Being With You (The Redemption Series) Read Online Free Page B

I said we are good…and we’re good,” she said with a shrug.
    Tristan nodded along, but added, “And I didn’t get to say everything I wanted to say. So…humor me, please.” Finishing his sentence as he walked through the port hole in the bar top and out to the entrance, he re-locked the front door to the restaurant since it had been re-opened for the staff to leave. He came back into the bar area, swinging his keys around his finger while whistling.
    Instead of seeing Susy sitting on a bar stool as he’d hoped she would be, he found her standing in the same spot, tapping her foot against the floor with her arms crossed over her chest. It was cute to see her acting tough like that, even if it was out of character. Susy wasn’t meek, but she usually didn’t take a stand against someone…until tonight, it seemed.
    Mouthy? Yes. Hostile? No.
    Without pause, Tristan went to the row of bar stools and pulled one out and waved for her to sit down. “We can have a drink. You on this side, and me on the other. I’ll keep my hands to myself, Susy,” he pandered with a grin.
    “I’m not worried about you and your hands, Tristan. I just don’t want to hear all the reasons you don’t want to have sex with me. It’s kinda depressing,” she teased with tense laughter added in. “Plus, I’m not going to get Gabriel in trouble for serving minors. You would get ticketed for it, too, yanno?”
    Tristan patted the seat with his hand and stalked off. “All right, I’ll make you a virgin daiquiri. But I would really like to talk to you. You’ve got me pegged as a major asshole, I’m gonna guess. I don’t want that hanging between us forever.”
    Relenting to his demands, Susy finally hopped up into the chair and spun herself around to face the bar. “Fine. If but if you’re offering booze, I’ll take a slow comfortable screw up against the wall.” She grinned at him like a Cheshire cat and it was everything he could do to keep his mouth from gaping open, but he knew she was baiting him. With a nod, he walked to the pour station and worked on making her drink. If she wanted to play this game, he was all for it. Besides, he didn’t want to make a mess with the blender anyway for the daiquiri.
    After he’d made the drink, he sat it down in front of Susy with a flourish and poured himself another beer. After a long pull on the glass, he stood in front of her and motioned for her to take a drink of her own. She just chuckled before taking a small sip of the glass and then smacking her lips together a few times. “Hmm…not bad, I guess. I could handle a few of these,” she said before taking a bigger swallow.
    Tristan rolled his eyes, but gave her a smirk. “You’ve never had a drink before, and your first one is hard liquor. You will be nursing just the one tonight, Sus.”
    “I’ve had a drink or two before,” she countered, but then added with a smirk, “of wine.”
    Tristan added a couple of olives to his own beer and plopped his elbows up on the bar next to her. “I’m fucked up in the head, Sus. You know that, right?”
    “That’s a helluva a way to start a conversation, Tristan. You know that, right?”
    He laughed, but it was humorless. “Just cutting to the chase, that’s all. I didn’t turn you down because I don’t want you, Susy. Far from it, but you scared the hell outta me when you bit my lip. But it was a good thing because it actually brought me back to my senses. I would’ve just been using you, and you deserve better than that,” he adjusted his position on the bar and watched her for a moment, waiting for her to acknowledge she’d heard him.
    After another sip of her drink, she answered, “You don’t think I was doing the same, Tristan? I know you’ve got a girl out there somewhere who fits you way better than I do, but I was having a shitty day and wanted to forget for a little while how fucked up my life is.”
    Tristan raised his eyebrow and smirked. “So I was just an easy