by Misti Murphy
“I’m looking at you.” I push some of her silvery hair out of the way before lowering my mouth to her ear. Soft spicy flora fills my senses. “If I spend all my time looking for your guy then he’s not going to have anything to be jealous about.”
“That might be true.” Her cheek rubs against mine, but I don’t have her attention. She’s scanning the room for him. Searching the crowd for Sam Sweets. The moment she sees him her breath hitches, and then she blurts, “So how do you want to play this?”
How do I want to make the guy jealous and then hand her over to him? My other hand, which is settled on her hip, tightens its grip, before I take a deep breath and push myself to relax. That’s what we’re here for. This is what we agreed upon. It was my suggestion that we pretend we’re together to drive him crazy until he can’t help but want her for himself, because getting her out of my hair is my number one priority.
“Never mind.” Her chest rises and falls against mine, her nipples turning into tight little buds. She turns her face to mine, our noses touching, her lips right there in front of me. “This is working.”
“I bet it is.” I smirk, though I don’t feel at all pleased. Mandy is in my arms, and I don’t want to be reminded of who she’s doing this for. I tilt my head a little, mirroring her. “What’s so special about him anyway?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” She presses her lips together, her attention darting to my lips before locking eyes with me again.
“Try me.” I lean closer, plant a leg between hers. We’re close enough to touch like we did in the kitchen when I watched her eyes shutter and her body shake with pleasure, but I don’t go that far. It’s all an illusion. Mandy Pearce is just a girl who wants a boy who isn’t me. Let’s keep it that way.
“I don’t think so.” She bites her lip, her hands smoothing from my neck down over my shoulder to grip my biceps. It makes my gut tighten. “What’s with your drama queen reaction to blunt knives? If you want to talk so much, why don’t we start there?”
I grit my teeth, my breath stalling in my chest. “I apologized, didn’t I?”
“You did, but that was days ago, and it still doesn’t explain why.” Her eyes widen. “He’s staring at us. Summer’s talking to him, and he’s just standing there, glaring at us.”
“Glaring at me,” I tell her. “Because I’m touching you.” To prove my point, I drop my hand to the hem of her sequined mini skirt and tickle her leg. The pink sequins almost broke me when I first saw her tonight. When she rubbed a palm over them one way, and then another they changed color. I wanted to put my hands on her skirt, wanted to watch it change color, and then make it disappear entirely.
“Do that again,” she orders, raising her leg around mine and digging the heel of her stiletto into my calf.
It hurts, but the pain is good. It keeps my head straight. The way she’s clinging to me while I scrawl my fingertips around the hem of her skirt feels too real, the guy she’s hoping to catch easy to forget. The reasons I don’t want to change her mind about what she wants fade too, and that scares me. But pain is real. It’s true. Fact. “What are you going to do with him when you catch him?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Are you frightened?”
Her eyes are so expressive they give her away. She’s slightly startled at my question, and I catch the uncertainty in them.
She doesn’t look away, doesn’t shutter her expression. “I’m nervous. I’ve waited for this for a long time.”
“For him? Is that why—”
“No.” She blushes. “Sometimes I say things that shouldn’t be shared. But whether I’m experienced has nothing to do with Sam. I wasn’t waiting for him, exactly. Or anyone. It just turned out I’m a huge fan of my vibrator. It’s never disappointing.”
“Okay.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “I’m nervous that I’m going to blow it. Determination only works to a point.”
“Why, girl, I thought you were an optimist.”
“Just because I like to have a positive outlook doesn’t mean…” She taps her fingertips on my shoulder urgently. “He’s coming over here. What do we do now?”
I don’t know that I’m the best person to ask right now, because I want to press into her and stroke her in all the places I’m being so careful not to touch. My cock is straining against my fly. I’m salivating over remembered kisses and the anticipation of her mouth so close to mine. “Let’s go back to your place.”
“Are you joking?” She lets go of my biceps to push at my chest.
