It’d been years since Maya had eaten anything fried. She turned and headed up the stairs.
“Oh, Maya,” Sebastian said. She turned back to him. “Wear something fabulous.”
She lifted a brow. “Why?”
“I’ve got a great guy coming tonight who will be perfect for you.”
“A set-up?”
He nodded.
“One of your friends?” she asked.
“Did you see the pool guy today?”
She rested her forearm against the bannister. “Yeah, we saw him for a minute out the window.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Hot enough for ya?”
“I just got a glimpse of his shirtless back. But yeah, hot didn’t begin to cover that back.”
“Well, you’re in luck,” he said.
“You want to set me up with your pool guy?”
“Yes. He’s not only hot, but a really great guy. I think he’ll be perfect for you, and maybe not for just a fling.”
“Now how’s that gonna work with me in Indy and him here?”
He waved her off. “These things tend to work themselves out. Just get ready, and show some skin. You work hard enough for it.” He grinned at her. “Something tells me tonight is going to be your night.”
Chapter Five
Sebastian greeted Bo at the door with a huge smile. “So glad you could make it. Come on. I want you to meet my friends from home.”
As they made their way through the house, Bo scanned the room for Cassidy, but she wasn’t around. They walked out the French doors to the pool, and Bo spotted her at the far side by the diving board talking to Blake and her niece, Seanna. Bo would meet Sebastian’s friends and talk for a while, and let Cassidy spot him…wait for her to come say hello. Maybe tonight would finally be the night she’d cross over that threshold from seeing him as a dumbass redneck to looking at him as someone she might consider going on a date with.
Sebastian led Bo to Desiree, who was talking to a tall, thin woman with straight, chin-length blond hair, and his heart took a beat off course for a second. He could only see the woman from the back, but he knew that hair, and he knew that body. His face opened into a smile.
Sebastian set his hand on her shoulder. “Maya, I want you to meet my good friend, Bo.” Sebastian turned her around to face him, and his chest warmed at the sight of her face.
“Hey, Marlene.”
Maya stood in utter and complete shock.
“Marlene?” Sebastian asked. “Wait a minute. Is Bo the guy from…”
The blood rushed out of her face, while her stomach tied itself into knots a Boy Scout couldn’t undo. She stood frozen as an ice sculpture.
“So it’s Maya?” Bo extended his hand. “I’m Bo. It’s nice to finally meet the real you.”
Sebastian drew his hand to his mouth. “Oh my God. What are the odds?” He pointed at Bo. “You know, I thought for a split second it could possibly be you, but then Maya said the guy from last night said it was his birthday.”
“It was my birthday,” Bo said.
Sebastian put his hands on his hips, and then pointed at Bo, addressing Maya. “We were together for Blake and Seanna’s welcome home party earlier last night and he didn’t even mention it.”
“I thought your houseguests might be them, but then I remembered you were from Chicago,” Bo said.
“I am. I was for a while. I lived there eight years, before I moved here. But I grew up in the Indy area with Maya.” He put his arm around her and squeezed.
Bo stared at her, a little grin on his perfectly plump lips, and fizzy soda water pumped through her blood stream.
“Okay, I think I’ll leave you two alone now.” Sebastian patted them both on the back and walked away. Maya turned to Sebastian, willing him to come back, but he was already off.
“Well, that’s disappointing. I never knew anyone named Marlene before,” Bo said.
Maya pieced herself back together. “Um, how do you know Sebastian?”
“I’m his pool guy. And we run around with the same group of friends.”
She widened her eyes. “You’re the pool guy?”
“That’s right.”
“So that was you here earlier today.”
“I was here earlier. You should have said something if you saw me.”
“I didn’t know that was you.”
He smiled. “Was that you up in the window?”
She rubbed her forehead, feeling every inch of the voyeur she had been.
“I guess this is actually our third time today to run into each other.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You stalking me?”
