I gulp. “Really?” It’s a good thing she can’t see me because trepidation must be plain as day on my face.
“Yeah, and I was hoping I could stop by. I need to talk to you about something. That is, if you don’t mind.”
I pick up my fork and start pushing the rice around my plate. Nothing about this is good. Not one single thing. I should tell her I’m tired and it’s late, or that I’m not home. But it’s not quite nine and if she drives by the house, she’ll see my car in the driveway.
You could put it in the garage.
Oh, for goodness sake, she’s not Dale. I have nothing to fear from her. She’s sweet. And earnest. And from what Paige says, she hasn’t made many female friends here yet. Not that I consider myself a friend. I’m little more than an acquaintance. Who went on one date with her brother. We’re practically strangers.
“I hope I haven’t done anything wrong,” I say, half joking. Although seriously, I’m not.
“Of course not. It’s nothing like that.”
Whew. That was a close one. Which means it can’t have anything to do with me and Josh. But if it isn’t something I’ve done, then what is it? I guess I’ll find out when she gets here.
“Then I don’t mind at all.” I give her my address and pray I don’t live to regret it.
I’ll just say anticipation is hell on an appetite. I only manage to swallow down a half dozen spoonfuls of rice and two of the orange chicken balls, and the rest I scrape into the garbage.
When Chloe arrives ten nail-biting minutes later, I greet her at the door with a warm smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She smiles and steps into the entry way. “Your house is gorgeous.” Her blue eyes grow wider as she looks around, taking it all in. “And big.”
“It is that,” I agree dryly. My mother is solely responsible for the decor. Alright, my mother and the home decorator she’d hired to make sure the place looks like it was lifted from the pages of House Beautiful. Pale peach and cream walls, dark oak floors and elegant furnishings. The house screams taste and money, although Margaret Jean Bancroft will tell you money can’t buy taste. Or class. Which is life lesson #1.
“Come on in.” I usher her into the grand room. The living room is a little too formal for my yoga pants and her jeans and leather flip flops.
Chloe takes a seat on the salmon and cream chaise sofa, her gaze admiring as it skims over the stone fireplace, the wall of built-in oak shelving that houses the TV, the framed family photos, and the various knickknacks my mother picked up from the various countries she’s visited.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine.”
I slowly lower myself onto the sofa next to her. But not too close.
“I’m sure you’re wondering what I want to talk to you about,” she says, gesturing nervously with her hands. “It’s about Evan.”
I had a feeling.
“He told me you canceled your date.”
“Well with everything that happened—”
“No,” Chloe interrupts, her tone fierce. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I’m sure the last few days have been nuts. The only reason I’m saying anything about it is because I think I may have been too overzealous in setting him up with you. I’ve been told I can be very persistent. And it wasn’t a compliment.” The last part she seems to mutter to herself.
“I—” Since that’s the last thing I expected to hear, I’m not sure what to say. I hurriedly collect my thoughts. “You didn’t hold a gun to my head, and I was happy to do it. Your brother is a great guy.”
An uncharacteristic shrewdness enters her eyes. “But?”
I flash a nervous smile. “There is no but. Although, I’d like to point out we’ve only been on one date. Your brother and I don’t know each other that well.” If she’s afraid he’ll get hurt, not only are we a long way from there, we’re unlikely to get there.
Chloe’s cheeks turn a vivid pink. “That’s not it at all. It’s just I was talking to my mom today and she says I have a way of trying to force my will on others. That’s when I started thinking about you and Evan and how Josh told me to stay out of it.” She exhales a heavy sigh. “Evan doesn’t want me to worry about him, but now I think I’ve made things worse by trying to push you two together.”
Wait. What? What am I missing? “I don’t understand. Made what worse?”
Chloe groans and covers her face with her palms. “God, I’m not making any sense, am I? What I mean is that Evan was engaged, and his ex-fiancée called it off a week before the wedding. He was devastated.”
I gasp.
Chloe nods gravely. “She was cheating on him with the VP of the bank she worked for. He’s fifteen years older than her. She married the guy last year and Evan took it pretty hard.”
“Oh wow.”