I’m completely fucking serious. Which makes no sense at all, because what’s my plan after that? I’m not sticking around. I’m not going to have sex with her. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t. Hell, couldn’t. Even if she wanted me and not him.
She looks horrified, though. At the idea of me… and her. So what if she’s told me things, said things, looked at me in ways that make it hard to recall the plan? Mandy Pearce is an over sharer, but she’s unwavering about what she wants.
“Yeah,” I grumble, pushing away from her and the wall. A quick shaky hand through my hair and I exhale as Dream Man Sam takes her attention from me. Turning around, I bump up against him as I storm off. “I need a drink.”
Chapter Ten
SAM
I glower at the creep’s retreating back. I don’t know what she sees in that asshole, other than her weird fetish for older men. Has to be daddy issues, doesn’t it? She’s trying to replace her father, or some such shit? I wiggle the tightness from my jaw, shove my hands in my pockets, because the only better place to put them is on her hips. “Are you all right? What’s his problem?”
“No problem,” she says, biting her lip as she ogles his ass. “Cas is always a little dark and broody.”
“That’s a type, isn’t it? A thing? Women go gaga over dark and broody?” I roll my gaze to the ceiling. It’s so fucking loud in Mayhem tonight, that’s probably where this damn headache is coming from. It has nothing to do with how tense I feel after watching that dick put his hands all over her. If he’d treated my sister like that I would have had to kick his ass. But Mandy’s not my sister. Thank God, because the half-wood I’m still trying to kill would have been entirely out of place in that situation. And yep, that does it. Wood be gone. “What does Summer call it again?”
“Giving good face.” Mandy smiles. “Personally, I prefer sweet guys.”
The way she says it, I get the feeling she isn’t talking about sweet guys at all, but about me, and my last name. I brush it off, pretend I didn’t notice. “Is he coming back?”
“I don’t know.” She pats her skirt down and the sequins change shades, drawing my attention as she makes to walk off. “I should probably go find him.”
“No.” I whip my hand out of my pocket and grab her. My fingers encircle her delicate wrist, stopping her from leaving. Stupid. What the hell am I doing, not thinking before I act? I should be happy she’s dating this Casper jackass. Not doing… whatever this is. I grimace as Mandy turns to me, her mouth partly open. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I just…” Crap. What? I just find myself getting jealous because she’s dating some guy? And why? No, seriously, somebody tell me, because I am dying to know. Christ, she’s not old enough to take up this much space in my brain. There are things I’m supposed to want at this age, and she isn’t one of them.
“Look, I should go.” She points her thumb over her shoulder and backs up. Somehow, I’m still holding onto her arm, so she doesn’t get far.
I stare at my own hand, as though it’s the appendage that’s disobeying my brain, then reluctantly drop it to my side. “Have a drink with me. Just one. He’ll probably come find you in a minute anyway.”
“One,” she says, and then her smile lights up her face. “That’s all, though.”
“Okay then.” Why do I feel like I’ve been played? That somehow this little girl has gotten the better of me without even trying? I step closer, touch my finge
rs to the small of her back. “What will you have?”
***
“You should tell that sleaze you’re done with him.” I hold the door of the building open for her to enter before me. One drink became two, and then four. Somewhere around five I said to hell with it, although I still didn’t drink so much that I don’t recognize she should be with her boyfriend right now. And I’m smart enough to bring her to the restaurant and not my hotel room.
Mandy giggles. Too many ‘strawberry whatever the hells’ she kept drinking after Casper texted her to tell her he’d gone home without her. What kind of a jackass drops his girl like that?
“Cas isn’t a sleaze. He’s a great guy when you get to know him. But he’s, I don’t know.” She scrunches up her brow and taps a pink fingernail against her bottom lip. “He’s had a rough life I think. He’s forgotten how to behave around people.”
