Night & Day: A Time for Love Series Novella E-Book

Bethany Lopez

• Herausgeber: Bethany Lopez
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

One explosive weekend together nearly ruined them. 

Now, a year later, Simone had perfected the art of keeping Micah at arms length. 

Micah wants to explain, but the wall Simone has erected is impossible to get around, until a city wide blackout gives him the opportunity he needs. 

There's no way Simone and Micah can ignore their chemistry when they're alone in the dark, but will she still want him when the lights come on? 

Leseprobe

Night & Day

A Time for Love Series Novella

Bethany Lopez

Night & Day

Copyright 2019 Bethany Lopez

Published April 2019

ISBN: 9781093344462

Cover Design by Opium House Creatives

Editing by Red Road Editing / Kristina Circelli

Formatting by Bethany Lopez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please don’t participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Created with Vellum

For the ladies of Blackout: A Romance Anthology. It was truly a joy working with all of you and creating this “world” together.

Contents

1. Simone

2. Micah

3. Simone

4. Micah

5. Simone

6. Micah

7. Simone

8. Micah

9. Simone

10. Micah

11. Simone

12. Micah

13. Simone

14. Micah

15. Simone

16. Micah

Epilogue

Bonus Epilogue

Want more?

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Bethany Lopez

Night & Day was originally released in the Blackout Anthology. Here are books by other authors for that set!

Simone

I looked around the dimly lit bar. It was a good crowd tonight. The customers were happy. Mostly drunk, but happy … and the girls were really on their game. Diamond’s routine to the new Halsey hit had the guys in the front row practically drooling in their draft beers.

Every once in a while, on a night like this, I missed being on stage. Then I’d catch sight of a particularly wasted dude in his sixties with his hand indiscreetly down his pants, and the moment passed.

“Simone.”

I turned my head toward the bar to see Carlos, one of the bartenders, calling me over.

I eased off of the wall I’d been leaning on, partially hidden in the dark, and sauntered over to him.

Sure, I was a manager now, and my clothes stayed on, but I still had an image to project. The same image that had gotten me this far in an industry that ate women alive. Untouchable, supreme bitch of the club, the one woman all the men wanted, but couldn’t have.

I’d almost broken a guy’s wrist once when he’d grabbed my ass after a show and Big Mike, the owner, had fucking loved it. He called me his secret weapon, his prized possession.

Of course, no one owned me but myself and everyone knew it … including Big Mike. But, I was a draw and as long as I was, Big Mike would do just about anything to keep me around, including agreeing to promote me.

I’d been working here almost six years, which made me one of the senior girls, so no one said shit when I became the boss. They were used to me calling the shots already.

“What’s up?” I asked Carlos when I was close enough for him to hear me.

“Micah’s on break and Gina just went to the bathroom, you think you could run and get me a fifth of Johnny Walker out of the back?”

“Black?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” Carlos said and went back to helping customers, of which there were many.

I hurried into the back, down the corridor, and out the door as comfortable in heels as I’d be in flip-flops. Our dry storage was actually in a separate room that you could only get to from outside of the club.

I unlocked and pulled open the door, careful to prop it open with the doorstop. The door had been broken for ages and if it shut behind you, you were stuck until the next time someone opened the door. I’d been on Big Mike to get it fixed, but he was allergic to anything that cost money.

I grabbed the bottle, annotated it on the inventory sheet, and left the storeroom, shutting the door firmly behind me and making sure I locked it.

As I headed back inside, I wondered how long Micah had been on break. Even with Gina, Carlos wasn’t going to be able to keep the customers happy for long. Micah was the lead bartender, the bane of my existence, and the man who’d broken my heart.

“Seems like his breaks are getting longer and longer,” I muttered bitterly, brushing off the possibility that I was so annoyed because he’d been taking his breaks lately with a certain redhead.

“Here you go, Carlos,” I called as I put the bottle behind the counter.

I got quickly out of the way, surveying the room as I walked the club.

Emerald was currently up and when I heard the chorus of the song, I grinned, knowing she was about to rip her dress down the front and would have these men eating out of the palm of her hand, and throwing bills at her, in mere seconds.

I’d shown her how to use scissors to cut a starter in the bosom of her dress, so when it was time to rip it off, it would come off smoothly and not throw off her mojo by getting snagged, or worse have her up there trying to get it to rip and looking like an idiot when it stayed intact.

I swear you could hear that rip clear across the Strip and the crowd went wild.

When I turned toward the corner booth, my gaze landed on Micah and Ginger, and my grin fled.

Ginger was everything I wasn’t … tiny, sweet, kind, always ready to lend a helping hand, and had a twinkling fairy laugh. I wanted to hate her on principle alone and hang her by her toes for spending time with Micah.

It’d be like torturing a puppy, and even I wasn’t that much of a bitch.

I spun on my heel, intent on checking out the dressing room and giving myself a minute to regain my composure.

I hated that Micah still affected me the way he did. It had been almost a year since our weekend together at the Bellagio. The weekend where I’d forgotten all my rules and had thrown caution to the wind. We spent two days entangled in each other, enjoying room service and getting to know each other inside and out.

I’d thought I’d finally met the one. We’d connected on a deeper level and I’d gotten swept up.

Forgetting everything except what had occurred within that room, I’d told him I was falling for him … and he’d laughed in my face.

Since then, I’d tried to keep my distance, while he constantly tried to get me to give him another chance.

“Simone.”

This time, I didn’t turn, because I knew it was Micah calling my name.

“Hey, boss, wait up.”

He threw the “boss” in there because he knew I’d have to listen since we were both on the clock.

“What, Micah? Aren’t you about done with your break?” I asked, arching my brow as I took him in.

Damn, he looked good.

He always looked good. That was the problem. The attraction I had for him was off the charts, which was what had gotten me in trouble in the first place.

His dark hair was short on the sides and longer on top, with a styled, yet floppy thing going on. Plus, he’d recently started growing out a beard, which he kept neat and trimmed, and only made him look ten times better than usual.

Which meant he was panty-dropping hot.

To say he worked his looks to his advantage and made a killing in tips would be an understatement. We all worked here for a reason and cashing in on the attributes the good Lord gave us was only part of it.

“It’s been twenty-five minutes, Simone, I’m actually getting back early. Not that I’d expect you to give me props for that.”

“You’re right, I won’t congratulate you for doing your job. What do you need?” I tried to keep my tone even, but Micah always brought out the worst in me.

“I was hoping we could talk later,” he said, his eyes dropping a moment before coming back to mine. Like he was shy, or nervous, or something … yeah, right.

“The answer is the same as every other time you’ve asked. Unless you want to talk to me at work, I’m not available.”

“C’mon, Simone. You can’t avoid me forever. We need to clear the air … put this shit behind us.”

“This shit.” I huffed out a breath. “You mean my vulnerability. The fact that I dared to have feelings and you threw them back in my face. Is that the shit you speak of?”

“God, Simone, just let me explain.”