Sugar Curves Series: a sweet and spicy collection of BBW romances 💗🍩

Sugar, Honey, Ice, Tea

Chapter 1

Tilly

Sitting on the floor in the center of my living room, I
count through the cash left in my savings jar. $42.15. Great. If I didn’t need that damn car to get to work, I’d set it on
fire. I’ll never get ahead at this rate.

I let out a sigh, stretching my legs out in front of me. “I
am never going to college.”

Dropping the money back into the jar beside me, I let my
head fall back against the couch. It’s old and worn, and it’s seen better
days—just like everything else in my life.

“Get used to it, Tilly,” I say to myself. “This is obviously
as good as it gets for you.”

Once upon a time, I had goals, dreams, aspirations. But that was before I found out that the college fund
my grandparents had set up for me as a baby was emptier than the jar on my
floor—thanks, Mom. When graduation
came, the only hope I had to better myself was to get a job and save toward
paying for community college myself. But two years later, we can see how that’s
going…

“What’re you doing on the floor?” my mother grunts as she
shuffles toward the kitchen, obviously hungover, cigarette dangling from her
mouth, and an empty coffee cup in her hand.

I hide the jar beneath the couch and stand. If she sees me
with money, she’ll take it. “I didn’t realize you were home.”

“Boss cut my shifts again,” she says, her back facing me as
she mutters, “Why is there never any fuckin’ coffee made when I need it?” Probably because you’re the one who drank
it…

I keep my job to myself, knowing it won’t get me anywhere
anyway and try to keep on topic. “Why did he cut your shifts?”

She scoffs, sucking hard on her cigarette as she sets up the
coffee machine to percolate. “A customer reckons I shortchanged him. And the
customer is always right.” She rolls her eyes, blowing out a lungful of smoke
as she puts the cigarette out in the sink and leaves it there. “What are you doing here?”

“My shift doesn’t start for another hour. I was just about
to get ready.”

She nods, pulling out a fresh cigarette. “Rent’s due. Gonna
need you to cover my half this month, or the landlord’s gonna kick us out. You
know what he’s like.”

“Sure,” I say, eyes down. That’s my paycheck gone. I’ll be lucky if I can afford ramen after
this, but it won’t be the first time. My mother has a habit of pissing people
off. Hence why my college fund was empty by the time I needed it. She can’t
hold down a job to save herself—or me. She has sticky fingers and a quick
temper, two qualities most employers don’t tolerate for long. I’m surprised she
hasn’t been arrested yet. At least that’s
something…

I know I could leave. I know I could go somewhere else and
start again, but where am I going to go? I have no money, no extended family;
my car barely runs well enough to get me anywhere far, and even if I did leave,
Mom would still hit me up for money… And I can’t say no to her. She’s family.

“You hear that bar on Main Street is hirin’ at the moment?”
She clicks her lighter, the flash deepening the dark lines around her eyes,
showing her age. “They need new girls.”

“Isn’t that one of those places where they dance on the bar?”

She nods. “Reckon you’d do real well swinging what God gave
you up there.” With the fingers that grip her cigarette extended, she points to
my breast and hip area, indicating my abundance of curves.

“I don’t want to get up and dance, Mama,” I say. “I don’t
have the coordination.”

“Sure you do. And the tips will be a hell of a lot better
than you get at that dive you’re working at now. You should apply.”

“I’m fine working at that dive.”

“Apply,” she insists, cupping my face in her hands. “Use
what you have to your advantage while you’re still young enough to make money
off it.”

“I would like to use my brain.”

She laughs, but it turns into a cough. And she steps back,
angling away from me. I pat her back until it subsides, wishing she’d quit the
smokes already.

“Sweetheart,” she says when she’s caught her breath. “I know
you wanted better than this. Maybe this job is how you get it? Doesn’t hurt to
try, right?”

“Fine.” I roll my eyes. “I’ll go down there and check it
out. No promises, though.”

