The Stillness Of You by Julie Bale Read Free Book Online Page B

alright.” And turned to Georgia. “Do you want to wait, or go
somewhere else, or just go home?”
    “ Of
course,” the man said as he elbowed his way out from behind the
counter and through the line of people waiting to pay. “We always
make room for one of our boys. Welcome to Philly.”
    Usually, I
wasn’t a guy who used the celebrity thing to get what he wanted and
truthfully most of the guys I knew weren’t like that either—most of
us were small town boys—but living in LA, I’d met a lot of
celebrities and some of them would do anything for a freebie or
special treatment.
    But today
was different. Christ, today the eggs and bacon in this place were
killing me and I had my eye on a booth in the back that a family
had just left. It was darker back there, kind of secluded and I
could have Georgia all to myself.
    I leaned
forward aware that a few more people were staring. “I’d appreciate
the table in the back and if you want me to sign anything, just
send it over.”
    His grin
widened. “No problem.” He stepped back quickly and signaled to a
young girl who had just filled coffees for the table closest to us.
“Amber, last booth. Now.” And then to us he said with a huge smile.
“Follow me, Mr. Lancaster.”
    “ Wow,”
Georgia muttered, rolling her eyes. “Is that all it takes?”
    I settled
my hand in the small of her back and pushed her forward, leaning
down so I could whisper in her ear—and catch a whiff of that
summery smell that I was fast becoming addicted to. “You want to
eat don’t you?”
    Our host,
who introduced himself as Eli, gave us each a menu and grinned. “I
think the Flyers are going all the way with you this season. I’m
telling you a lot of fans jumped for joy the day your trade was
announced.”
    “ Thanks.
I appreciate it.”
    Georgia leaned
her elbows onto the table and glanced up at Eli, her eyebrows
furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
    He looked
down at her as if she was crazy and pointed at me. “Ben Lancaster
is without a doubt the finest center in the NHL. Hell, even Crosby
can’t touch him. Lancaster’s hands are magic.”
    “ Ben?”
Her nose wrinkled in this way that nearly made me lose my mind. Her
eyes sparkled and that fucking tongue was sweeping across her lower
lip as she frowned. “You told me your name was Jack.”
    “Did I?” I
asked, wondering where she was going with this.
    She nodded.
“Isn’t that what you said last night when you picked me up on the
corner of John and New Street.”
    By the
uncomfortable look on Eli’s face, I was gonna go with the guess
that John and New Street was where guys trolled for
prostitutes.
    She
leaned forward and ran her forefinger along the top of my hand and
damn if my stomach muscles didn’t clench. “Don’t worry about
it, Jack , I’ll
call you whatever you want me to.”
    Eli
cleared his throat and backed away. “Okay, so Amber will be by to
take your order and ah, if you don’t mind, I have a couple things
I,” he paused, his gaze dropping to Georgia’s finger as it slowly
moved back and forth across me. I couldn’t blame the guy, my eyes
were pretty much fixated on the same thing.
    “ Yeah,
I’ll sign whatever you want. Give us five minutes okay?”
    Eli
disappeared and Georgia’s smile widened. “So that was awkward,” she
said slowly. “For Eli.”
    “You’re a
trouble maker.”
    “You have no
idea,” she answered leaning back in her chair and withdrawing her
finger from my hand.
    “ This
isn’t good.” I shook my head and tried to keep the grin off my
face. “Words going to get out that Ben Lancaster has to pay for
pussy. I can’t have that.”
    “Who says you
were paying for pussy?” Her eyes widened and so did her smile. “I
could let it slip to Eli that I’m a tranny.”
    “A what?”
    She licked her
lips again and I had to concentrate hard to understand what the
hell she was saying. “A transvestite.”
    “You
wouldn’t”
    “ Wouldn’t
I?” She said