by JB Salsbury
“Dayum, Bex, baby. You’re looking mighty fine today.” He has the most genuine smile I’ve ever seen on a man; does he ever have a bad day? “All that hair, mmm.” He bites his bottom lip, and I laugh and blush. “I’m still upset you refused to kiss me on New Years Eve.”
“You said I had to share you with Lizbeth Wyman.”
“I take it back.” He reaches over to touch my hair when a massive hand clamps down on his wrist.
“No touching.” Loren’s growled command from my back sends a shiver down my spine.
I hardly have a moment to respond when he pushes onto the two-person bench next to me, his body presses against mine from hip to knee. I look up at him and when he pulls his glare away from a chuckling Kaipo, he does a double take.
“Jesus,” he breathes as he stares at me in awe. He grips my thigh under the table and squeezes. “Hi.”
“Hey.” I hate the breathiness in my voice, but he looks so good, and he’s so close I can’t find the power to string words together.
His blonde hair is cropped short on the sides and messy on top, smooth shaven face, and I sink into his aquamarine eyes. His cologne is salty like the sea, and his tan skin reminds me of summer vacations and white sand beaches.
“You look beautiful,” he whispers only loud enough for me to hear.
“So do you.” I keep my hands on the table even though I want to reach down and weave our fingers together, to feel his wide palm against mine. Would his palm be sweaty with nerves? I’d like to think it would be, and I’d give anything to feel it.
“How were this morning’s classes?”
I laugh at his genuine interest. “Good. We studied scientific hypotheses as to why alligator penises are always erect. You?”
“Ouch,” Kaipo says.
Loren smiles at me, his eyes on my lips as if he can’t wait to hear what I might say next. “Compared to your morning, mine was uneventful. But Professor Sigmond did have a—”
“Loren!”
My stomach drops at the sound of Riley’s voice as she comes toward us flanked by Becky and Lily. His hand slips slowly from my thigh and he manages to put a few inches of space between us without being obvious. Emery on the other hand seems to notice everything and her gaze remains fixated on the space he created.
“Hey, Riley.” I’m grateful when Loren doesn’t get up to hug her. That is, until she slips between his torso and table, dropping onto his lap and throwing her arms around his neck.
“You never texted me back last night.” She acts like she doesn’t notice the four other people at the table.
“Sorry about that, I fell asleep studying econ.” I spot his hands and they remain on the bench at his sides.
He shifts uncomfortably beneath her and she must spot that he’s about to ask her to get off, so she hurries and presses her lips to his. My stomach plummets into my toes and I turn toward Kaipo who frowns in disapproval. “Shit,” Loren says and I hear a rustling of bodies at my side. “Sorry, I fucked my knee up working out. I can’t bear much weight.” He’s standing now.
“Much weight,” Riley says laughing. “I weigh like a hundred pounds.”
I turn around to spot her over my shoulder, grateful to see Loren keeping some distance between them.
“You act like I weigh as much as Bex,” Riley says throwing Lily and Becky into a fit of giggles with her.
Loren catches my eyes and with a slight tilt of his head I can hear him saying, You’re gonna take that shit from her? Because I won’t.
“I’m kidding, Bexy,” Riley says to me. “You know I love you.”
“Whoa, do you feel that breeze.” I hold my hands out for affect. “Hold on to her, Loren, she might blow away.”
Rowan snorts and covers her smile.
Riley smiles as if I’d paid her the highest compliment. “I know, right?”
“Every sixty-two minutes someone dies from an eating disorder,” Emery says, and then calmly looks down at her watch.
I roll my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing out loud and see Kaipo do the same. Loren seems to have lost his sense of humor as he glowers at Riley, not that she notices or seems to care.
“Did you manage to scrape up a date for the formal?” Riley asks me as her wingmen smirk at her sides.
“No, but not because I couldn’t manage to, because I don’t want to.”
My sorority sisters give me a pitying look.
“I’ll go with you.” Kaipo flashes a sexy grin that flushes my cheeks.
“She said she’s good, Kaip.” The seriousness in Loren’s voice catches me off guard.
“Good’s not good enough.” Kaipo scoots closer to me. “She deserves to be great.” He winks and lifts his chin. “What do you say, sweet cheeks?”
My back practically sears with the tension that pours off Loren.
“I think that’s a great idea.” Rowan flashes a sly grin and the corner of Emery’s mouth ticks up on one side.
If Loren confessed his feelings to his roommates last night, they’re torturing him now by encouraging me to agree to go to the dance with Kaipo. And why not? If I have to watch Loren and Riley together all night, I may as well have someone with me for support.
“Sure. I’d love it if you’d come to the formal with me.”
Kaipo jumps to his feet and then takes two gigantic steps to put him on top of the concrete table. I’d never expect a man of his size to move so fluidly. “She said yes!”
The entire quad erupts in cheers thinking Kaipo just proposed. He does some kind of victory dance that is mostly pelvic thrusts. I drop my head to my forearm, mortified, but also laughing really hard. When he climbs off the table he takes the seat next to me. He turns sideways with his elbow on the table and head in his hands. “Do you speak sign language—ouch!” He rubs the back of his head where Loren swatted him.
