Double In Read Online Free Page B

playing all night.
We’ll clean the bar while you warm up.”
    She started to argue, but thought better of it. She’d agreed
to everything thus far and, quite frankly, she was tired of being the ice bitch
tonight. They knew what needed to be done. She hadn’t changed much since they’d
been frequent presences in the bar. If they wanted to do the work, let them go
for it.
    “Lock up and turn off the open sign. Keys are behind the bar
where they’ve always been. My darts are in my room. I’ll be back in a few
minutes.”
    She’d turned the basement of the bar into an apartment. It
had cost her a good sum to have the room converted, plumbing installed for a
bathroom, and to purchase the furnishing she’d chosen, but it had been well
worth the money. She loved the convenience of living beneath where she worked,
especially seeing as she rarely closed the bar before midnight. It prevented
her from getting behind the wheel in the wee hours of the morning and afforded her
the option of partaking in a drink or two when she got off work without the
concern of a DUI.
    She quickly took the stairs down to the basement, snagged
her darts and headed back up. Her step faltered when she reentered the bar, her
gaze landing on Porter and Reid in turn as they hustled around the place,
putting everything to rights. A blanket of comfort she hadn’t felt in far too
long closed around her. For a split second, it truly seemed as if the last year
had never happened.
    But it did and you can’t forget that.
    They were up to something, had to be. Why else would they be
here tonight? Sure, their team had played here, but they’d stayed after
everyone else left, even weaseled their way into a bet with her that might keep
them here longer.
    “Got your darts?”
    Marsha startled at Porter’s question, realizing he’d caught
her watching him and Reid for the second time this evening. She lifted her dart
case. “Got them right here.”
    “Good. Throw a few practice shots.” Reid tossed the towel
he’d been using to wipe down tables on top of the bar. “I’m going to take out
this trash and I’ll be ready.”
    Marsha nodded, inspecting the area as she walked behind the
bar and pulled a Select 55 from the cooler. She twisted the cap, tipped the
bottle back and took a long swig, closing her eyes at that first taste of
chilled beer.
    “Still drinking the lo-cal stuff, I see,” Porter commented,
leaning an elbow on the bar.
    “A girl’s got to cut back somewhere.” It was a line she’d
gotten from her mother. She’d always drunk diet drinks, saying she preferred to
save the calories for the good stuff like chocolate and potato chips.
    He chuckled and shook his head. “I was waiting for it.
You’ve always said that. Still think it leaves you the option for a hit of the
hard stuff when you want it?”
    Yeah, she’d said that, too. Select 55 contained less alcohol
than most beers. She could drink a six-pack and not get a buzz. When she wanted
to get a little tipsy, she’d go for a shot to complement her beer.
    “How about a shot, Mars?”
    Mars. Hearing his pet name for her after all this time
twisted her belly in a knot even as it spread unwanted warmth through her
system. She’d missed hearing him call her that. The way the name rolled from
his lips in that low baritone she doubted he even realized was seductive as
hell.
    Then again, he probably did realize it. Porter was a player.
She couldn’t count the women she’d seen him with in the years she’d known him.
From what she’d heard through the town grapevine, that number had all but
doubled in the last year, too.
    That had never stopped her from wanting to hear that voice,
husky and hot in her ear as he buried his face in her hair and his cock deep
inside her pussy.
    “I’ll pass.” She didn’t need anything strong screwing with
her senses tonight. She already felt half intoxicated just being around him and
Reid again. Alcohol would only cloud her mind more, impair her