Carnal Chemistry by Katie Allen

Author:Katie Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The Myron Bar was exactly what she’d been expecting—a slightly dive-ish, small-town, there’s-nowhere-else-to-go-within-twenty-miles-so-deal-with-it type of place. Since they offered bar food, Lauren didn’t care. At that point, she would have entered hell to eat something besides jerky or candy. They grabbed a grungy table against the back wall and gave their order to a bored waitress with blonde streaks in her dark-brown hair and an unfortunate muffin-top creeping over the waist of her skinny jeans.

The food came fairly quickly. Lauren fell on her burger and onion rings with a little too much enthusiasm. Cal’s eyebrow and the corner of his mouth twitched.

“That good?” he asked, taking a bite of his own burger.

“Heaven,” she mumbled around a mouthful of food. “It’s meat, and yet it’s not dried. Amazing.”

He laughed and took a drink of his beer. Despite Cal’s relaxed pose, Lauren noticed his eyes were constantly scanning the mostly empty bar.

“Does that—” she nodded at the bottle in his hand “—affect you? Like normal people, I mean.”

Cal snorted. “Normal people?”

Rolling her eyes, Lauren took another bite of her burger and waited for him to answer.

“I don’t know.” He eyed the beer. “I probably have a higher tolerance than most people. I don’t remember how alcohol affected me before, so I could’ve always been an expensive date.”

She grinned around a mouthful of onion ring. “So I can’t even get you drunk to get you to put out?”

His eyes went narrow and molten. “You want me to put out? Let’s go. Fucking now.”

Lauren was very, very tempted, but her burger tasted so good. She curled an arm around her plate and hugged it toward her. “Not quite yet. Just let me have a few more bites.”

“Seriously?” He sat back, taking another drink of beer. “I’ve lost out to a hunk of ground beef?”

“Very tasty beef,” she corrected, taking another bite. “That’s not dried.”

Cal just smirked and then went back to eating and scanning the bar. A few more people were wandering in, and the noise level went up a few notches. A schmaltzy country song blared from the jukebox, and a few couples shuffled together on the tiny dance floor. Lauren finished her food, washed it down with a drink of her beer and then sat back with a groan.

“I’m so full,” she complained. “Why’d you let me eat so much?”

“You would’ve bitten me if I’d tried to stop you.”

“True.” Lauren winced as another song came on and started digging through her purse. “Someone has really sucky taste in music.”

“Where are you going?” He grabbed her wrist as she stood.

She opened her fingers, showing her handful of quarters. “I’m going to save my ears.”

“I’ll go with you.” Standing, he pulled a few bills from his wallet and dropped them on the table.

“Just to warn you,” she said, slanting him a sideways look as she slung her purse strap over her shoulder, “there may be dancing.”

“I’ve been trained to withstand torture.” He shrugged. “I’ll probably survive dancing.”

Lauren punched him in the arm and then shook out her hand, wincing.

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