by E. L. Todd
“Are you one of those Realtors?” Finn asked bluntly.
“Me? No,” Jax said quickly. “I wouldn’t be in the business this long if I were pulling tricks like that.”
“When am I going to see the place?” Colton asked. “Does it have a basketball hoop?”
“Actually, it does,” Finn said. “In the driveway.”
“Awesome,” Colton said. “I don’t like to watch the sport, but I don’t mind playing it. What about a pool?”
“No pool,” Finn said. “But there’s a hot tub.”
“Ooh…that will be fun.” Colton always ate his food quickly, so his plate was wiped clean. Anytime a hot meal was placed in front of him, it wasn’t there very long. The exception to that was my cooking—because I wasn’t very good at it. His mother was a homemaker, so she knew her way around the kitchen like a badass. Must have been where he picked up on it.
“That neighborhood has an excellent school system,” Jax continued. “It’s not even private.”
Finn finished his food then focused on his scotch. He was the only one drinking hard liquor at the table, and he seemed like the only one that could handle it. “I bought it because it’s a quiet neighborhood. I’m not a big people person.”
“You don’t say,” Colton teased.
Jax nodded in agreement. “It’s definitely quiet, so you picked the right place. But good thing we aren’t neighbors, because when the guys come over, we get a bit loud. We usually play ball in the driveway every weekend.”
The longer the conversation continued, the more annoyed Finn seemed to be. He didn’t care for Jax—it was written all over his face. Finn turned his gaze on me, and while Jax talked his ear off about the neighborhood, he kept his concentration on my face. He focused on my silence instead of Jax’s words. Colton was oblivious to the heated connection between our eyes because he was listening to everything Jax had to say too.
I probably should have been listening to Jax, but instead, I found myself stuck in the trance between Finn and me, falling into those blue eyes and whatever thoughts burned behind them. I found myself more affected by his presence than Jax’s. He said so little with his words but so much with his eyes. Maybe it was just his persona, but his mysteriousness made him even more interesting. I told myself I was only attentive because he was Colton’s brother, but now I started to wonder if there was something more there.
Something that had been there since the moment we met.
“You said no?” Stella asked in surprise. “I hate condoms. Why subject yourself to the torture if you don’t have to?”
Tatum sat across from me with her beer on a coaster. We were gathered at our favorite bar, and Colton and Zach were on the way. “I agree. They slow everything way down. A romantic moment could be totally shattered when you have to strap something on.”
“It just seems so intimate.” The only man I hadn’t used a condom with was my husband. It seemed strange going commando with a guy who wouldn’t be around forever.
“Since when did you become a prude?” Stella asked. “If it’s the two of you, what’s the problem?”
“Because it’ll get more serious,” I argued. “I don’t want anything serious right now. I feel like Jax is trying to push it on me without being obvious about it. I don’t understand why. It seems like most guys are about hitting it and quitting it, but he’s been stuck to my side since we saw each other at the lingerie party.”
“And you’re complaining?” Tatum asked with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have any idea how many guys I’ve hooked up with that I wished would stick around? All the hot ones never want to commit because they don’t have to. They just find the next sexy woman and keep going.”
“And Jax is hot,” Stella said. “He’s so into you.”
“I have no idea why,” I said honestly. “When I told him I was divorced, I expected him to dump me.”
“Uh, you’re a bit dull,” Tatum said. “You’re super gorgeous. Men everywhere are rejoicing that you’re on the market again. Jax is excited to have scooped you up. He’s not gonna care that you’re divorced. He’s relieved you’re divorced.”
My friends were always so good to me. “Well, that’s a nice thing to say—”
“It’s true,” Stella said. “Jax wants to grab you while he can. Of course he’s doing everything to keep you. Can’t blame him.”
That would be insanely romantic if I weren’t still so broken. I still hadn’t felt that distinct pull that I did with Colton. I liked Jax and was attracted to him, but my feelings didn’t stretch beyond that. I found it unlikely that a few more months of good sex would change much.
“Do you want to keep playing the field?” Stella asked.
Finn’s handsome face popped into my mind right away, but I had no idea why that happened. “I’m not sure.”
“If you aren’t sure, then you probably want to keep dating Jax,” Tatum said. “He’s such a catch, so you should keep trying. Give it more time.”
I did like him. I just didn’t love him. “Alright.”
Stella changed the subject right away. “Has Finn said anything about me?”
“He’s not really the kiss-and-tell kinda guy.” He only talked about Stella when I prompted him to.
“Well, there was no kissing,” Stella said with attitude. “Unfortunately.”
“I asked him why he didn’t go for it,” I said. “He just said you weren’t his type.”
“Wasn’t his type?” Tatum hissed. “If Stella isn’t what he’s looking for, then what exactly is he looking for?”
“Thank you, girl.” Stella clinked her glass against Tatum’s. “What the hell is his problem? I hear he sleeps with anything that moves, but I don’t make the cut?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It didn’t make a lot of sense, but he shut down the conversation.”
“Whatever,” Tatum said. “You don’t need him.”