Her heartbeat sped up. That was the last thing she wanted him to think. “No,” she said with no reserve of finality.
“I’m just teasing you, darlin’.” She lost feeling in her knees at the Southern-drawled pet name. “Did you get plenty relaxed today at the pool?”
“Yes, it was nice. Were you there with your kids or something?”
“My kids? I don’t have any kids.”
Relief washed over her. “I saw you going to the kid pool. I thought you might be there with your family.”
He frowned. “You thought I had a wife and kids?”
“I couldn’t think of why else you’d want to go to a kid pool.”
He smiled a little and raised an eyebrow. “You were trying to figure me out, huh?”
“No, not like that. I mean, I kind of wondered why you would…never mind.”
“I’m the pool guy for that pool, too.”
She nodded, the pieces falling into place. “The business you said you owned. It’s for pool cleaning.”
“Yeah, I was there picking up a check, and the boss man asked me to look at a clogged filter.”
“I guess you never told me what you did.”
“Guess not. You never told me Sebastian was the friend you were staying with.”
She tossed a hand in the air. “It never came up.”
“I guess we were busy talking about a lot of stuff last night.” He looked around. “Didn’t Chase drop your friend off here? I can’t believe he didn’t tell me once he figured it out.”
“No, she Ubered home,” she said, then cleared her throat, “this morning.”
He nodded, having the decency to look contrite. He glanced around and took a drink of his beer, then met her gaze. “So any chance of you telling me why you didn’t give me your real name last night?”
There was no chance in hell. The truth was Felicity had piqued Maya’s interest in the idea of a one-night stand. In order to allow herself to even consider something so out of the question, Maya would have had to become someone else. But she found the name change to be the only lie she could tell.
“I was just being silly. I had no idea I’d ever see you again.”
“I didn’t think I’d see you either. But I’m glad I was wrong.”
Maya’s stomach wiggled, and Felicity sidled up to them. “We’ve got to quit meeting this way.”
“I was just getting ready to head to the police department and file a stalking complaint,” he said with a wink at Maya, sending her stomach a little further into orbit.
“I think Maya’s the one who needs to file,” Felicity said. “She was here at Sebastian’s first. So that was you earlier today, cleaning the pool. Sebastian filled me in.”
“Y’all should have come down and said hello.”
“We certainly should have.”
Chase stepped up to the group, hands up in the air. “I swear to God I’m not following you.”
Felicity smiled at him. “It’s a pleasant surprise, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” Chase said, pulling her in for a hug. He looked at Bo. “Did you put this together?”
“I thought about it a second, but it didn’t make sense because I always thought Sebastian came from Chicago,” Bo said.
“That’s what I thought, too,” Chase said.
It was no surprise to Maya that Sebastian hadn’t ment
ioned much about Indianapolis. That was where his family was, and they didn’t speak of Sebastian’s family.
Felicity narrowed her gaze, going back and forth between Maya and Bo. “With all that time you two spent at the bar, how did you not put any of this together?”
Maya bit the inside of her lip, feeling caught. They’d been flirting shamelessly. Past the first ten minutes, they didn’t talk about their occupations or friends. When they weren’t talking about what they’d do if they had three hours in Paris or what movie scene they’d pay to get caught in, it was all innuendo and exchanged grins. The whole night had been like foreplay.
She couldn’t be sure, but it almost seemed like Bo’s face was looking at hot as hers felt. He shrugged, holding Maya’s gaze. “Guess it didn’t come up.” His lip quirked up just enough for them to share a secret, wordless exchange.
“Mmm hmm,” Felicity said. “So what were you talking about all that time?”
“Politics,” they said in unison.
After a couple of hours, the crowd thinned, leaving just a handful of them gathered around the coffee table in the living room. Bo noticed for the first time Cassidy wasn’t around. He had been so caught up with Maya he hadn’t even given Cassidy a second thought.
Ashe eyed Desiree. “Truth or dare?”
