She asked for our drink orders, and I chimed in with my request.
“I’ll have that right out.” She beamed at Reece and even sent me a quick, awkward smile—like she knew I knew she was imagining him naked.
And then we were alone again.
Reece leaned forward again, looking so at ease I began to feel relaxed. “So the gloves are off when it comes to my brother, huh?”
“Sorry.” I plucked at the edge of my napkin, my sense of ease evaporating.
“It’s okay. His reputation is well earned. I tried to stop it in the beginning, but he’s eighteen now. He’ll start college in the fall. I can’t tell him what to do anymore. He’s gotta learn for himself.” His lips cocked in that sexy half-grin that made my stomach flip every time. “And just hope he doesn’t end up a father before his twentieth birthday.” He laughed and winced at this simultaneously. The low deep sound rippled over my skin and sank deep inside me. He scrubbed a hand over his short-cropped hair. “Shit. I sound like a father.”
He did, and it totally threw me. It didn’t fit with my initial notion of him. He really was a nice guy. “I get it. You’ve had to be more than a brother to him.”
Some of the levity faded from his face. He was quiet for a moment before saying, “He was just so little when our mom died . . . and I already told you that our father isn’t exactly the type to sit down and talk us through things or comfort us. For bad or good, I’ve been a parent to him.” He shrugged again. “But this year I decided I needed to take a step back.”
The waitress set our drinks down and left. I stared at Reece, wondering how many eight-year-old boys would have stepped up to the plate and adopted the role of mother and father for their younger sibling. “I’m sure what you gave him is better than him going without.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “It was something. He knows I care about him at least, and he’s not alone.”
And isn’t that everything? I thought of my own mother. I couldn’t say that I knew she ever cared about me. Maybe once. Before she started to care about her addiction more.
Almost like he guessed that I was thinking less than pleasant thoughts, he suggested, “Let’s talk about something else.”
I nodded, okay with leaving the subject behind. Talking about his upbringing only made me think of mine. Maybe that was the downside to us being not so different. “Sure.”
“Pepper?”
I looked up at the sound of my name and stared at Hunter’s face, not registering him at first. It was a strange, bewildering experience staring at Hunter with Reece across from me. Like two worlds coming together that never should have met.
“Hunter.” I leaned back in my chair, not realizing until that moment that I had been leaning half across the table, so into Reece and being close to him. “Hi,” I added dumbly.
“Hey, how’s it going?” His gaze slid from me to Reece and back again. He hovered there, waiting. I couldn’t seem to think of a thing to say even though it was apparent he was waiting for an introduction.
“Hey, I’m Reece.” Apparently he knew what to say and do. Reece reached out and shook Hunter’s hand in a solid-looking grip.
“Hunter Montgomery. I went to high school with Pepper.”
“Oh, yeah.” Reece smiled amiably. “That’s cool to have someone you know around.” His expression was innocent. He gave nothing away, like that I might have mentioned Hunter’s name a dozen times. Thank God.
“Yeah. It is.” Hunter’s eyes settled on me as he answered Reece.
“We just met a couple weeks ago,” Reece added, looking at me with eyes that looked suddenly smoky blue. Probing and intimate. Like he knew what I looked like naked and couldn’t wait to get me naked again. “But it feels like we’ve known each other longer. Know what I mean?”
My eyes flared. I kicked him under the table, wondering what he was doing painting the picture that we were some kind of hot and heavy couple. Even if maybe we were. Sort of. Or not. I didn’t know what we were exactly, but it wasn’t a couple. That’s the only thing I knew for sure, and I didn’t need him planting the idea in Hunter’s head that I was unavailable.
“Uh. Yeah,” Hunter murmured, his eyebrows drawing together.
I still couldn’t find my voice. My face felt overly hot and I knew I must be as red as the little squares on the tablecloth.
“Yeah, well, nice meeting you, man.” The smile was still on Reece’s face and in his voice, but there was a steeliness in his gaze. His meaning was clear. Good-bye and go the fuck away.
“See you later, Hunter,” I murmured softly and gave a small wave, eager for him to leave, but not because I was so enamored of my date and wanted some alone time. I wanted the embarrassment to come to an end. I wanted to stop Hunter from concluding that I was involved deeply with the guy sitting across from me.
“Yeah.” Hunter nodded and moved back across the restaurant. He reclaimed his seat at the bar with a couple of other guys. I’d seen him around campus with one of them. I thought it was his roommate.
“So that’s the infamous Hunter.”
I lifted my gaze back to Reece. “This was a bad idea.”
“What was?”
“You. Us. This date we’re pretending to be on.” Reece was silent and I flicked my gaze to Hunter across the restaurant and back to him again. “Did you have to do that?”
“Do what? Make you look desirable?” He looked at me in exasperation. “You should be thanking me.”
“What? How?”
“I just took you from one category . . . the-girl-I-never-pictured-naked category, and dropped you into I-wonder-what-she’s-like-in-bed.”
I blinked and fell silent as our pizza arrived. The waitress placed it on the table between us along with two plates.
“Oh,” I murmured, processing this bit of information.
