Griffin walking behind Jess to what looked like the exit, had Ethan looking over Kel’s head. He stopped breathing until he saw the two take a seat at a small table for two instead of heading out.
Jess was wondering what the hell the totally cool dude was coming on to her for. She was about as cultured as an alley cat. “So you’re from Montana and a salesman for a cattle company?”
“Yes. And what do you do?” he asked her as he couldn’t take his eyes off the emerald pools hers were.
“I go to college in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts. I’m studying animal biology.” She glanced to the side of him as one of her old boyfriends from high school came through the door, smiling at her. She shook her head to let him know she was busy and he took the hint when he looked at the man she was sitting with.
“How old are you, Jess?” Griff asked, then waved at the waitress, gesturing for two more beers.
“I turned 21 last month. And you?” she asked and took the beer that was placed in front of her. “Thanks, Bonnie.”
“I’m 30,” Griff said, then took a drink.
When she looked kind of freaked out by his age, he frowned as she said, “Damn!”
“It’s no big deal,” he argued.
“For you, maybe. For me … well, damn!” She took another drink of the beer then set the mug down on the small round table that had more than a few names chiseled into its dark surface. Then she reminded herself that the man who sat across from her wasn’t going to be in town for long, so she shouldn’t be worried about their age difference. It wasn’t like he was asking her to marry him or anything. “Yeah, it’s not a big deal, Griff. Sorry for overreacting about that.”
He nodded and felt the tiniest bit of relief. “So how about that? We both are in fields where animals are involved. That’s kind of cool, huh?”
“I guess so. What is it you do with the cattle?” she asked him as she noticed his eyes were a mixture of greens and blues with touches of browns in them too. “You have really cool eyes, Griff. They’re kind of freaking awesome, you know?”
“Thanks,” he said, then reached out to stroke her cheek. “Your eyes happen to be my favorite color. You’re a real knockout, baby.”
“So are you, if we’re telling the truth here,” she said, then found herself sighing as his touch was kind of melting her heart a bit.
Everyone was getting along so well; the men were pretty pumped about their chances to score. A little more time and they’d have the women right where they wanted them.
On the way to a no-tell motel!
Chapter 6
Finding all their women retreating to the bathroom at the same time, the men took advantage of being left alone and congregated at the bar to learn how each was doing. They all took seats, and the bartender asked if they wanted anything to drink, to which all told him, no.
“We’re getting close to the wire here boys,” Ethan said. The bartender turned to leave them alone. “I think I nearly have Kel right where I want her.” The bartender stopped and found a spot on the bar that urgently needed to be cleaned. Plus, he could listen in on the conversation that involved his cousins.
“Jess is putty in my hands. I’m sure to win this bet, my friends,” Griffin boasted.
“Cait’s been taking me with her eyes for the last hour,” Phoenix said. “I got this one in the bag. Hang it up, guys. I’ll have her screwed in the cab.”
The bartender’s ears were on fire. Were they talking about some kind of bet they’d made about screwing his cousins?
“That Kel is a feisty one, but I can see it in her eyes. One more drink and she’ll be coming with me wherever I tell her to,” Ethan added. “Get ready to pay up, men. I think I know when a woman is into me, and Kel is into me bigtime!”
“First one to get the deed done has to post the time on the others’ phones with a text,” Phoenix said. “It’s obvious we’re all going to get some tail tonight. But it’s who gets it first that matters. So the plan is set, and all we have to do is see who gets their girl to give it up first.”
The bartender hurried away to let his cousins know what the men had planned for them. He was pretty sure not one of them really was going to be going home with any of those men anyway. They were good girls, after all. But he felt compelled to let them know about the bet.
Slipping into the ladies’ room where he’d seen them go, he covered his eyes and called out, “Kel, Cait, and Jess Flannigan, are you all still in here?”
“What the hell are you doing in here, Marty?” Kel shouted at him.
“I have news you three need to know,” he told her.
