I felt it was a legitimate theory but secretly hoped she was right, but I couldn’t say I still wasn’t just a little paranoid. I mean, three guys had cheated on me. In a freaking row. That kind of does something to a girl’s self-esteem. You know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me three times, I’m just a poor judge of character. Or bad in bed.
“Besides, I’ve only heard of Zeke dating a couple women this year, like Jillian Snow, who was the Homecoming Queen, and that one redhead on campus who’s appeared in some rock videos. But I also know that he went out with a lot of women his first two years, so, see? He’s grown up by just dating two this year. And no one’s ever said he cheated on any them, so I think you’re safe,” Jay added.
Well, that was reassuring. Flash to sarcasm dripping down the walls here.
I blew out a breath. “Okay, see? That’s another thing. He could have anyone he wants, so why me? I’m not a Homecoming Queen and I definitely haven’t been in any videos. So what does he want with me?”
She laughed. “You’re so obtuse sometimes.”
“Uh, thanks?”
“Do you not look in your mirror every day?”
“Of course.”
“And do you not see what’s looking back at you?”
“Pretty sure I do.”
“Scar, you’re stunning. You’ve got these incredibly exotic eyes. Your skin is, like, gorgeous. And don’t get me started on your hair. And all that’s just the outside. You’ve got a beautiful soul as well! I mean, look what you’ve done. You sacrificed two years of school to work and help your family. You amaze me!”
No, Jayla Anastos amazed me and she was the stunning one with her Greek ancestry showing strong in her gorgeous olive coloring, her long shiny black hair, gorgeous full lips, straight nose and big, hazel eyes. Besides her lack of a filter around other people, she was truly a genuine sweetheart.
“Whatever you say, Aphrodite,” I retorted.
She snorted. “That’s me. The goddess of love.” She shrieked out a laugh and I knew Dex had to have grabbed her and was tickling her which made me wish for the eight-millionth time that I had a relationship like theirs.
They’d been together since their freshman year in college and had been inseparable. I’d met Jay that same year when she’d taken a job at The Nook because she was bored, she’d said. She came from a very affluent family, her dad being some bigwig at Microsoft, so it wasn’t that she needed the money. Dexter, too, came from wealth, but from the way they both behaved, you’d never know it. They were so down-to-earth. The only time I’d remember she had money was when she tried paying for things for me, but I always turned her down, well, except for the Katy Perry ticket she’d bought for me. I’d let her say it was a birthday present and was glad I had because that concert was amazing.
“So get it out of your head right now that you’re not good enough for him or that you’re not pretty enough or that you might make him cheat or whatever idiotic excuse you can think up not to go out with him. He’d be lucky to have you and you remember that!”
I heard Dex shout out a, “Yeah!” in the background and had to smile.
Such good friends.
“Go meet Zeke for drinks. It’ll be fun. What’s the worst that can happen? You get free drinks from a hot guy? Or you finally get to have some fun in your life?”
And that’s what I was afraid of, that by going out with Zeke I would have fun. And I’d like it. I’d like him. And my plans would all go to shit.
*Week One—5th Encounter*
To say I was freaking out would be an understatement.
When I walked into the office, I saw that Dean Moreland had gone home and hadn’t left anything on my desk for me to do, so I grabbed my purse and headed for the bathroom to see if I could make myself a little more presentable.
When I came out, it was five till seven, so I sat at a desk and called Grammy to let her know I’d be late then tried to act busy. When it was straight-up seven, my heart was about to beat out of my chest in anticipation but when Zeke didn’t show, the beating in my chest was there because of my apprehension.
Seven-thirty and still no Zeke. Well, that was it. He wasn’t coming. I’d been duped by a guy yet again.
And I was pissed at myself for allowing it to happen.
I stood with a sigh, pulled on my coat, grabbed my purse and headed out, locking the door to the office and pulling it closed behind me. As I walked down the long hallway to the front where Jezebel was parked, I found I could hardly contain the tears that were threatening, damn it. I knew better than to agree to go out with him. Having been burned three times, I thought I would’ve learned by now.