“Now don’t look, but trust me when I say he hasn’t been able to stop glancing over here.”
I leaned forward in my chair. “Really?”
“Yeah. And now it’s just about to get better.”
I leaned forward a bit more, the steam from the pizza floating up to my face. “Better how?”
He leaned across the table and pressed his mouth to mine. I immediately forgot the impropriety of kissing in broad daylight in a public place. His mouth was warm and open against mine. The kiss branded me. Too intoxicating to resist. I immediately responded. His tongue slipped inside and stroked my own. Nothing around us existed. It was just his mouth on my mouth. My hands reached out, fingers grazing the planes of his face, touching but not quite. It was like if I touched him, he might vanish from me altogether.
A plate crashed nearby and I jerked. Reece pulled back ever so slightly. His lips still grazing mine, he murmured, “Very nice. That should do the trick.”
The air whooshed from my lips and I dropped back in my seat. “What?”
“Hunter can’t take his eyes off you right now. You should see his face—but no. Don’t look. I wouldn’t be surprised if he calls you tomorrow.”
Actually I wasn’t tempted to look. That was the sad thing. I was too busy staring at the guy I wanted to pull back across the table and keep on kissing.
Which was all kinds of fucked up. I needed to get a grip on myself. Reece wasn’t the one. He wasn’t my one.
Gulping a deep breath, I folded my hands in my lap. “Oh.” I wasn’t sure how I felt that he had just staged that kiss. I hadn’t been thinking about Hunter with my lips locked to Reece’s. I should have been. But I wasn’t. Had Reece felt anything at all?
His gaze held mine. “Pretty good luck, huh.”
“What’s that?” Right now, I didn’t feel particularly lucky.
“Running into him here.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, watching as he dug into the pizza between us, serving one slice to each of us.
“Eat up.” He took a large bite from his slice.
I followed suit, willing the knots in my stomach to untie themselves.
H
e groaned, and the sound elicited all manner of wicked feelings inside me. “This is the best.”
I resisted the urge to smack him.
“It really is,” I agreed.
“Hey.” He reached across the table and covered my hand with his own. “It’s going to work out. You’ll see. You’ll get your guy.”
My heart clenched a little at his words. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure who that guy was anymore.
Chapter 22
Hunter called the following day. I’d forgotten that Reece had predicted as much. Or maybe I just blew the suggestion off. When his name popped up on my phone, I practically fell out of my chair. Standing, I took a deep breath and answered, managing to sound calm.
Yes. It was good to see you yesterday.
Yes, I’m well.
Yes. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, too. No problem. We can leave Wednesday at eight. My prof canceled my afternoon class, too. That sounds great.
It was a normal conversation and yet there had been a different tenor to it. Hunter laughed too readily. He sounded . . . nervous, asking more than once if I didn’t mind leaving so early in the morning. Not that he wasn’t always polite, but there was something different in the exchange.
I hated to admit it, but that staged kiss had maybe done some good, after all. He didn’t mention it, of course. His manners would never allow that. Nor did he even mention Reece, but Reece and that kiss were there, hanging between us, filling those moments of crackling silence. Reece had been right. Everything was falling into place. If I ever had a chance with Hunter, it was now. Another chance wouldn’t come. This was it.
The Monday before Thanksgiving, I found myself bypassing my route home after work and heading for Mulvaney’s. I told myself it was just because I wanted to let Reece know he had been right. His staged kiss had done the trick, after all. A simple thanks. That was all. Not because I wanted to see him. Not because he hadn’t texted me since our date.
At three in the afternoon, the place was dead. My tennis shoes fell silently on the plank floor. I found him inventorying behind the bar. He didn’t notice me approach.
“Hi.” I propped my elbows on the bar.
He looked up and smiled widely, immediately making me glad I came. “Hey. Where you been?” He set his clipboard down and gave me his attention. That glad feeling only increased knowing he had noted my absence over the weekend.
“I worked the last couple nights. The Campbells and another family.” I needed the money, especially after my car troubles.
“I wondered. Saw Emerson.”
“You know her. Never one to miss a good time.”
An awkward pause fell. I cleared my throat to fill it. “I owe you a thanks.”
“Yeah? What for?”
“Hunter. He called the next day. And he’s been texting me off and on.”
“Well. There you go.” He smiled again, but it seemed less than before. Or maybe that was just my imagination. My ego wanting him to feel something other than happiness for me moving forward with Hunter. “I told you he would call.”
“You did.” I nodded. “So. Thanks, again.”
He looked left and right, as if searching for something to talk about. “You hungry? Want a burger or something?”
“I could eat.”
“C’mon.” He led me into the back room and shouted over the counter. “Give me a Cyclone Monster and basket of Tijuana fries.”
Someone shouted back from the kitchen, acknowledging his order.
My eyes widened. When he turned back around, I said, “Please tell me that’s not all for me.”
He grinned and my stomach did that crazy little flip-flop. “I’ll share it with you.”
