AI generated image of a man in front of a bar — Living Frames on Pixabay

Romantic Mini Series | Monsters

Just What He Needed: Whisky

Fergus is hungry, but not for love [1]

He knew it had been a mistake to go to Denny’s Bar and Grill when he caught the blonde girl’s eye. She was laughing and joking near the pool table with some local guys and a girl with blunt-cut dark hair that hung to her shoulders. As the blonde gathered her own hair into a twist piled artfully atop her head, their eyes met and she arched one eyebrow playfully.

Fergus looked away, immediately quelling the rush of attraction he experienced as best he could. He lifted his shot of neat whiskey and turned his back to the bar to take a slug. Letting it puddle around his tongue, he was soothed by its rich, smoky notes. Good whisky always reminded him of home — his father had kept an excellent single malt in a crystal decanter and young Fergus had sometimes helped himself to a sneaky dram.

He snapped out of his reverie when he felt a jostling at his side. Fergus looked down, irritation drawing his brows together. It was her, the girl from the pool table, and she was even more striking at close range. She smelled of sweet orange blossom and rose mingled with something more musky. Her tanned fingers, which rested on the polished bar, were adorned with many fine bands of gold up and down her knuckles.