Desiree glanced around. “Oh, okay, we’re doing this?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Sure we are. Choose.”
“All right. Dare. Why not.”
Ashe put a finger to his chin and raised his gaze to the ceiling. He settled back on Desiree and smirked. “Sing us a sexy song.”
“Ooh, good one,” Sebastian said.
Desiree sat thoughtful for a moment, messing with one of her braids. She tossed it behind her back, cleared her throat, and then sang a beautiful song Bo barely recognized. Desiree’s voice was sweet and tender but with just a hard enough edge to keep it interesting.
Growing up on the Redneck Riviera, which was whiter than a damn Garth Brooks concert, Bo had not had many black friends. Desiree was always exposing him to things outside of his white-bread world, but never made him feel naïve or dumb. He appreciated her for that.
“Wow,” Maya said, her eyes wide. She held out her arm, showing the goose bumps that populated it.
“That was incredible,” Felicity said.
“What was that song?” Bo asked.
“Nina Simone, straight boy.” Ashe rubbed his hands together, grinning. “‘Feeling Good’.”
Desiree smiled back at him, the two of them sharing a moment. Desiree had said once that Ashe was her soul mate. Bo found that interesting since Ashe was gay, but what did he know?
Maya glanced over at Bo with a big smile, the song seeming to unhinge something in her. It was pretty goddamned sexy.
Ashe stood. “Did I see a bottle of red hot liquor in the kitchen?”
Sebastian held up one finger. “You know that’s not mine. Who brought it?”
“I brought it,” Chase said.
“That stuff is funky, funky,” Desiree said.
“Want some?” Ashe asked, making his way back into the living room with the bottle and a stack of small, plastic cups.
“Okay.” Sebastian held out his hand. “Any of you who mess with this nastiness gives me your keys first. You’re spending the night.” Chase and Ashe handed their keys to Sebastian, who eyed Desiree, and she pulled her keys out from somewhere within the folds of her skirt. He shifted his gaze to Bo.
Bo glanced at Maya, who was stifling a grin and looking down at her lap. No way in hell was he leaving her right now. “All right, what the hell.” He handed Sebastian his keys, who gathered them possessively to his chest and walked to his bedroom. Ashe set the cups down on the coffee table and poured shots all around.
“It’s been ages since I took a shot of liquor,” Maya said.
“It’s not gluten-free!” Sebastian yelled from the other room.
“Do you have Celiac disease?” Desiree asked.
Maya waved her off. “No. I just try to eat natural.”
“You should see the way she eats,” Felicity said. “It’s nauseating. All vegetables and health food. I can’t remember the last time she ate a dessert.”
“It shows.” Chase said, and Bo glared him down, a twinge of jealousy biting at his chest.
Sebastian rejoined the group. “Whose turn is it?”
“Mine.” Desiree trained her gaze on Bo. “Is there any dare you won’t do?”
Bo shrugged. “I doubt it.”
“Then make him do a truth,” Sebastian said.
“Don’t I get to pick?” Bo asked. Desiree lifted her eyebrows. “Okay, truth,” Bo said.
“When’s the last time you were in love?”
Color seeped into Maya’s cheeks, which made Bo’s stomach uneasy in a good way. He shifted in his seat, considering. These people didn’t know Angela. He’d met them after she’d walked out of his life. He wasn’t trying to hide his relationship with her, it was just a part of his past. And once she was gone, he moved forward full-steam-ahead. Those were dark days, and he had no desire to relive them.
“Oh, my goodness. Bo Harrison has been stumped,” Sebastian said. “Hand me that book of world records.”
Bo narrowed his gaze at him. “I’m going to answer. I’m just thinking about it.”
Maya was interested in her plastic cup, running her finger around the rim.
“I don’t know. I used to think I had been when I was younger. But I find myself redefining all kinds of stuff these days.”
Desiree lifted her eyebrows. “Really? What’s your current definition of love?”