Stopping at the first set of double doors, I blinked several times, putting my head back to stare at the ceiling trying to dispel the waterworks. No crying over a guy! I told myself. God knew I’d cried enough in the past. So finally getting my emotions under control and telling myself I didn’t need anyone, I blew out a breath and went through the first set of doors, then the next set, and out noticing it was snowing a little harder now. So pretty. At least there was that. And just as I started down the steps, what I saw at the bottom made me want to cry for a different reason now.
Zeke stood looking up at me, hands in the front pockets of his jeans, wearing a friggin’ Hallervan baseball cap that made me bite my lip because, damn, he looked so good it should’ve been illegal, and he was smirking (seriously, how could someone make a smirk be that sexy?).
And he’d shown. He hadn’t stood me up.
I took in a shuddering breath, still a little emotional at thinking he’d blown me off then continued down the steps to meet him.
“Hi,” I said when I reached the bottom.
“Hi.” And now he grinned. Good God, just his facial movements were disarming.
I was in so much trouble.
“I, uh, thought you, um, changed your mind,” I said quietly, looking up at him only to be held captive by those devastating eyes of his.
“Funny story, that,” he answered with a snort.
“Oh,” I replied then stood there not really remembering the protocol of chatting with a guy who was a potential date since I’d been out of the loop for a while. How pathetic was I?
He full-on smiled now, then lowered and shook his head. When he looked back up, he asked, “Walk with me to my truck?” When he held his hand out to me, I stared at it for a second then looked up at him, my brain having suddenly left the building. At my lack of acting as if I had even one brain cell in my body, he chuckled, reached for my hand, took it in his huge one, gave it a squeeze (now giving me that knee-buckling half grin) and led me to his truck.
As we walked, I rolled my eyes, mentally castigating myself for behaving like, as Grammy would say, a nitwit. I was a four-point-oh student, for chrissakes! But this guy just seemed to bring out the dumb in me, his hotness just lobotomizing me. I wondered how long it’d take me to start behaving as if I had a friggin’ clue, jeez.
He began to explain his funny story. “So, after I got here I tried going in but the doors were locked. I didn’t have your number,” he shot me a look with his eyebrow raised, “so I tried calling the office, but this campus is where my cell phone service goes to die, so I walked around out here trying to get some bars on my phone, holding it out in front of me like an idiot, like it was some kind of divining rod or something. I won’t bother mentioning all the strange looks I got from people leaving their classes.”
That made me giggle and he shot me another look, teasingly this time. And whoops. I forgot the doors were timed to lock at seven and mumbled an “I’m sorry” which got me another hand squeeze and another jaw-dropping grin.
Once in the parking lot, we headed toward a black pickup truck. “I thought we’d take my truck, if that’s okay?”
I nodded and when we reached his truck, he dropped my hand and opened the passenger door putting his hand on the small of my back to help me inside which, of course, sent a shiver through me, and as I put
my seatbelt on, I watched as he walked around to his side, mesmerized by how handsome he was. He was also pretty easygoing having made me feel comfortable each time we’d talked, so taking a deep breath, I decided to come out of my fog and actually show him I had a personality.
After he got in and started the engine, I looked over at him. “So, Chevy, huh? Guess you must like recalls?”
He looked over and stared back at me for a moment through narrowed eyes and I was afraid I’d pissed him off. Then he barked out a laugh, throwing his head back and it was the most beautiful thing I think I’d ever seen, his Adam’s apple bobbing in the masculine column of his neck. Wow.
“Really gonna go there, are you?” He chuckled, and reaching across, rested his arm against the back of my seat and playfully tugged on a piece of my hair. “And just what do you know about cars?”
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “My dad’s a truck driver, so I’ve listened to him talk. I think I was born knowing what an intake manifold was. My crib mobile probably had spark plugs hanging from it.” I shrugged.
He stared at me for a moment, eyes dancing in amusement, then moved his arm away and put the truck in gear. “Yeah? What line does your dad drive for?”