“We’ll be late for class.” Loren doesn’t look at me and my cousin is too busy looking adoringly up at Loren to notice anyone else.
“I’ll walk with you,” Riley says, slipping her hand in his.
His eyes come to me then and I expect irritation, maybe even anger, but all I see is apology.
“Come over tonight.” She wraps her free hand around his forearm pulling him against her boobs. “I’ll make you dinner.”
“I can’t, I have to work.”
“We’ll pick this up later,” Kaipo says, standing to follow Loren. “Get my number from the girls and let me know the deets for this weekend.”
“I will.” I drag my eyes from Loren and Riley. “I’ll be in touch.”
He bows dramatically. “Looking forward to it, my Queen.”
Loren mumbles, “Fuck.”
I smile, wave, and then hurry and turn back around so I don’t have to watch Loren and Riley walk away hand in hand.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Emery says quietly. “If I had to see another woman with Theodore I’d slit both their throats.”
Rowan blinks at her roommate and then shakes her head. “That’s…intense. But I agree, it would be hard. How are you holding up?”
“It’s uncomfortable, but it has to be this way. When I get the urge to say screw it and ask him to stop seeing her, I consider the influence she has on other people and realize it’s just not worth it. If he dumps her days before the biggest formal of the year, and then is seen with me? She’ll spread horrible rumors about him, and I don’t even want to imagine the hell I’ll get from my sisters, it’s not worth it. In a few days he’ll end things and then we can hang out as friends and see where things go. Hopefully by that time Riley will have found someone new and she’ll forget about Loren.”
Because he’s so forgettable. Yeah right. A chance to be with Loren really does seem hopeless.
Chapter Ten
Loren
Friday night at the surf shop and Riley has been texting me non-stop. I’ve been grateful to use work as an excuse to not see her this week or respond immediately to her texts, but at seven o’c
lock on the freeway home from work my phone rings and it’s her.
“Hello?”
“Thank God you picked up,” she says in her most dramatic damsel in distress voice. “I need your help. The party rental place dropped off all the tables and chairs for the formal tomorrow but they didn’t set any of it up. They said we had to pay extra for that, which I’m happy to do, but because it was their last stop at six o’clock they said they didn’t have time. Seriously, how hard is it to do their job?”
I don’t waste my breath by telling her it sounds like they did do the job they were paid to do. “You need help setting up tables and chairs?”
“Yes, they’re so heavy.”
I also don’t waste my breath telling her that I’m sure her and her sorority sisters are capable of setting them up themselves. It’s likely the woman has never done physical labor or broken a sweat. “I’ll be there in thirty.”
“You’re my hero. I’ll totally make it up to you,” she says breathlessly.
“Not a problem.” I’ll have to be creative in avoiding Riley’s advances, but the pay off is I’ll get to see Bex.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her in that sexy top, her shoulders bare and begging for my lips. I knew I couldn’t kiss her, but I had to touch her. The way she relaxed against me when I gripped her thigh under the table made me feel like I could conquer the world. And then Riley had to show up and ruin everything. Playing this bullshit game with Riley in order to get my shot at Bex has put me in a foul fucking mood.
“See you soon, babe.” Riley’s voice snaps me back to reality and I practically growl into the phone.
“Later.” I hit End and then immediately pull up Kaipo’s number.
“Cousin,” he answers.
“You home?”
“Yup. What’s up?”
“I need you to go to the Eta Pi house with me. Guess they need help setting up for the thing tomorrow.” When he doesn’t immediately respond, I fess up. “I need a buffer. If I go alone Riley will corner me or try to get me in her room, I need a reason to leave.”
“Or we could both stay. I wouldn’t mind getting friendly with my date.”
“It’s like you want to die.”
He chuckles. “You’re too easy to fuck with.”
“You got my Achilles heel, man.” I rub my lips together and contemplate how much I want to give away. I decide to give it all. “I really like her. Promise me you’ll treat her like she’s your sister.”
“I’m happy for you. You know I’ll take care of her.”
I glare at the freeway in front of me. “How do you manage to make that sound dirty?”
“She’s in good hands. Skilled, capable hands.”
“I hate you.”
“You have nothing to worry about. I’ll do whatever it takes to make her feel good.”
“You’re a prick. Be ready in ten.” I hang up on him laughing his ass off; and pray that I can get through the next thirty hours without blowing things with Bex and killing my fucking roommate.
I texted Bex letting her know that Kaipo and I would be there and hoped that she would come down so I could see her. Once we get to the sorority house one of Riley’s minions let’s us in, a girl whose eyes grow twice the size when she gets a look at Kaipo. At six-foot-five with shoulders as wide as the doorway he can be intimidating upon first sight. She sends a text to Riley and I pace impatiently at the base of the stairs searching for Bex.
Kaipo has one shoulder against the wall, his head down while chuckling and texting. I narrow my eyes on him. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”
He continues to text. Another burst of laughter comes from his lips. “Bex. She’s fucking funny.”
I snag his phone and look at the screen.
He makes no effort to take the phone back and when I read their exchange I can see why.
