? His shoulders were just broad enough to make him look strong. He looked healthy and very attractive. He had an ethereal or heavenly look to him that she just couldn't shake.
His hips were narrow and trim. Black skinny jeans covered his legs. They clearly sat a bit low on his hips, like he was hiding something. Was he hiding something? They tapered nicely down his legs to the tops of the black boots on feet that seemed a bit too big for his height. She looked up his legs, noting the way those jeans fit him again, and how his shirttails were neatly untucked, she was positive that he was hiding something, his legs were a lot longer than he allowed them to look.
Why would a man who obviously enjoys using his manhood want to hide it? As a rule, she didn't go home with strangers, especially customers, yet she found herself wanting to go home with him and find out exactly what he was hiding in those jeans. Damn-it! She felt the heat of embarrassment flush her cheeks and burn her ears. He just kept walking towards the bar, towards her with those brilliant green eyes locked on hers and a coy, yet knowing smile that danced along the edge of arrogant, playing about his lips.
She saw relaxed long-fingered hands on the end of long arms and felt heat and curiosity start to build. She tried her hardest not to let her thoughts slip in that direction, but that was like trying to stop the Titanic from sinking. Her butterflies took wing and the wheels of curiosity began to turn.
Sure enough, he sat at his customary end of the bar and looked at her softly with expectation in his eyes. She fought against the urge to vomit from embarrassment and looked around for her coworkers. Each was busy elsewhere, she had no choice. Her boss would have her boots if she made this customer wait. She put on a brave face and a smile then forced the front of her mind to stop thinking of how attractive he was and moved to take his order. Her best fake smile was plastered on her pretty face.
"What can I get for you, sir?" Though she'd never taken his order she brought a whiskey glass along with her and set it empty on the bar. His eyes were even more devastating up close and personal. He had all the colors of the forest in his eyes. He gave her his full attention and the weight of them fell upon her. She was momentarily struck dumb. His eyes weren't green-blue like she initially thought. They were blue and green. Green on blue with a splash of dark brown speckled in here and there like freckles on a face. He had true hazel eyes, and a golden ring around the pupil which disappeared as his eyes dilated while he watched her face and stared into her eyes.
It was borderline rude the way his eyes invaded her space and made her want to melt into him. He didn't pull his eyes away from hers as he spoke.
"Avriel," His voice was deep and smooth like a hundred-year-old scotch, sweet like honey whiskey, and soft as silk, in short, sexy as hell. They were both smiling like two fools caught on the moon. He smiled to cover his sense of inadequacy and fear as he looked into her eyes. For the first time in decades, he faltered. She smiled to cover her desire.
"Odyssey. Double." He casually laid the cash for the drink on the bar. She had to bite her tongue. The scotch he requested was reserved stock. It was nearly fifty dollars an ounce and he wanted two of them. No wonder it was all he ordered every night and it took him all night to drink it.
"Let me get that for you, Si- Avriel." She started out strong but ended damn near whispering his name, letting it slip sensually from her tongue as she tested it out while her eyes looked up from the bar and into his. She turned back to him to make the correction. It felt damn good; his name on her lips.
She returned with his scotch and set it down neatly on a small coaster and picked up the money he had left to pay for his drink. She looked at the bills and went to return one of them.
"Keep it." His smile flashed, and his eyes lit, "For your troubles." She was trying to play it cool while secretly coming apart inside. No one ever tipped that big, ever! No one was ever more attractive in so many ways as Avriel was in that moment.
Lucky for her, it was a busy night. Very busy and her attention was needed elsewhere. She didn't want to go and serve other customers, she didn't want to leave his eyes. She didn't know that he didn't want her to go either. But, alas duty called, and she had to go. She had to cast her eyes to the bar to break free of his captivating gaze.
"Do you need anything else right now," she paused, her eyes lifting to meet his again. Her voice caught in her throat. The look Avriel gave her spoke far more than any words would ever be able to say, what he needed from her he could not have right there, "Avriel." She finished in a hushed whisper that seemed to cause the same reaction in him that it did in her. He picked up his Scotch slowly and brought the glass to his beautiful lips. Instinctively, her eyes went first to his hand on the glass, his long fingers inciting that burning curiosity in her belly and then to his lips. How had she not noticed his lips before? They were perfect, just perfect, pink full and perfect. Her mind ran away again with the thought of how perfect they might feel on her skin. His eyes never left hers. They just watched them move over him. An eternity passed before he answered with just a simple word.
"No." He smiled a soft smile his lips barely parting and his eyes gently squinting. She nodded and wisely moved down the bar to help other customers.