I told him the name of the company and he told me his dad had worked on some of their engines before. We talked then about his dad’s shop and he’d started telling me he’d worked there every summer since he was old enough to hold a wrench just as we pulled up to O’Leary’s Sports Bar. My friend Natalie was a waitress here and I wondered if she’d be working tonight. I’d almost applied here instead of taking the work study job in the Dean’s office, but she’d complained about the football jerseys she had to wear so I passed. She’d also told me there was a hot bartender, which had piqued my interest a bit, but when she’d said he was kind of a jerk, I double passed. I’d had enough of jerks.
When we parked, before I could even get my seatbelt off, Zeke was at my door opening it holding out his hand to help me down. Keeping my hand in his (which freaked me out a little because I wasn’t used to all the touching), he led me to the entrance and once inside, he told the hostess we’d be sitting at the bar.
He took off his jacket and hung it on the rack by the door (keeping his cap on to torture me, I suppose) then helped me with my coat—God, such a gentleman—then he took my hand again leading me toward the back where we sat on stools at the bar.
“Hey,” an extremely good-looking guy said from behind the bar walking over to where we sat. He must’ve been the bartender Natalie had talked about because he was hot. And upon getting a good look at him, I had to do a double take because he looked a lot like Zeke.
“What’s up, little brother?” Zeke asked.
Another brother? Dang. I looked up at Zeke and he grinned down at me.
“Scarlett, this is my brother Gable. Gable, Scarlett.”
Gable held his hand out to me across the counter. When I took his, he leaned down and kissed the top of mine.
“Watch it,” Zeke warned which made Gable chuckle as he let my hand go and stood straight. Zeke looked around. “Scout working tonight?”
“Nah, but she’ll be in to pick up her check in a bit. I think she’s just using that as an excuse to come see me, though, because I could just bring it to her after I get off work. Guess she can’t stay away too long ‘cause I’m irresistible, you know.” Gable grinned, and, damn, these Powers guys were just something else. I hadn’t gotten a good look at Ryker, but I’m sure he had a panty-melting grin too.
“Irresistible in the way shit’s irresistible to flies, maybe,” Zeke muttered.
“Fuck off,” Gable said back, but he was smirking and when I looked at Zeke, I saw that he was too. God, guys were so weird. Gable set some coasters in front of us and looked at Zeke raising an eyebrow. “The usual?” At Zeke’s nod he looked at me.
“Big Sky Moo…” I started.
“Big Sky Moose Drool? Hell yeah, Scarlett!” Gable said with a grin and a nod. Then looking at his brother he said, “This one…” he nodded toward me, “she’s a fucking keeper.” He raised his eyebrows at Zeke in an “I’m serious” way then turned to get our beers.
And of course my face was now burning hot with embarrassment.
“Well, you’ve got his approval… which isn’t all that hard to do,” Zeke muttered with a chuckle as he flipped his coaster over in his hands a couple times.
Now wait a minute. Was that an insult to me or his brother? Since I couldn’t tell, and I felt the comment was kind of mean to either of us, I blurted, “Oh, well, since he approves of me, I guess that gives me an option of which brother I’ll be leaving with then.”
Oops. Had I just said that? But what he’d said was a tad shitty.
But it clearly didn’t faze him. He gave me his half-grin and asked, “Yeah? You in for a threesome?”
And I froze. Oh, no. He had to be kidding. Please let him be kidding. I frowned and pushed away from the bar, standing. “I, uh…” I needed to leave. No way in the actual fuck was I going through this shit again. No fucking way. God, men were dicks. I knew I was probably overreacting, but that stuff tended to stick with you if you’d had it happen three damned times. When I glanced at him I saw the concern on his face at my response, so I checked my anger and taking a deep breath asked where the restroom was. He pointed to the right, and grabbing my purse, I left him sitting there probably completely confused.
I calmed myself as I walked, telling myself he was probably kidding, but, really how did I know for sure? I also chastised myself for agreeing to this in the first place. Stupid. Once inside the bathroom, I pulled my phone out and called Jayla.