“Let’s go to the back office,” Kel said as she grabbed their cousin by the arm, tugging him with her as they all left the ladies’ restroom. “You can uncover your eyes now, Marty.”
He pulled his hand away from his eyes and looked Kel in hers as they went into the small back office where no one was. “Those men you three girls are talking to have a bet. A terrible bet.”
“About what?” Jess asked as she leaned on the old desk that was dusty from no use. She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting to hear what her cousin had to say.
“About sex and you three and who can get who to give it to him first,” he said quickly.
All three women’s jaws dropped. Kel went red in the face. Cait went pink, and Jess went pale as she whispered, “No. Griff seems so sweet!”
“Mine too,” Cait said with an air of disbelief. “Phoenix seemed so genuine. So real. And he didn’t say a thing about wanting that from me.”
“They all think they have you all in the bag. It’s not a matter of who will get laid; it’s a matter of who will get laid first. They’re all that confident that you three will be giving them what they all want. And it’s all to win a stupid bet.” Marty gave them all nods of his head as he shook his finger at them. “You three must’ve been putting out some signs that you’d be picking up what they were putting down. If you get my drift?”
“I was more flirty than usual,” Cait said. “But only because Phoenix looks like a demigod from a time long ago when people rode around shirtless on the backs of wild stallions in the middle of tall grass the color of sand.”
“Dear Lord,” Kel said as she rolled her eyes. “You’ve been sniffing the glue again, haven’t ya, Cait?”
With a slap to her sister’s arm, Cait retorted, “I was five. Will you ever let me forget that?”
“For the love of all that’s holy. Ethan looks like a Viking king. And I was falling for his bullshit because of it,” Kel said. “Well, I should’ve known better. No man with those fantastic looks and that build who tells a woman he could really take charge of her if he so desired is looking for a girl like me. What a fool I feel like!”
Jess mumbled, “Griff’s the cowboy I never knew I wanted. He’s the Marlboro man mixed with Brad Pitt from that movie where he cut off a bear’s finger and wore it around his neck. So perfectly, wonderful, kind, sweet.”
“And full of shit!” Kel shouted. “We have to get even with the bastards. I say we all act as if we’re set on going to some filthy motels with them all, then pull a fast one on them. Are you with me, girls?”
Jess held her hand out, then Cait put hers on top, and Kel placed hers on top of theirs. “These men like to play games, sisters. They have no idea who they’ve chosen to play them with, have they?”
“They have not!” Cait chimed in.
“We’re going to make them cry like little bitches!” Jess added, earning herself frowns from her older sisters.
“Cry?” Kel asked. “Why do you always have to take it to that level? We’re not going to hurt them. I doubt the heartless asses could even be hurt. We’re merely going to screw with their libidos and leave them with balls as blue as Neptune’s hair. That’s what we’re going to do. It’ll be fun.”
“You’re a scoundrel when you want to be, Kel,” Cait told her. “I’m with you. We have to make out hardcore to get them to believe we�
�re all in. Then, BAM! We’ll disappear. I love it!”
“Me too,” Jess agreed. “At least I’ll get to see what it’s like to kiss Griff before I have to annihilate him.”
“But remember,” Kel cautioned them all. “Don’t get too into it. We can’t let any one of them win this awful bet they have going. No matter what. It’s our pride at stake.”
“The dreaded Flannigan pride,” Cait said. “Oh, to lose that would be a shame, wouldn’t it now?”
Cait was the wildcard. Both Jess and Kel knew that. “I’ll make sure to keep an eye on her,” Kel told Jess. “And you try to do that too. If we have to wrestle her out the back door, then we will. None of us will go down.”
“I’m with you, sis,” Jess said, then eyed Cait. “Keep your wits about you, Cait. This will spread through town like wildfire if any of us gives into these rats. And you’re not over the scandal of getting caught with Richard Dupree, kissing in the back of the school bus when you were in middle school.”