She treads across the wooden floor, careful to step around the mess of wood shavings, loose nails, and other construction debris left by the work crew, to the thick plastic sheeting that still hangs in wide streamers between the dining room and the kitchen. The plastic crinkles and dust flies into the air as she tugs it aside. She gawks at the kitchen as I come up behind her. Stainless steel benches, warmers, ovens, burners. Most of the kitchen is in place though it still needs to be wired into the new layout. In no time at all it will be a hive of activity. Chefs hustling and bustling around, aromas and kitchen sounds filling the air.
“Wow,” she says, kind of breathy. “Cas would love this. He’s always comparing the Bennington kitchen to the restaurant where he learned in Paris.”
“And you?” I don’t care what he thinks of my kitchen. There’s no way I’d let him step foot in it. Even if the man’s earned his own four Michelin stars. Even if five years ago he was running one of the swankier eateries in Manhattan before he trotted off to Europe for a skirt. According to my contacts rumor was the girl died in some kind of freak accident. Must have left the guy gutted. It’s not particularly fair, I suppose, but when I see him with Mandy, I can’t stand the prick. It makes me bristle all over, makes me want to stand between them no matter what it takes.
“It’s sexy.” She glances up at me over her shoulder. We stand so close, but I don’t dare touch her. I don’t press closer so that the heat of her becomes a weight against my skin. I don’t rasp my palms up and down her bare arms to see if the spark between us grows. I don’t inhale so that the scent of her skin and her faded shampoo drives a wedge of need into my brain.
“Sexy?” I chuckle under my breath, unable to keep from labelling the beautiful girl in front of me as sexy too. “That’s different.”
She turns now, her hands behind her back, takes a step away so she doesn’t have to crane her neck so much. “There’s something about a well-equipped kitchen that’s just impressive, don’t you think?”
“Impressive, huh?” I shift closer. Can’t help it. I like when she’s right there, in front of me, close enough to touch, far enough away I’m not doing anything stupid, like smoothing my hand over her hip. Or kissing her. The other day we’d come so close.
“Yeah. Impressive and the perfect size. Not too big, definitely not too small.”
Christ, I’m instantly erect. Rock hard all the way to my toes. I let out a little feral growl, and she startles. Her gaze drifts to the bulge in my pants and she licks her lips. What’s one taste of this peculiar, striking girl? Everything? Nothing? “Exactly right.”
“I know,” she whispers. “The perfect… kitchen.”
“And how do you know that?” I stalk after her as she moves backwards into the kitchen. Winding an arm around her waist, I lift her onto the stainless steel, then settle my hands on her hips, smooth them down her thighs to her knees, and push them apart.
“Talent.” Her voice is so breathy and light. It makes my cock throb, and my pulse hammer against my jaw.
Standing between her legs, I grasp her chin, rub my thumb across her jaw in a feather light touch as I lower my mouth to hers. The way she looks at me makes my heart trip, the tremor under her skin where I touch her creates a corresponding ripple in my pulse. I suck her bottom lip between my teeth, press down gently on it. She tastes like strawberries and sugar and lemon. Her breath is warm and accompanied by the rise and fall of her tits. I cup one of those perky breasts, trace a finger over the diamond point as I stroke my tongue over hers. The way my blood is pumping through my veins, the fizz over my nerves wherever we touch makes me feel wild, insatiable, greedy. Things I haven’t felt in years, not since I was a kid. “What talent might that be?”
Her arms go around my neck, her mouth to my ear. “Eight and a half inches, nine maybe.”
“What?” I stop moving. When did the tables turn? I’m the one who knows better, while she’s naïve and malleable, but right now she doesn’t seem so innocent. And I’m not sure how I ended up getting so close to her.
“Your, uh, cock. It’s got to be like right under nine inches, yeah?”
“I mean I haven’t got a ruler handy.” I step back and stare at her. Those big green eyes are locked on me. We’ve barely kissed. And sure, she’s groped my ass, but she’s never gotten her hands on my dick. The closest she’s come is… now. Am I leading her on, giving her hope when there’s none? When I should be making sure she understands that nothing more than this will ever happen between us.
