Damnation: Reckless Desires (Blue Moon Saloon Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and it was almost too much, seeing that much of him at once — the expressionless front, the ridiculously broad back. The thick, sand-colored hair she’d once weaved her fingers through when they kissed.
    “Jess!” Janna hissed, snapping her out of her daze. “Customer. Go.”
    Clear, concise directions were about all her mind could process just then.
    She pasted a smile on, got the customer’s order, and froze when she turned to the bar.
    Bar. Simon. Drinks…
    Thank God for her sister, who grabbed the drink orders out of her hand and took them to Simon like he was just another bartender in just another bar.
    Jess cringed at the thought. Maybe that’s all she was to Simon — just another former lover. A guy like him had to have had more than his fair share.
    The next time she glanced back, though, his gaze was on her again, and it seemed to stay there all night. Even when she studiously ignored him, she could feel his gaze on her back. And damn it, her wolf panted with pleasure.
    Mine! Mate!
    The wolf didn’t get it. And she didn’t get
him
. Did he despise her so much that he had to obsess about her now?
    “You do the food, I’ll do the drinks,” Janna said in her next sweep past.
    And just like that, they got a system going. One that kept the customers happy and Jessica as far away from the bar as she could manage without leaving the saloon — or preferably, the state. But the work kept her busy, especially after Janna darted out to the sidewalk and announced, “Spare ribs!” to a tangle of cowboys striding down the street. Before long, beer flowed, ribs were chomped down to the bone, and raucous laughter rang out through the open doors to the street. With the onset of night, the temperature dropped, and a pleasant breeze worked its way inside, along with more customers, drawn by the noise of the first group.
    “Nothing like business to bring more business,” Janna murmured with a satisfied smile.
    It wasn’t exactly a stampede, but it kept them busy. Busy enough to run out of ribs, though no one seemed to care much as long as the booze flowed. The customers were all men, but they stayed just this side of rowdy, and all of them were polite enough.
    “Another beer, honey?”
    “How about dessert?”
    There was no dessert, but she sold them an extra order of fries and made another mental note on what was becoming a long list.
    The only other shifter who drifted through the saloon was a state cop, Kyle Williams — a member of Twin Moon pack and another badass shifter who could silence a room with one broody look. He came in, tipped his hat at her and Janna, and gave every guy in the place a slow, pointed look-over. When he left after a few quiet words with Simon, the whole place seemed to exhale.
    Not long after, Soren made his second appearance of the night. The first had come a few hours earlier, when things were in full swing. He’d had a good look around, then disappeared silently out back. This time, though, he planted himself right next to the bar, folded his tree-trunk arms over his chest, and announced the last call.
    Last call,
his stance told every customer,
or else.
    She’d never seen a quieter group of drinkers file out of a bar, or any more polite.
    “Thank you, honey.”
    “Goodnight, sweetheart.”
    The customers even tipped their hats. Left healthy tips, too. Some of the best she’d ever earned.
    She glanced back at the bar, where both brothers stood in tight-lipped command, and it occurred to her that maybe Simon hadn’t just been glaring at her all night.
    “Goodnight, darling,” one of the cowboy-types called and immediately shrank back at the growl coming from the bar.
    She whipped around to study Simon, whose murderous eyes ordered the man out the door, and fast.
    A warm, secure feeling settled over her weary body as her wolf side went all sappy again. Hadn’t it gotten the memo about being tough?
    Our mate takes care of us. Protects us.
    He lied to us
, Jess wanted to