“I thought I just had to answer one question.”
“Two answer minimum,” Sebastian said. “House rules.”
Bo glared at his friend. Everyone kept their gaze directed toward him like he was getting ready to give up the location of a buried treasure.
He scratched behind his ear. “My past relationships haven’t always been…healthy. Love didn’t play the biggest part. I’m not doing that again though. I want someone who’ll help make me a better person, and I want to do the same for her, somehow.” He’d failed miserably at that last part with Angela. He fidgeted with a string on his jeans. He’d said too much. He’d always been a talker. Couldn’t help it.
Desiree put her hand over her heart. “Bo, that is so beautiful.”
“Oh, it was not,” Chase said. “He’s as full of shit as the day is long.”
Bo punched him in the arm, and Chase held up two fists, a smile wide on his face. Chase wouldn’t hit Bo or anybody else to save his life. He was a gentle giant—the life of the party. He didn’t have a hateful bone in his body.
Maya stared at the leg of the coffee table, a trembling hand tucking hair behind her ear. Damn did she make his stomach do funny stuff.
Ashe held up his pointer fingers and glanced around the group. “Good luck to whoever has to follow that.”
Desiree nodded at him. “You’re up, Bo.”
He turned to Maya, who had her gaze trained on her feet tucked around the other side of her body. “Maya,” he said.
She jerked her head around and met his gaze, her face opening in a grin, then she cut her eyes away. “Okay.”
He was so used to girls who came on strong and left nothing for interpretation. She made him feel like he was back in middle school, all nerves, passing a girl a note that indicated boxes to check for yes and no.
“Truth or dare,” he asked.
“Truth,” she said as if on autopilot. “No, wait…dare.”
He nodded toward the table of desserts. “Eat one bite of one of those.”
She shifted her gaze between the dessert table and him. “But, I don’t eat dessert.”
“It’s just one bite,” Desiree said.
“She’s freaking out because she hasn’t had anything sweet in ages,” Felicity said.
Sebastian stood and walked to the table of desserts. “Oh, for Christ’s sake,
Maya. You can run fifty miles tomorrow to make up for it. Here, try this one. It’s Cassidy’s chocolate mousse cake.” He forked a bite of the cake, set it on a small plate, and placed it in front of Maya.
She stared at it like it was an alien’s eyeball. Bo picked up the fork, and she fixed her stare on the dense piece of chocolate cake. He eased it toward her, and she parted her lips, barely. He drew his finger to her bottom lip, pushing down slightly to part her lips farther, then brought the fork up to her mouth.
She closed her lips around the fork, and he eased it away, gazing into her eyes. She held the bite of cake in her mouth for a moment then recognition flooded her face. Her eyes got big, then they got small, closing while she chewed the cake.
The room remained silent, everyone seeming fascinated with watching her eat chocolate for the first time in God knew how long. She chewed slowly, relaxing her body against the back of the chair like she was on the verge of an orgasm.
Hell on a stick. If a piece of chocolate cake could make her look like that, he could only imagine what he could do to her if he worked some tricks with his tongue.
She swallowed, and her face glowed with satisfaction. She opened her eyes and looked at him. He held her gaze while a smile made its way across his lips.
“Damn, anyone else need another shot?” Ashe asked.
“Me!” the rest of the room yelled in unison.
Chapter Six
Bo crunched another potato chip, watching Maya out of the corner of his eye. He offered her the bowl again.
“No thanks,” she whispered, watching the movie—or trying to.
“They’re fat free,” he said.
She jerked her head toward him. “Really?”
“No,” he said, putting another one in his mouth. She pursed her sweet lips at him, and he rattled the bowl. “Just have some. You can run it off tomorrow.”
“I’ve already got chocolate cake to run off, thanks to you,” she whispered.
“You didn’t have to take the dare.”
“Yes I did. I’m the new girl here. I didn’t want to look like a wuss.”
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