Thrill - Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

By Grace Rawson

This was becoming a bad habit; going to the same bar after work, sitting by herself with her dirty martini. It was getting to the point where the bartender would have her drink ready before she even took off her coat. It wasn't like she was an unattractive woman or anything; men just seemed to be avoiding her these days. Maybe they could sense her glumness.

So it was the strangest thing when he walked in on that regular, dull night. He didn't look like he belonged there, in that rundown bar in his fine black suit and tie. Mia's eyebrow shot up immediately when he walked in, and watched him as he deliberately scanned the room. Maybe this rich boy's car broke down and he needed a phone or something. Whatever the case was, Mia knew the instant her eyes met his hazel ones, she was in trouble.

A Standalone Short Story with No Cliffhanger!

• Language: English
• Publisher: American Billionaire Romance Novels
• Release date: Nov 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386577010

Book preview

Thrill

Ilooked deep into my empty glass like it was going to reveal the answer to all my problems in that instant, but really who was I kidding? The only thing the empty glass revealed was that I was ready for another drink. Through drink-blurred eyes I stared at the scruffy and aged bartender in front of me, silently signaling that I was ready for another drink. A solid five minutes passed before he calmly retrieved my empty martini glass to refill it.

I really loved this relationship between us; I sat and drank, he refilled my glass; no words, and no judgements. He never spoke, not even ‘hello’. In my wild imagination he had done something terrible in his past and was atoning for it by keeping a vow of silence. At that moment I laughed out loud at the thought, causing the bartender to pause and raise his eyebrow at me in annoyance. I waved off the sudden outburst and wrapped my fingers around the slim stem of the glass. This was sad; I was here once again in this shitty bar with Mr. Mute Bartender.

I let out a sigh before taking a sip of my drink. It’s not as if life was terrible. I was successfully running my own business, my bills were getting paid, I had an amazing apartment, I was a great catch....no boyfriend but that’s beside the point: On balance, things were going good!

And yet I couldn’t shake off this overwhelming feeling of dullness, like things were too good. No excitement, just ordinary. I wondered if something was wrong with me for craving some sort of drama to put a spark in my life. I looked up at the bartender who was busy with a task.

Is something wrong with me? I asked him quietly as if he had been participating in the conversation in my head. Not surprisingly, he remained silent and continued to polish the bar glasses laid out in front of him. Why I bothered trying to engage this man in conversation was beyond me.

I swiveled slowly on the barstool, drink still in hand, and scanned the dead atmosphere of this rundown bar on a Wednesday night. There were about 15 people in the place, including myself. Most were women trying to use their assets to charm drinks out of the very few males in the room.

I started coming to this bar because I saw potential in it. The first few nights there were bar fights, loudmouth individuals swearing like sailors, laughing, drinking and telling wild stories. It seemed to offer the excitement I was craving. But after a week of coming here, it had slipped back into mundanity. Today was actually a usual day. Maybe it was just time to call it quits on this place and accept my fate, to fade away into a mundane lifestyle.

On that note. I muttered as I swiveled my chair back towards the bar to face my mute bartender.

Think it’s time to end this little date of ours, I said to him with a wink and charming smile resting my head on my open palm. Whether he was amused or not, my dear bartender went to close my tab. I whipped out my compact mirror as he handled my bill and assessed my face, to see