“I don’t,” Stella said. “But it sucks to get rejected… I’ve never been rejected before.”
Tatum narrowed her eyes. “Don’t rub it in, alright?”
“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” I said. “Finn is a peculiar guy. He’s very quiet and withdrawn…says he’s not a big people person.”
“Well, I didn’t ask him to dinner and then a party,” Stella said. “I just asked for sex. Last time I checked, there’s not a lot of talking during sex.”
“Depends on who you ask,” Tatum said. “I was with this one guy that did talk a lot. We didn’t date very long.”
Colton and Zach walked into the bar, both looking handsome in their t-shirts and jeans. They hit the bar first before they joined us in the booth.
Zach scooted into the seat beside Stella. “So…I heard through the grapevine Finn turned you down.”
Stella gave him a mean look then grabbed her drink. “You want me to throw this drink in your face?”
He gently placed his fingers against her wrist and slowly lowered the glass back down to the table. “No. But since it didn’t work out with him, I wanted you to know I was available. I know my way around a bedroom. I’ve got great references. Colt, tell her.” He nodded to Colton.
Colton made a disgusted face. “What? I don’t know that!”
“You know what I mean,” Zach said. “Tell her what Katie said about me after we broke up.”
“Ohh…” When Colton understood what he meant, he relaxed. “She said she missed the sex most of all. Had pretty good things to say about him.”
“See?” Zach waggled his eyebrows at Stella. “You don’t need Finn, not when you’ve got me.” He pointed his thumb into his chest.
Stella had been ambushed with a sexual invitation, but she kept her cool. “Don’t you think that would be weird since we’re friends?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be weird if we don’t make it so. And we were never very close anyway.”
Stella’s lips lifted into a smile. “You really want to get laid, don’t you?”
“Oh, I can get laid,” Zach said. “But I want you to be the one to lay me.”
She turned back to her drink and pressed her lips to the glass, smearing her lipstick against the edge. She took a long drink.
The rest of us sat there and watched the soap opera unfold.
Stella finally gave an answer. “I’ll think about it.”
“Ooh…that’s not a bad answer,” Colton said.
“I’ll take it.” Zach clinked his beer against Stella’s.
I watched as my two friends played a very dangerous game. They didn’t seem compatible, but Stella was still recuperating from her rejection so she probably needed a pick-me-up. And Zach wanted to have sex with the most beautiful woman in the bar that night.
It was toward the end of the night, so I allowed myself one more beer before I cut myself off. If I had too much alcohol after midnight, my stomach would hurt all through the night.
Tatum was talking to some guy on the other side of the room, and Stella was watching Zach flirt with a woman across the room. Colton had disappeared somewhere, maybe finding someone he liked.
“You think I should go for it?” Stella asked, still staring at Zach.
“If you want to.”
“But do you think it’s a bad idea?”
“Of course, I think it’s a bad idea,” I said with a laugh. “He’s your friend. That could get messy.”
“Yeah, but Zach is hot…I just never gave him a chance before.”
I viewed Zach like a brother since he was Colton’s best friend. He’d been off-limits since the very beginning. Even if I wanted to be with him now, Colton would never be okay with it. It would be seen as a betrayal. “Then go for it. That woman is gonna sink her claws into him any minute.”
“You think he’s playing hard to get?” She kept drinking from her glass even though it’d been empty for the last fifteen minutes.
“No. He just wants to get laid.”
She did it again, lifting the glass to her lips and wiping off the last of her lipstick. “I want to get laid.”
I finally pulled the glass away from her. “Alright…enough of that.”
“You know what? I don’t like Finn.”
“Yeah…”
“He’s a dumbass who’s too stupid to know what he’s missing.” She flipped her hair over one shoulder.
I was surprised she was taking his rejection so personally. “Yeah…”
“I think I’m gonna go over there.” She grabbed my beer, took a drink, and then slid to the end of the booth to stand up.
Finn appeared out of thin air, looking sexy as hell in his denim jeans and gray V-neck. His ink made him a bad boy, and his dog tags hanging from his neck made him a badass. With dreamy eyes and a hard body, he was gorgeous—from head to toe.
Stella got to her feet and flashed him a menacing look. “You aren’t even that hot anyway,” she blurted, so drunk she didn’t even realize what she was saying. “You think you’re so sexy with your tattoos…and your military tags…and those blue eyes.” Her hand reached up to his bicep, and she started to feel him up right in the middle of the bar.
Finn watched her and let her do whatever she wanted, his eyebrow slightly raised as he looked amused.
I had to save Stella from this humiliation. “Stella, weren’t you going to talk to Zach?”
“Oh yeah.” She stopped feeling up Finn and slapped his arm instead. “He wants this.” She pointed to her tits. “All. Of. This.” Then she walked off, her heels tapping against the hardwood floor as she stormed off.
Finn watched her go and couldn’t wipe the smirk off his face. He slid into the booth across from me and helped himself to my beer. “That was interesting.”
I watched her move into Zach and block the woman he was talking to. “I should probably get her home. I haven’t seen her this drunk in a long time.”
