Selena Kitt - Falling Down

Zach shook his head. “There were only about two hundred total U.S. casualties in Desert Storm.”

“Yeah.” She gave him a wry smile. “Talk about bad surprises. But that’s my luck for you…I inherited it from my mother.”

“So it’s been just you and your mom since?”

“My stepdad came into the picture when I was about five or six.”

“You don’t like him very much.”

She turned her face out toward the window. “So, you never said, did you see any action?”

“I was on a fast-attack sub. We had a few hunter-killer missions. That’s what we were there to do.” He glanced over and she felt his eyes on her. “I take it you don’t like talking about your stepfather?”

“Hey, look at that, we’re here.” She leaned forward as he pulled into a parking lot. “Where’s here?”

“Okay, I can take a hint.” Zach opened his door.

She rolled her eyes as she got out, turning her bottom toward him and rubbing the satin seat of her shorts. “Promises, promises?”

“Come on, sexy.” He smacked her behind on the way past, popping the trunk.

“Let’s see if I can top front row seats at Kenny Wayne Shepard followed by an orgasm under the flight pattern of an F-16.”

She raised her eyebrows as he took a guitar case out. “Why…are you planning two orgasms?”

“Could be.” He grinned, slipping his arm around her waist as he led her toward a darkly lit building. She heard music already, a low, steady beat.

She showed her fake I.D. at the door and they went into a little blues bar, smoky and dark inside and packed with people. Zach ordered himself a beer and Lindsey a Coke and she rolled her eyes at that, but drank it thirstily as they searched for a seat near the front of the stage. The band was playing a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble and Zach left his guitar on the edge of the stage, giving a nod to the lead singer.

They gave up on looking for a place to sit and Lindsey wrinkled her nose at Zach as she led him out onto the dance floor, but it was too loud for her to ask what was up.

Besides, the music made her want to take her clothes off, and if she couldn’t do that, at the very least, she wanted to be pressed between the sea of bodies, as close to Zach as she could get.

She got her wish. The dance floor was almost as packed as the tables had been.

Wrapping her arms up around Zach’s neck, she rubbed the front of her body against him, shifting her hips into his. His eyes lit up as he watched her, his hands resting at her waist, and she smiled as their bodies moving in easy synch. Most guys she dated did the usual white-boy snap and sway, but her body knew immediately that Zach could really dance .

When the song ended, he dragged her, protesting, off the floor. She flagged a waitress while he was up at the front of the stage, talking to the lead singer during a lull in their set, and ordered three shots of whiskey. Zach turned just as she was about to down the last one, and snatched it from her, making a face.

“Hey!” She protested, grabbing for it.

“No way.” He tossed it back himself, grimacing. “If you want, I’ll get you a beer.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but accepted the beer when the waitress came over with it. Lindsey saw the way the woman looked at Zach, the way she rubbed her ample chest “accidentally” against his arm when she set the beer on the table they’d managed to squeeze in at. The waitress shot her a dirty look when she turned to go, and Lindsey made a face at her back, knowing immediately it was a racial thing.

“Where are you going?” Lindsey grasped Zach’s arm as he headed toward the stage.

He grinned and shook her off. “You’ll see.”

Of course, the guitar case should have tipped her off. She actually thought he might just know the lead singer or something and was dropping it off for him. It hadn’t occurred to her that he was going to play-or sing. He strapped the guitar on, giving her a wink as the band started playing behind him. He’d clearly planned this, and she smiled, tipping her beer at him before taking a long swig.

It was after the first stanza of the song, well into the verse, that Lindsey realized he was singing to her- about her. She looked up at him with wide eyes for a moment, blinking fast. She recognized the song well enough-it was the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

“You’re hot, too hot, too hot to handle…

Let me tell you people

I'm only a man

I didn't realize

what I held in my hands…”

She grinned up at him then, shaking her head, and he winked again, his eyes meeting hers over the microphone. His fingers were long and deft, working the guitar strings effortlessly, and Lindsey watched, a slow burn heating her belly. She’d been attracted to him from the moment she met him, but seeing him up on stage, hearing the low, rough edge to his voice, she wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to get naked with him-fast.

“When she enters the room

Men hide their wedding rings

I know what you're thinking

You're thinkin' about that wild thing.

I know she's hot, too hot, too hot to handle…”

The music was too hot not to move, and she danced near the front of the stage, her eyes on his. He watched her grind her hips around and around, her arms above her

head, her belly undulating with the beat. When the song was over, he thanked the band, and hopped off the stage to join her. She opened her mouth to say something when the waitress sidled in between them, smiling up at Zach.

“You were hot, honey!” The woman’s nails were as long as claws and she trailed one of them down the front of Zach’s shirt like an orange streak, hooking her finger in his belt and tugging slightly. “You can play for me anytime!”

“You itchin’ to leave here on a stretcher?” Lindsey stepped in next to Zach, snatching the woman’s hand away from his belt buckle.

“Go away, little girl.” The woman rolled her eyes, waving Lindsey away and turning back to Zach.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Lindsey stepped in, grabbing the woman’s white, low-cut blouse in her fist. “I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll have to rent stilts to wipe yourself.”

The woman’s eyes showed fear for a moment and she shook loose, taking a step back and glaring at her. “Are you even legal?”

Zach turned back to grab his guitar case off the stage, “Come on, baby.” He steered Lindsey past the waitress by the elbow. She stopped to grab her beer on the way as he guided her through the crowd. When they got into the parking lot, she glanced up at him and saw he was tight-lipped.

“What did I do?” She frowned as he put the guitar case in the trunk and opened her door for her. “I wasn’t the one being Ms. Uber-Slut…for once!” He sighed, his face softening. “Just get in.”

She did, pouting, putting her beer in the beverage holder and obediently pulling her seatbelt on. Glancing over at him as he started the car, she sighed. “I’m sorry.” He shook his head and gave her a small smile. “Never mind. Let’s go get a burger or something.”

Heartened, she turned towards him, her knee knocking the beer in the holder. It tilted onto the floor and she gasped. “Oh shit!” Her skirt was soaked, and she grabbed the foaming bottle, putting it back into the holder and sopping the floor up the best she could with the material. “I’m sorry!”

“Two sorries in one night.” Zach laughed. “Is that a record for you?” She stuck her tongue out at him, hurt, and held up her skirt. “Damn. I can’t go home in this. Even if it dries, it smells like a distillery.”