Page 12 of Deck the Skulls
“Next time, it’ll be three of us,” Zan murmured when her feet were finally on the ground. “And you’re going to love it.”
Before she could think of an answer, he turned and walked behind the counter, calling out to the people who were setting up some kind of complicated board game on their table.
Shaking herself out of the Zan-induced daze, she followed him behind the bar. It was time to make the big bucks. Or at least the medium bucks, while trying very hard not to think about Anatoly and Zan naked.
Chapter 5
Zan
He was in hell.
It was nearly impossible to share the small space behind the bar with Rissa and not touch her. His inner mountain lion was desperate to rub against her and cover her in their scent. His human side wanted to hug and nuzzle her. He could feel Anatoly’s desire through their soul link and was desperate to drag her upstairs and push her into bed with the vampire so the moment the sun went down, they could start having naked fun times.
Right now, he was staring at her ass as she leaned over to stock one of the small fridges. He should look away. If she caught him admiring her butt, she might get annoyed and leave.
His eyes were trapped.
“Is it like this every night?”
Her question helped him force his gaze to the front door. “No. Wednesdays are usually the busiest.”
“Wednesday?” she asked. “Do you offer some kind of deal or special?”
“Never,” he said with a dramatic flair, making her chuckle. “My drinks are too perfect to discount.”
“We’re going to pretend you don’t give half of them away for free,” she said dryly. “I’m still curious about Wednesday though.”
“There’s a sl–uh, group of friends that show up every Wednesday and they take up almost every seat.”
Damn, he’d almost said slither! He needed to be more careful, or she might think he wasn’t entirely sane. As a mountain lion, he didn’t congregate in formal groups and never understood why wolves and nagas felt the need to create packs and slithers. Hanging out with others was nice, but who wanted to be obligated to do group activities? Not this cat!
Still, it could be fun to be invited to their parties. No one partied as hard as wolf packs!
“With so many people arriving, I think now is the time for me to show you my bar bible,” he said, forcing his expression to be serious.
“Bar bible?”
He pulled out the beaten-up notebook he kept hidden behind the bar. Holding it up, he said some fake Latin. “That means holy is the drink that giveth joy to all.”
She pursed her lips, obviously trying hard not to smile. “Sure it does. What’s in this bar bible?”
“Only the most sacred of recipes,” Zan explained, setting it on the bar top and opening it up. “When I create signature cocktails for my customers, I put the recipe in here. See, this is Cora. She likes it sweet and with lots of decoration. Here is Jennifer’s cocktail. Notice the dash of red wine. It’s not much, but she’ll notice if it’s missing.”
Rissa flipped a few pages with a frown. “Is there any kind of order going on here?”
“Of course there is,” he said. “The recipes are in the order of when I created them.”
Rissa snorted. “Great, so I’ll need to ask people what they first ordered, and I’ll be able to figure out where they are in this tome?”
“You must study the bar bible, my disciple,” Zan said.
Rissa mumbled something about fixing his organization system when his phone chirped. Pulling it out of his back pocket, he saw a text from Titan.
Will has a bunch of veggies he’s willing to donate to the rescue. Can he leave them with you, and I’ll pick them up later tonight?
Sure. What time will you be by to pick them up?
I’m not sure. I got a call on a stray dog, and it might take me a while to catch it. Then I’ll come straight to you.