“It doesn’t matter.” She batts her lashes at me. “I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
“How the hell can you know that? You’re obsessed with me, is that it? Stalking me? Or something? I told you…” Shit, I sound like an asshole. I sound like her boyfriend. That guy’s a prick, and I’m acting just like him. What, do I think that will attract her, since she obviously sees something in him? But I don’t want to attract her. I don’t want to be anything, do anything with this girl who is way too young and too outrageous for me.
I’m standing in my kitchen, almost devouring her. Ready to drag that skirt up her gorgeous legs and tear her panties down them so I can ram my cock into her. I told her this would never happen. I’m not entirely sure how it is. Almost. I wanted it, but I know better. I have to know better. I can’t be so careless. Especially with one of Summer’s friends.
“Shit.” She glances away. Some of that straight silver hair tumbles across her face as she brings her knees together and tugs on the hem of her skirt. “This shouldn’t be happening. I’m dating Cas. I’m with Cas.”
“You didn’t plan this?” I inhale, exhale. Try to get my breathing normal, and the shake out of my hand. The girl sets me on fire, makes me want things that don’t make sense.
“Did I plan to hook up with you?” Her eyes widen, and she worries her bottom lip. “You had your chance.” She slips off the counter. “You had an entire year to ask me out, and you didn’t. Now I’m dating a great guy. Do you really think you’re that special, Sam Sweets?”
Yes. No. I suspected she thought I was. But this is better. Just a mistake. Not anything that can’t be forgotten. “I’m sorry,” I say. “For tonight. For accusing you of anything. This is my fault. You can even tell your boyfriend that if you want.”
She cocks her head to the side and studies me for a moment. “Maybe. He’d probably want to beat on you, but you’d deserve it.”
“Quite probably.”
“But I won’t. You’re Summer’s brother, so I have to be nice to you even when you’re being horrible.” She smiles as she sails past me.
“That’s true.” I follow after her, thankful for once that the two of them are friends, but worried that she’ll tell Summer what an ass I’ve been tonight. “At least let me walk you home?”
“I’m good.” She brushes her hands down her top and over that fascinating skirt and then opens the door. “Stay out of trouble, Sam.”
She’s gone before I can figure out what she means by that, and whether she realizes she’s the only trouble I can see.
Chapter Eleven
CASPER
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br /> “How do you work it out?” I stare up at her perched on the fence. Soldier stomps the ground beside me and shakes his head. He blows out a heavy breath and mouths my hand with his silken nose. Yeah, I know I suck at this small talk. It’s been a long time since the company of others has been preferable to my own and a horse.
“I don’t really know.” She shrugs, gripping tight to the top railing, her slender legs dangling in front of me. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do.”
How far does this pink obsession go anyway? Those shorts are tiny, and a raspberry shade of pink. They hug her curves and show off another sliver of golden skin below her white, knotted shirt. A man’s shirt, rolled up to the elbows, collar up. Sam’s? Completely inappropriate. Thankfully she’s not working in the kitchen today. This is an impromptu visit while the kids are on a trail ride to catch me up on what happened after I left her at Mayhem last night. I can’t believe that asshole kissed her and then accused her of stalking him. Even if she’s crushing on him harder than I can stand. “Okay, but there has to be some process. What? Do you eyeball ‘em for a bit, or judge the fit of the guy’s pants?”
Mandy laughs. “It’s not a scientific approach. I can just tell, for the most part.”
“Seen a lot of dicks in your life?” What would she think of mine if I whipped it out for her approval? Not that I’m going to. It’d probably scare the hell out of her. Stupid fucking dick. Although she’s already nailed me with her guess. “You’re one crazy contradiction, girl.”
“Funnily enough, I’ve seen more than I’d like to admit. And I know that makes no sense since I haven’t actually ridden one.”
Soldier snorts loudly and flicks his tail, so I pat his neck and push him away. He trots over to the other corner of the yard and tugs a mouthful of hay from a feeder. “Why is that?”