Mom smiles. “Good. Because electric is due in two weeks, and
I doubt I’ll have the money to pay it.” She pulls the bill off the top of the
microwave and hands it to me before she pours her coffee and leaves the room.

I look at the bill and sigh. Just like that, I know I don’t
have much of a choice. I’m getting a new job.

Chapter 2

Noah

Clamping my hand around the wire strippers, I pull the
plastic coating off the speaker wires and wind them together. This was supposed
to be done three days ago, but good workers are hard to come by. I find myself
being boss, repairman, barman—you name it, I’m the guy—more often than not.
Next thing I know, I’ll be up on the bloody bar dancing myself. That’d be a
sight.

I chuckle to myself as I’m threading the wires into the wall
before I hook the speaker in place. Big ex-military me, clicking my heels
together and wiggling my ass.

“What’s so funny up there, boss daddy?” Elijah, my bar
manager, says as he places his hands on the legs of the ladder I’m standing on.

Pasting an unimpressed glare on my face, I stare down at
him. “Boss on its own is just fine. I ain’t your daddy, son.”

His eyes light up as I realize what I just said. “But you
just called me son. And I would really love it if you’d be my daddy.”

I scoff out a laugh and climb back down to the floor,
dusting my hands off on my jeans. “Doesn’t that count as sexual harassment or
something? Asking your boss to be your daddy?”

Elijah purses his lips and juts out one hip as he considers
this. “I think it doesn’t count if the employee does it to the boss. It only
counts if it’s the other way around. Plus, I think you’d have to feel
intimidated. And since you’re twice the size of me, big daddy, I don’t think
you’re intimidated at all.”

I shake my head. “You’re incorrigible, kid. How’s everything
for tonight?”

“Well,” he starts. “Everything is fine except… we’re a girl
short.” He says the last part really fast, his hand half covering his mouth as
he speaks.

“A girl short? Fuck. Who is it this time? Stacey? Natasha?”

“Tonya”

“Are you for real? That’s the third time in a week.” I shake
my head, hands on my hips. I don’t enjoy having to come down hard on my
employees, but in this case, it’s affecting my business. I need a full staff to
run efficiently. “Next time she’s in here, tell her to come see me. She’d
better have a good reason if she wants to keep working here.”

“Yes, sir.” Elijah salutes, walking along behind me as I
close up the ladder and carry it into the storage room. “I was kind of hoping
that I could call one of the new girls as a fill-in.”

“Are any of them trained?” I take quick, long strides to my
office and he runs to keep up.

“Trained in dancing, not so much in bar work. But I’m sure I
can teach them to pull a beer in no time.”

“What the hell are you doing hiring girls who can’t pull a
fucking beer? This is a bar.”

“With dancers. I have to hire them based on their moves, or
what’s the point in them being here?”

“To serve food and drink. You know, the stuff that makes me
money. That’s more important than how well they dance.”

Elijah places his hands on his hips and presses his lips
into a tight line. “Try telling your clientele that. The girls are why they
come.”

I stand in the doorway of my office and let out a growl. “I
didn’t open this place so I could be a fucking drink slinger every night of the
damn week, but fine, I’ll man the goddamn bar tonight.”

I slam my door, just as I hear him say, “Thank you, daddy.”

As pissed as I am, it makes me laugh. He knows I’m straight
as an arrow, but he seems to get a kick out of this daddy gag he has going on.
And he’s the best worker I have, so I let him get away with it. Still, the last
thing I want is to be anyone’s ‘daddy.’ I’ve got three grown kids of my own,
and I sure as hell don’t need anymore, hell, I haven’t even looked at a woman for...fuck,
I forget how long. Once my wife passed, I left the army life behind me and
focused on working and raising my kids. Now that they’re all off at college,
I’m finally in a position to do what I’ve always wanted to do—open a bar with
great music and even better food. All I need now is enough employees to run the
damn place.