I’m downstairs with your boy. He looks like he’s ‘bout to Hulk out if he doesn’t get eyes on you soon.
I’ll be down a little later. I got pooped on by a snake. Hafta shower.
Kinky.
I suppose, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I’m a psych major and there are people who are most definitely into that kind of thing. Loren may or may not be one of them.
Lovely. So you’re saying I should go ahead and wear the snake eau de toilette?
Baby, you could wear the shit of a thousand animals and my boy here would still be barkin’ at your door.
Sounds messy.
I shove his phone back at him, not even mad because if I’m being honest with myself, he wasn’t lying.
“Our hero has arrived!” Riley stops mid-staircase when she sees Kaipo, and disappointment sours her smile. “You brought a friend.”
“The two of us can get it done a lot quicker.”
She stops at the bottom step and leans in to kiss me. I turn my head just in time for her to plant her lips on my cheek. Suspicion clouds her eyes as she pulls back.
“Sore throat.” I rub my neck for emphasis. “I wouldn’t want to get you sick, that’s all.”
“Since when—”
Kaipo saves me by clapping me on the shoulder and addressing Riley. “Point us to the project, princess.”
She smiles coldly at me, and steps around us. “This way.”
I look back one more time to see if Bex is coming down the stairs before following Riley through the kitchen out onto the back patio that is at least one thousand square feet of tile surrounded by the rose garden. I can’t see the bench where I confessed my feelings to Bex through the rose bushes but just knowing it’s there is strangely calming.
Riley shows us the stacks of round tables and chairs and then hands me a sketch of the layout.
“We’ll crank this out,” I say, hoping it dismisses her.
“You guys want something to drink?”
“No, thanks.”
“Hell, yeah,” Kaipo answers at the same time I do.
She disappears inside and I scowl at him. “What are you doing?”
“Saving your ass.” He pulls folding chairs from the stack as if they weigh nothing. “You’re acting like you can’t stand her.”
“I can’t,” I hiss. I know that makes me a dick. She’s not a horrible person, but she’s unkind to and keeping me from the woman I really want. And the longer this goes on the angrier I get at her for it. I pull a table off the stack, and Kaipo and I pop the folding legs open and set it on its feet.
Every time I get a chance I look up to Bex’s lighted window and wonder what she’s doing up there. Is she clean and warm in her pajamas, wet hair draped against her back while she pours over some complicated textbook?
When the backdoor opens I nearly drop the chair in my hands. Lily and Riley come out with their hands full. “We made you guys some treats.” They set a plate of brownies and two ice-cold beers on the table.
“Thanks, but I’m—”
“Starving.” Kaipo interrupts me. “We were just saying on the way here that we were starving.” He plucks a brownie from the plate and takes half of it in one bite. “Mmmm, so good.”
I feel him side-eyeing me so I grab a beer and down half of it. “Thanks, this is great.”
I expect the girls to head back inside, but instead they pull two chairs from one of the tables and sit. Fine, whatever, as long as she’s sitting and I’m moving I can avoid her touching me. Twenty-nine hours to go.
Thank God for Kaipo, he keeps the conversation going between him and the girls while I continue to knock out table set up. Becky, Meegan, and the girl that answered the door eventually join them. We’re about halfway through the stack when the door opens again. Thankfully I’m at the far end of the patio when Bex walks out because I can’t help the gigantic fucking smile that takes over my face. She’s dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized tank top that shows off a healthy amount of lavender lace bra under her arms. Her thick hair is pulled up high on her head sending curls cascading from the top
to her earlobes. She’s not wearing her glasses, giving me a full view of her gorgeous eyes, and her skin is clean of any cloying makeup that would erase her freckles.
“You guys have been busy,” she says as she takes in the set up.
“All for you, sweet cheeks,” Kaipo says with a wink.
I don’t snap at him because he’s right. I’d do anything for her.
Her eyes meet mine across the dimly lit space in a silent greeting that makes me want to sprint to her and crush my lips to hers.
“Nice of you to join us in your pajamas, Bexy.” Riley, ever the bitch, has to make it a point to rip on her cousin publicly. I make a mental note to put a stop to that shit the second Bex and I become official.
Bex turns to her with a huff. “I didn’t realize the dress code was escort casual or I would’ve slapped on my pasties.” Her fuzzy slippers brush silently against the tile as she walks over to the stack of chairs, pulling them out one at a time to unfold and set at the nearest table.
Before Riley can come back with a bigger insult, I head to Bex and take a chair from her hand. Her gaze sparks when I brush my fingers against hers.
I smile at her reaction. “You don’t have to help.”
“I’d feel like a lazy slug if I didn’t.”
I feel myself drawing closer to her, but I refuse to stop it. “I thought you liked slugs.”
“Snakes.”
“What’s the difference?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Riley yells from her seat across the patio.
Bex blinks rapidly as if coming out of a daze and then turns to grab another chair. “A slug is a shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc, totally different taxonomy.” She hands me a chair and smirks. “But something tells me you already knew that.”
I lower my voice for only her. “Maybe I just like hearing you talk.”
She turns away blushing and grabs another chair. “In that case let me tell you all about behavioral thermoregulation used by ectothermic species.”