“Shut up!” Cait shouted. “Is there a thing I do that doesn’t get written into the Ashby history books? Come on. I’m not going to give into Phoenix. Even though I want to. I want to so badly. But I too have Flannigan pride coursing through my blood that’s as red as any of yours is!”
“Good!” Kel said. “Then let’s get to pretending the same way these lotharios are.”
The three followed Marty out of the office and waited to let him get back to the bar, where they saw their men talking and laughing as if they were so smart and funny and about to pull one over on them all.
Their blood began to boil as they watched the men clink their refilled beer mugs that Marty had filled for them. A toast was made, but they couldn’t hear the words they’d said. It was obvious it was about bedding them and how easy it was going to be to get into their pants.
Even Cait began to get pissed instead of horny for the hot guy who wanted to use her then dump her off like a bag of trash. She’d teach Phoenix Nelson what it meant to want someone so bad and then get blown out of the water when it didn’t happen.
Jess watched the golden curls bounce around Griffin’s wide shoulders. Shoulders she knew she’d love to run her hands over, then hang onto his huge biceps as he pummeled her into a mattress. But he’d get none of that sweet action now that he was found out to be a gambling monster who liked to use women for his sinister habit.
It was Kel who was feeling the worst pain. It was she who had been left fragile when her fiancé of two years suddenly changed his mind and moved away to New York where he married a tall runway model only a couple of months after breaking up with her and taking her one karat diamond engagement ring away from her.
Kelli Flannigan stood there watching Ethan Southern, the one man she’d given the smidgeon of a chance to in the last year, as he laughed it up with his cohorts. His olive-green eyes had danced when he spoke to her, making her think he was being truthful.
He’d gone so far as to ask her about love and kids for the love of Heaven. How could he have done such a cruel thing? How could he have said they’d have beautiful children?
Kel was about to kiss a man for the first time since her devastating breakup with Robert Finnegan. More than a year had passed since her lips had felt another’s. Could she handle it? Could she stop herself from giving in to the man she thought her body would fit like a glove?
With a deep sigh, she admitted to her sisters, “Joking aside, girls. If you see me looking at that man with stars in my eyes, grab me up and take me away from him. He could be my one weakness. He’s so completely what I’ve always wanted in a man. He’s a real man. Or so I thought he was, anyway. Just don’t let me fall for him and his pile of shit. Please. I don’t think I could take losing him if I ever fell all the way in.”
“Not to worry, sis,” Jess said, then put her arm around her oldest sister, knowing all too well the mentally fragile state she was in. After her fiancé dumped her unexpectedly, Jess had held Kellie that first week each night as Kel cried herself to sleep.
The three had each other’s backs, and the men had no idea what was in store for them.
“Let the games begin,” Kel said, then the three put on smiles and made their way to their men.
Chapter 7
The lights were dimmed as the women who now knew the men who’d been hitting on them had more going on than any of them had previously thought. Kel led the way as the three went to their men. She slid her arm around Ethan’s shoulders as she came up behind him as he sat at the bar with his two friends.
He turned to find her face close to his. “Welcome back, Kel. I’ve missed ya.”
“Have you now?” she asked in a husky whisper. “We can’t have that. How about you and I retreat to a table in the back?” She nudged his shoulder with her chin. “I’d like to get to know more about you, Ethan Southern.”
He felt a surge of heat move through him, ending with a solid thump in his jeans. “We can do that, my love.”
Kel fought the urge to slap the crap out of him as he used such a sweet term of endearment. With what he wanted, it was a crime to use such niceties with her. She took his hand and led him away from the bar and his no-good friends. Her sisters would take care of those rogues.
Cait wrapped her arms around Phoenix as she approached him from behind. He groaned a bit with her soft touch. Her lips pressed against his neck just below his left ear. “Wanna go hide in a corner booth and talk?”