We sat at one of the tables toward the back. On the same bench, our shoulders brushing. It was uncomfortable being this close to him, not knowing what was okay. Touching, kissing, which we had done so much together before, now seemed like something we couldn’t do now. Partly because we were in public. Partly because none of that was real. Me finally—maybe—getting somewhere with Hunter only hammered that home.
“So you’re leaving Wednesday with Hunter?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s a four-hour drive.”
“Well, that will give you some quality time with him.” He stared straight ahead, in the direction of the kitchen. I stared at his profile. A muscle feathered in his jaw.
I nodded. “Yeah, and I’ll be over at his house quite a bit to see Lila. I usually go there after Thanksgiving dinner and hang out. Watch movies. Hunter is usually there unless he makes plans with some of his old friends—”
“He’ll be there,” he cut in.
“Yeah? Why—”
“He’ll be there because you’re there.” Turning, he faced me, his left arm resting along the top of the table. With the wall to my right and the stretch of his bicep and forearm to my left, I felt caged, like he was closing in on me. “And if his sister wants you two to be together—”
I nodded. “She does.”
“Then she’ll be a good sister and a good friend and invent some reason to disappear.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think it will happen like that.”
“It will.”
I angled my head and studied him, the dark ring of blue around his eyes a stark contrast to the pale blue of his irises. “He doesn’t see his old friends often. They might make him go out—”
“I’m telling you. He’ll blow them off to be with you.”
My chest tightened at the intense way he looked at me, and I heard myself asking, “Is that what you would do?”
He stared at me and I waited, wondering why his answer mattered so much.
“I wouldn’t have waited this long for you. I would have already showed up at your dorm the minute I decided I wanted you. I wouldn’t leave until I convinced you that you were mine.”
“Oh.” My skin shivered, imagining this scenario. Reece at my door. Determined. Sexy. Saying things, doing things, to convince me I was his. “Maybe he hasn’t decided that he wants me then.”
“He has. I saw his face at Gino’s. He’s already gone for you.”
Suddenly I realized that we had moved into each other, not touching but so close our breaths mingled.
“Fuck,” he rasped and closed that tiny distance, kissing me like it had been forever and not just a week. But this week had felt like forever. I missed this. Missed him. He buried a hand in my hair and hauled me closer, our chests mashed together. His mouth devoured mine and I kissed him back just as greedily.
“Here you go.”
I jumped and pulled away. Two baskets of heart attack dropped onto the table before us. The fry cook was already marching away, apparently unfazed by our public makeout.
My chest rose and fell like I had just run a marathon. Reece’s eyes were that bright pale blue I was coming to recognize as a sign that he was hot for me. I glanced from the food to him, part of me hoping that he would say forget the food and haul me upstairs with him.
My body didn’t even feel like it belonged to me anymore. It was one pulsing ball of nerves, throbbing and aching and yearning desperately for all this foreplay to just reach its most natural conclusion.
It was as though my body lived and breathed for this. For him. I wanted the ache satisfied. But I wouldn’t be the one to say the words. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t go that far. And there was always the fear, the desperate need to choose the safe path.
All of which meant nothing would happen. Nothing more than kisses and fondling that made me want to pull my hair out in frustration.
Reece slapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Let’s dig in.”
Oh yeah. Food.
I picked up a cheese-coated fry.
He grabbed a clump of three. Tilting his head back, he dropped them into his open mouth. I watched him in awe as his strong jaw chewed. “Mmmm.”
“How can you look the way you look and eat like this?”
He grinned crookedly and leaned
close, the warmth of his body reaching out to wrap around me. “And how do I look?”
I crumpled up a napkin and threw it at him. “Oh, shut it. You know you’re hot. Your body is insane.”
Grinning in smug satisfaction, he picked up another clump of fries. “I just like to hear you say that. You’re not easy to impress.”
I frowned. “What does that mean? Am I that difficult?”
“No. It’s just that you’ve set your sights on one guy you met years ago when you were a kid. You don’t even glance at the guys who check you out. It’s like you don’t care what anyone thinks.”
He was wrong. I cared what he thought. Once I met him, Reece was the only one I even considered when I decided I needed to hone my foreplay skills. He was all that I seemed to see.
Deciding not to debate that point, I warily assessed the burger. “How do I even eat that?”
“You gotta just attack it. It’s the only way.”
Nodding with resolve, I picked up the massive burger and tackled it with my teeth.
Reece chuckled as I chewed the mouthful and grabbed for a napkin, wiping off the juices from my lips and chin.
“Nice,” he said in approval and leaned in and planted a kiss on my lips before I even saw it coming. It was quick and careless, and my heart raced.
Swallowing my bite, I shook my head. “Tell me you don’t eat like this every day. You’ll have a heart attack before you’re thirty.”
“Not every day, no. And I work out. Up until I dropped out of college, I played soccer.”
“In college?”
He nodded, avoiding my gaze as he gathered the burger up into his hands. I thought back to what he’d told me about his dad. How he’d come home after the accident. He’d given up college—soccer—to take care of him. Out of loyalty and guilt.
“I still play. Coach a boys’ team twice a week and play in a rec league on Sundays. I run every morning, too.” He looked me over in appreciation. “What about you? You look in shape.”
Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles Page 19