“How’s it going?” she answered excitedly.
“I can’t do this, Jay.”
“Do what, Scar?” I now heard the disappointment in her voice.
I knew this was stupid, knew Zeke had hopefully been teasing, but, God, what he’d said had caught me off guard. “I’m a mess. I don’t know how to do this shit anymore.”
She chuckled and I think I heard relief in her voice when she spoke. “You’re fine. It’s a date. That’s it. Just a silly little date.” God, she was right. I was making this into something way bigger. “Look,” she continued, “he’s not gonna propose. You’re having a drink. What’s the big deal?”
“You’re right.” I sighed knowing I needed to get over myself. “It’s just that his brother works here and Zeke said something about a threesome with him, teasing about it, I’m sure, but I guess it was a trigger that just set me off,” I explained. At her “Oh, shit,” I went on. “I didn’t go off on him or anything. It’s really not that big a deal I guess. I just needed a moment, so I left to go to the bathroom.” Then I threw in, “Men suck.”
“Only if you’re very lucky.” She did her donkey cackle which made me smile. I guess I was being overly dramatic about everything. “So has he been nice?”
“Very nice.”
“Has he been respectful?”
“Utterly respectful.”
“Then I see there isn’t a problem. So get your ass back out there,” she commanded. Then her voice got soft. “Not every guy’s a dick like the ones you’ve gone out with. You’ve got this, Scar.” When I didn’t say anything, I knew she was fed up with babying me when I heard her drop an F-bomb. “You listen to me, Scarlett O’Rourke. It’s time you let someone bust down the fucking walls you’ve built around yourself. You deserve to be treated well. You deserve everything. But you’re not gonna get it if you’re hiding in a goddamned bathroom! Now stop putting every guy in a tidy little box labeled ‘Douchebag’ with Lance and the other idiots. Not all men are bad. I mean, look at your dad. He’s a good guy. There are some good guys out there, you know.”
Boy, when Jay got started, she really went all the way. She’d make a good mom someday. A bossy one but a good one. “Okay.”
“Thatta girl.”
“It still doesn’t mean I’m going to date him. This is just a drink then I’m back
on track.”
“Good enough.”
Then I thought of something and cringed. “Oh, no,” I groaned.
“What?”
“When he mentioned the threesome, the way I got up so quickly probably made him think I’ve had one and was embarrassed or had a bad experience or something. Great.”
Jay snorted. “Well, if he’s like Dex, I’m sure you have his attention now. You know men and their fantasies.”
“Yeah. All too well.” I looked in the mirror and ran a finger under my eyes. “Tell me again why I’m even here?”
“Because he’s a good guy. Because he obviously likes you. And because he’s sexy as hell. Good enough?”
“It’s gonna have to be. Again, it’s just a drink. Nothing more. Thanks, Jay.”
“Welcome. And let yourself have fun. ‘One hour of right down love is worth an age of dully living on.’”
“I can’t believe you’re quoting literature to me now.”
She chuckled. “Nothing’s getting done with you hiding out in the bathroom. Now go show him how amazing you are.”
We hung up and after checking myself in the mirror again and giving myself a “Stick to your original plan and don’t screw things up by sleeping with this guy tonight, or ever for that matter,” I walked back out to the bar to see Zeke looking worriedly at me as I approached.
“You okay?” he asked, his eyes moving over me as if he were checking for wounds. He wouldn’t find any, of course, because all my wounds were emotional. Yay.
I nodded then sat down next to him and seeing that my beer had been delivered, I wrapped a hand around it and took a chug. Okay, that was better. It reminded me of Dad. He wasn’t an alcoholic or anything, he just liked this brand. And now it was time for me to let my guard down a little.
Turning to Zeke, I divulged, “You’re a really good guy.”
I saw his head jerk back a bit then his eyes crinkled around the edges. “I am.” He nodded in agreement which made me smile. Then I saw his eyes get heated as he looked back at me. “I’m really good.”
Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) Page 4
