Jessa James - Bad Behavior

“Aye aye,” Gunnar says. He disappears into the back room.

“Every time he starts telling me how I’m too uptight, I’m this close to punching him in the fucking face,” Jameson declares, turning back to the bar.

The front door opens again, and a gorgeous young Asian woman with long hair and porcelain skin sticks her head in. When she sees Forest and Jameson, she brightens and enters. I look longingly at her short denim shorts and her oversized blue tank top.

If my parents saw me out and about in an outfit like that, they’d flip. Hell, I think that Asher would even frog march me back home to change if he saw me wearing that… and he’s supposed to be the young, cool rebel of our uptight family.

“Hi,” she says, waving a sheaf of papers. To my surprise, she has a posh British accent. “I just brought the rest of my documents. I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

I look at Forest, whose mouth has sort of fallen open. He is blatantly checking this woman out, rather than rushing to take the papers from her. Addison just looks on; whatever she feels is certainly not showing on the outside.

“Maia, hey,” Jameson calls, making his way out from behind the bar. “I’ll take whatever you’ve got.”

Maia hands him the papers, smiling at me. She extends her hand to me. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Maia Yu. I’ll be waiting tables here.”

I take her hand. “Emma Alderisi. I don’t work here, I just hang out.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. And I don’t believe we’ve met?” she says, turning to Addison.

“Addison Raven,” she replies, crossing her arms. “I’m marrying Forest.”

Maia looks to Forest, who has closed his mouth but continues to look at her with something akin to awe.

Jameson clears his throat. “Forest was just leaving. Isn’t that right?”

Forest’s dirty look at Jameson is unmistakable. “Yeah. I’ll see you guys later.”

He leads his pretty wife-to-be out of the bar. Maia turns and glances at the blonde girls sitting in one of the booths, absorbed in their phones.

“Are you still hiring?” Maia asks, puzzled. I snicker.

“Jesus, no,” Jameson says. “They are waiting on my other brother…”

“What’s that now?” Gunnar says, popping out of the back room. He takes one look at Maia and turns up his charm to a ten. “Hey. We haven’t met. I’m Gunnar.”

“Maia.” She shakes his hand. He holds onto it for a second too long, but she is too classy to act like it bothered her. She tosses her hair, unruffled. “If that’s it, I’ll go. You need us back here tomorrow at three, right?”

“Yes,” Jameson and Gunnar say at once. Jameson shoots Gunnar a dirty look. Gunnar grins back, unabashed.

“See you tomorrow,” Jameson says.

“We should go too, girls,” Gunnar says, walking over to them. “Maia, we are all just going to my place for a drink…”

“Leave her alone, Gunnar,” Jameson growls. “Maia, see you later.”

“Later.” Maia wiggles her fingers and leaves. Gunnar starts after her, although I doubt that he knows exactly what he’s going to do when he catches up to her.

“Gunnar,” Jameson says threateningly. Gunnar slows, then looks at the three blondes, his shoulders slumping a little.

“Let’s go,” he says, waiting for the three girls to get up and make their way to the door. He looks back. “Bye, Emma.”

I wave, my cheeks going pink. Gunnar is definitely not my type, but he is ridiculously handsome. Not to mention a terrible flirt.

Jameson puts the paperwork on the bar, then returns to looking at the back wall. “You know what this needs?”

I cock my head. “No, what?”

“Some flowers,” he says, squinting up at the top shelf. “Like some of the dried flowers that the interior decorator brought, in empty liquor bottles.”

He goes into the back room, reappearing with a couple of stacked cardboard boxes. He comes over to the bar. “Do you mind?”

I pick up my law textbooks that I have scattered all around, shoving them to one side. “Nah. I’m not really even working anyway.”

Jameson chuckles as he opens one of the boxes. The first box contains empty liquor bottles, the labels on some of them so old that they’re starting to peel off. The second box is filled with dried flowers, mostly lavender and baby’s breath.

“Ooooh, these look great,” I say as he starts to lay set them out on the counter. “Can I help?”

“Sure. Thanks.” He says it kind of gruffly, but it still makes me blush.

I pick up a few of both kinds of flower, sticking them into the neck of the first bottle. I glance at him. “Like this?”

He looks thoughtful, and grabs a little more baby’s breath. “Maybe just a few more…”

He leans over, reaching across me to put them in the bottle. He’s suddenly really close, close enough that I can smell the scent of soap and leather on him. Goosebumps suddenly break out all over my arms, even though he’s not touching me.

I notice a couple of black lines peeking out of the neck of his shirt, leading down to… something. I didn’t know that Jameson had tattoos, but of course it makes sense. It fits right in with his brooding bad boy persona, if you ask me.

Plus

“Does this look good?” he asks, arranging the stems.

“What?” I ask vacantly. It takes some effort to rip my eyes from his muscular body. “Oh, uh. Yeah, totally.”

He shoots me a look, but doesn’t say anything. “If you want to do a few bottles, I’ll put them up over on the back wall.”

I bite my lip, nodding. I start to arrange another bunch, reaching for an empty bottle. He grabs the one he finished and starts trying it out different places among the full liquor bottles on the wall.

“This is really a smart idea,” I say to him.

“It’s funny to hear you say that, being that you’re in law school,” he says.

I frown, pausing. “That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a stroke of genius.”

Jameson glances back at me for a second, shaking his head a little.

“Are you serious? I definitely dumped a girl last week because she told me that I’m not very bright.” He frowns with concentration, replacing one of the bottles on the lower left. “What do you think about that? Maybe we could do six or seven bottles like that?”

“Wait, what? A girl told you you’re not very bright?” I ask, shocked.

“Yeah. I mean… I told her that I dropped out of my first year of high school to take care of Forest and Gunnar, and she goes, ‘That makes sense. It’s okay, I’m not dating you for your brain’.”

My jaw drops. “That’s not fair!”

He turns and looks at me. “It’s nothing to get upset over.”

“It is! She sounds like a bitch.” I put on an exaggerated pout.

His eyes crinkle with humor. “You’re cute when you’re all worked up.”

I turn beet red for about the thousandth time today. “I’m just stating facts,” I mumble, embarrassed. Luckily, the moment passes, and I go back to arranging flowers in their makeshift vases.

Jameson puts a couple more bottles up, then pauses, stroking his stubbled chin. “I don’t think I can reach any higher. How do you feel about climbing up to stand on the shelf here?”

I raise my eyebrows. “Ummm…”

He pats the back shelf. “I mean, I’d help you get up and down. I promise not to look up your dress or anything.”

I imagine the kind of help he means, which would probably involve a lot of close contact. I push up out of my seat.

“Sure.”

“Alright, come here,” he instructs, looking at the wall. “I’ll boost you up.”

I do as he says, taking his hands. I feel weird, doing a physical activity in my tiny pale green sundress. I blush again. The feel of his hands on my body is absolutely sinful, though there’s nothing sinful about what we’re doing.