He didn’t want to talk anymore. But he said, “Sure.” As he stood up, he placed his hand on the small of her back, steering her to one of the darker corners of the pub.
Jess was young and inexperienced at such blatant sexual approaches. She had to rely on being cute when she got to Griffin. She moved up next to him and placed her clasped hands on the bar in front of her. “I guess that just leaves the two of us to figure out how to spend our time while our friends make out.”
Griff cleared his throat as he looked the tall, dark blonde young lady up and down. “I think I can entertain you, Jess.” He got off the barstool and took her hand in his, leading her off to another remote area of the pub where no one would see them.
Jess was nervous. She’d never done such a thing as lead a man to think they’d get more than what they’d be getting. But she was furious that she had been chosen to be a part of the men’s sordid bet. Trying to hold her temper was a thing she found hard to do. But she’d figure out how to do it. She wanted Griff to hurt when she disappeared on him. The same way he had planned on screwing her then disappearing.
The ladies all had their men right where they wanted them. And the men thought they had their women where they wanted them. Completely unaware that they were the ones being played, the guys made jackasses of themselves as they dug themselves further into the murky depths of their deceptions.
Ethan was pleasantly surprised to find Kel had gotten over her aversion to their touching each other. Her hands were all over him. Moving over his shoulders and down his strong arms, she turned to face him in the booth. “You work out, don’t you?”
“I do,” he said, then leaned in to kiss her cheek. “And you seem like you do some exercising yourself.”
“No, I work a lot. I’m on my feet, moving around more than most,” she said, then turned her face to catch his lips, which lingered near hers. She had to keep telling herself that it was all fake.
So what if his lips felt like liquid heat as they pressed against hers? Who cared if he knew how to ease his tongue past her lips and into her mouth with a confidence she’d never experienced before?
Her head was going light with his kiss. It was soft, yet demanding. His tongue ran around hers with a slow twist that had her inner recesses pulsing with pleasure. The man knew his way around a woman’s mouth, she thought. Kel was sure he’d kissed more than his fair share of women in his time. She had to remind herself that the man she was kissing was a cad. A man who’d bet his friends he could get her into bed, or wherever he planned on trying to ge
t into her pants before either of his friends could get her sisters into their beds.
The thought had her getting mad, and she found her nails biting into his massive biceps. He took it to mean she was getting more passionate and leaned her back onto the red, fake leather-covered booth chair. His body felt so damn right as he pressed his to hers.
Ethan had to admit that Kel was a fantastic kisser. He couldn’t recall a woman ever feeling so right in his arms. She tasted like spearmint, smelled like wildflowers, and felt like heaven. He pulled his mouth from hers and whispered, “Kel, I dare say, you kiss like an angel.”
She narrowed her eyes at him with a harsh glare that had him worried for a moment. Then the glare turned into a sweet smile. “And you kiss like Satan, Ethan. Perhaps I could lend you some of my good, and you could show me some of your evil?”
He growled with lust for the beautiful woman, then he had to kiss her again. She was spectacular. Their breaths mingled as they kissed and ran their hands all over the other, touching only the appropriate areas so far. But Ethan’s temptation was getting the best of him. His palms ached to cup her plump breasts. But he didn’t dare move too fast. After all, what he wanted was a thing he didn’t think she’d easily give up. He wouldn’t make his move until he had her panting and begging him to give her what he could tell she needed.
Kel laughed inside her head. Ethan wouldn’t be getting what he needed from her!
Phoenix was feeling more need for Cait than he’d anticipated. She was like a force of sexual prowess as they kissed and pressed their bodies together as close as they could while still having clothes on. Her hands persistently cupped his manhood then moved away, making him hard as a rock.
When she moved her mouth to kiss his neck, he groaned, “My God, woman. What you do to me.”
Cait was more than proud to hear him say those words. She’d tried hard to make him ache for her. And he’d hurt a lot worse when she left his ass alone for the night.
Nobody's Girl: A Billionaire Romance Novel Page 33