“I’m sure Zach will take care of it.”
“Well, she’s in the process of throwing herself at him.”
Finn turned and watched the scene, seeing the way she could barely walk in her sky-high heels. “I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
Zach hooked his arm around her waist, and with the aid of Colton, they helped her outside and into a cab.
As much as Zach wanted her, he wouldn’t take advantage of her when she couldn’t even walk in a pair of heels. “At least it’s not my problem. When Stella is really drunk, she gets frisky.”
He continued to hold on to my beer, his interest piqued. “Yeah? She’s put the moves on you?”
“More times than I care to admit.”
His eyes smoldered. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “It always happens when I’m putting her to bed. She takes off her clothes and then tries to kiss me.”
Now he was absolutely still, not even breathing, and his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. He couldn’t process what I’d just said, so he sat there idly. His beer was forgotten, and even his heart seemed to stop beating.
I chuckled at his reaction. “Painted you a picture, huh?”
“Did you let her kiss you?”
“God, no,” I said with a laugh. “I know she doesn’t mean it.”
“And if she did mean it…?”
“I’m definitely, absolutely straight. So no, I wouldn’t have let it happen.”
As the disappointment faded from his eyes, he took a drink of my beer. “How’s your night been?”
“Good. We just came out for a few drinks.”
“Pick up any dates?”
“Me?” I already had one man in my bed. I didn’t need two. “No.”
“Are you and Jax exclusive, then?”
“No,” I said quickly. “We’re just fooling around.”
He nodded slightly then took another drink of my beer. “And he knows that?”
“I’ve told him many times. He wants more.”
“Can’t blame the guy. You don’t like him?” He sat forward, resting his powerful arms on the table as he looked at me. His ink was still noticeable under the dim lighting, and his thick arms could never disappear in the shadows. He had a lot of wonderful qualities, but his best features were in his face. Those eyes were startlingly blue, and that bone structure was too masculine for even Clint Eastwood.
He asked me a lot of questions about my personal life, diving deeper and deeper into a subject I only shared with Colton and my friends. “I like him. I’m just not looking for something serious. I haven’t even been divorced a year. It’s way too soon to start a relationship.”
“It doesn’t seem like he cares.”
“He doesn’t know the whole story…” I lifted my beer from his hand and took a drink, not caring that we were sharing fluids with each other.
“What part of the story is he missing?” He could go up to the bar and order his own beer, but he chose to sit across from me, splitting a beer that was already at room temperature.
“He doesn’t know Colton is my ex-husband.”
“So he thinks he’s just some random dude?”
I nodded.
“Which means he doesn’t know why you got divorced.”
“Exactly.” If I didn’t confide that important piece of information to Jax, I didn’t see how we could start a real relationship. “If things get serious, I’ll tell him. But I’d rather keep that piece of information to myself as long as possible.”
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.”
“Well, I’m a human being. And yes, I’m embarrassed about it.” Telling the world my husband left me because he liked other men hurt my desirability. It ripped me in half, made me less of a woman. Not all people thought that, but most people did.
He shook his head slightly. “A real man isn’t going to care, baby. So you may as well tell Jax to figure out what kind of man he is.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” He only called me baby when we were alone together. It was an intimate nickname for two people who were just friends. There was a che
mistry in the air between us, but sometimes I wondered if that was just his mysterious persona and my attraction.
He pulled the beer back toward him. “Because I like it.”
The more time we spent together, the more I felt our connection deepen. It didn’t seem platonic, but it didn’t seem sexual either. But it certainly wasn’t the kind of relationship I had with Zach or any other guy friend. A simple explanation could be he was Colton’s brother, so I naturally felt a pull toward him. Or maybe that connection was deeper than that, more carnal than that.
I really didn’t know what to think anymore.
13
Pepper
It was Sunday morning, so I went across the hall to see what Colton was doing. Knowing him, the football game would be on, and he would have beer and snacks. Most of the time when I stopped by his apartment, I was foraging for food rather than seeking his company.
But that was fine since he’d divorced me. I considered it to be reparations.
I walked inside and heard the sound of the game on the TV. The Seahawks were playing the Niners. It would definitely be a good game.
Finn was sitting on the couch alone, in his signature sweatpants and his hard-as-a-rock chest. A beer sat on a coaster, and his knees were wide apart.
I glanced around the apartment in search of Colton, but he didn’t seem to be in sight. “Colt here?”
“No.” Finn stood up and turned around to look at me. His tanned skin covered prominent muscles, making him look like a photoshopped model rather than a real person. “He went to Zach’s place.”
Probably because there was no food in the kitchen and he was too lazy to go to the store. “That cheap ass.”
“I’ve got a sandwich in the fridge. We can split that.”
“That’s nice of you, but—”
“Come on, I can’t finish it all anyway.” He entered the kitchen and pulled out the sandwich. It really was too big for a single person. It was an ultimate deli sandwich, sixteen inches long and stuffed with produce, meat, and cheese.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding.”
He sliced it into pieces then placed it on a couple of plates. “Beer is in the fridge.”
