At Your Service. Amy Jo Cousins

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СКАЧАТЬ that this list might be a little complicated for your sisters. Seeing as it’s their first time waiting tables.”

      “And what would you suggest?”

      “Well, if we could maybe group the drinks into just a few price categories? You know, domestic and import beers, well drinks, call drinks and premiums.” She reeled off the standard ordering procedure of her restaurants without a hitch. “That way they wouldn’t have so much to remember.”

      Tyler knew immediately that she was correct and was irritated for not thinking of it himself. He might have the time and inclination to memorize fifty or sixty different drink prices, but his servers deserved a price list they could learn without studying as if they were prepping for a college exam. After a moment’s thought, he grabbed a piece of scrap paper and scribbled out a new list that was five lines long.

      “For tonight, use this. We’ll expand it later.”

      “Thank you, Tyler. This will help out a lot.”

      It was like a punch to the gut, grabbing him and dragging him to his feet to stand over her. Just hearing her say his name in that soft, almost-apologetic voice, as though she was afraid even to speak to him. It made him want to kiss her until she pushed him away—he had no doubt that she would—and told him off again in that sassy, take-no-grief attitude.

      He snagged her elbow as she headed out the door and pulled her back around to face him. Her eyes were wide and blinking with nervousness as he laid a hand alongside her face and brushed his fingers from her hairline to the edge of her mouth.

      “In the future, don’t hesitate to talk to me, Grace.”

      He leaned forward, close enough to feel the warmth of her breath on his face.

      “You don’t have to hide your intelligence from me. Let me into that clever little mind.”

      His lips hovered over hers for one never-ending moment.

      “I want to know what you’re thinking.”

      When he touched his mouth to hers, she gave a little sigh and sank the smallest bit further into his kiss. Her mouth eased open under his gentle assault, his teeth nipping softly at her full, lower lip. He traced his fingertips along the edge of her upswept hair, around to the back of her neck and then skated them down her spine. Her back arched sharply beneath his hand. She might have been avoiding the pressure of his hand, but her escape had the pleasant side effect of pressing her breasts into his chest.

      Tyler felt light-headed from the effort of restraining himself from moving any faster and scaring her off. Well, if he passed out, surely someone would throw some water on him to wake him up.

      When she pulled back after a time that was not nearly long enough, Tyler figured that that was to be expected.

      Her next words, however, were not.

      “I’m thinking Addy and Sarah aren’t going to be able to handle more than two tables each, which leaves me with eight four-tops and hostess duties.”

      “What?”

      “You asked me what I was thinking.” She looked up at him with calm eyes. “That’s it.”

      For a moment Tyler was offended. He’d kissed her and she’d practically knocked him out, and she felt nothing? She could just continue a conversation as if nothing had happened between them? Fine, then. If she could ignore it, so could he.

      But as he opened his mouth to say something that would probably have turned out to be irredeemably callous, he saw Grace raise her hand.

      She dropped it down again by her side a second later, but he’d caught the nervous gesture. She’d been reaching to tug on her hair, but couldn’t because she’d pinned her hair up in a loose twist. Taking a second look, he noticed the faint flush on her cheekbones that hadn’t been there before and the barely visible flutter of an elevated pulse at the base of her throat. She’d been as affected by the brief kiss as he was, he realized.

      Tyler knew the satisfaction he felt at these signs was a ridiculous display of his male ego, but what the hell. He could afford to indulge himself. He’d made Grace blush.

      The smile he shot her was pure lord-of-the-manor.

      “Sounds like you’ve got it covered then, darlin’. Good thing, ’cause we open the door in fifteen minutes, and soon after, all hell breaks loose. I hope.”

      Grace nodded, muttered something incoherent and walked off through the kitchen, heading back to the floor of the house. And Tyler sat in his swivel chair, kicked his feet up on the desk and started counting all the reasons that it was a bad idea for him to be feeling this attracted to his waitress, the only non-family staff member he had at the moment.

      But he grinned as he counted.

      As Grace fled through the kitchen, she kept her head down. The sound of a pot banging loudly on a steel counter made her flinch and then groan out loud. Oh, Lord. She hadn’t even thought about Tyler’s mother being right outside his office, prepping food for the night.

      She wondered if there was any possible recovery from insulting the woman and then kissing her son, who was supposed to be her boss, in front of her.

      Maybe she would just tell all her customers that there would be no food served tonight and stay out of the kitchen completely. Hey, they could still drink.

      Just not eat.

      But damn the man, did he have to just go and kiss her?

      She was already having trouble enough, concentrating around him, trying not to trip over her own tongue or her false stories. She just couldn’t seem to catch her balance when she was in the same room as Tyler, and she wasn’t quite sure why.

      Okay, sure, the man was movie-star handsome. The kind of movie star that was inevitably referred to as having “rugged, good looks.” Which in Tyler’s case meant a heavy, sensuous mouth, cheekbones to die for and straight, dark brows over midnight eyes. Eyes whose favorite activity seemed to be taking long, sweeping looks over her body with half-lidded lazy indulgence. And it wasn’t fair that although she was tall enough at five foot nine to look most men in the eyes, she had to crane her neck to look up at Tyler when she spoke to him. But after all, the man was just a bartender.

      A gorgeous, hardworking, restaurant-opening bartender, whose family obviously adored him.

      But still, Grace argued with herself. She’d arranged cocktail parties for industry magnates, hosted political fund-raisers for senators and congresswomen and arranged for film and music celebrities to dine in her restaurants in privacy.

      The vice president of the United States had given a speech at one of her restaurants during the Democratic National Convention, for crying out loud.

      In all those different situations, Grace had kept her cool. She’d refrained from acting star-struck by actors who, when she was a girl, had shaped her idea of what handsome was, or intimidated by the men and women she met who had the power to alter the course of her country’s destiny.

      But Tyler didn’t even have to touch her to make her lose her train of thought.

      And when he did touch her…

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