“Yeah. He hasn’t been the same since. But the last couple months things began looking up. He was more himself, which is when I pushed him to start dating again. Then I met you and you seemed like the answer to my prayers. Except when I went over to his apartment on Sunday, she was there. Julia, his ex-fiancée.”
My jaw drops, and Chloe looks close to tears.
“She left her husband and she wants Evan back.”
Wow. Wow. I have no words. Not one. This is way beyond my paygrade. All I can think to do is to scoot closer to her and pull her into my arms for a hug.
“I can’t believe he let her in when she showed up,” she says, sniffing and swiping at her eyes. “And I can’t believe he’s actually thinking of taking her back. She cheated on him. She broke his heart. She hasn’t even gotten a divorce yet.”
She sounds like a peach. Poor Evan.
“I think he’s still in love with her,” she says in a small, defeated voice.
Poor Chloe. She’s also a victim of her brother’s ex-fiancée’s betrayal. It had to be hard watching him suffer through his initial heartbreak only to be forced to watch him take her back.
“He was going to marry her, so I imagine he’s pretty confused right now. It must be very hard for him to turn her away.” Although he should as it’s clear she doesn’t deserve him.
She releases another heavy sigh. “I know. I know. I’m just sorry I dragged you into this.”
“Goodness, Chloe, you have nothing to be sorry about. Your brother and I went out on one date. Neither of us are at risk of having our hearts broken—at least not by each other,” I tack on.
To say I’m in anyway involved in what’s happening with Evan is overstating the matter. After I had to cancel on him, I doubted the date would ever happen. I’m one hundred percent sure of it now.
She looks at me, her expression earnest. “I felt I needed to be honest with you since I’m the one who set you guys up. Plus, he told me you asked for a raincheck, but the way things are now… I just don’t want you to feel obligated because of me.”
She’s such a softy. Josh is right, she deserves way better than him.
“Well, thank you for telling me. I’m sure that when your brother is ready to go back out into the dating world again, he’ll do just fine. With or without your help,” I add teasingly.
Chloe manages a wobbly smile. “He’ll have to do it without my help next time.”
“You were just being a good sister looking out for your brother.”
“What I should be doing is taking my own advice,” she mutters.
My eyebrow rises in question, my interest piqued.
She rolls her eyes on a heavy exhale. “It’s nothing as heart-wrenching as what happened to Evan, but I left Nebraska to get away from my ex.”
My ears are now fully engaged. I lean in a little closer.
Chloe gnaws at her bottom lip and briefly glances away. “I’m a horrible judge of character. Every guy I’ve ever dated has either cheated on me or turned out to be an all-around jerk. Evan says it’s because I’m too sweet. He thinks I’m naive. The truth is, they think because I’m pretty and blonde, that I’m a goo
d-time girl.”
She’s definitely pretty and blonde but I never once took her to be a good-time girl. There’s an underlying sweetness to her that screams she’s in search of The One.
“They’re wrong,” I say with conviction.
Chloe makes a sad face. “I found out my ex-boyfriend, Rob, was bragging to all his friends that he’d had sex with me on our first date. As if it was something to be proud of.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It’s my own fault,” she says, frowning. “I should have waited. If I’d gotten to know him better, I would have realized he was a big-time cheater and he was only using me for sex. My mom told me that if you give away the milk for free, no one will want to buy the cow. Or something like that. I think it’s a saying. But what she meant is guys don’t respect easy girls.”
How awful. The poor girl. “Well, the guys in Nebraska sound like a bunch of immature jerks. Not all guys are like that,” I assure her.
Her mouth flirts with a smile. “I’m lucky I met Josh. He’s been so patient and understanding. Most guys would have probably dumped me by now.”
Brows furrowed, I stare at her, not following her point. “You think he’d dump you because your ex-boyfriend cheated on you?”
“No, not because of that. I mean because I want to wait.”
My mind can’t compute. Or maybe it’s that my mind refuses to believe what I think she means.
“Are you saying that you and Josh haven’t—” I can’t bring myself to finish the question.
“I know, it’s nuts right? I mean Josh is hotter than any guy I’ve ever gone out with, but this time I promised myself I would take things slow before we took things to the next level. And I’m grateful he’s been so understanding.”
Chapter Sixteen
Josh
I won’t say that going out with Chloe was a mistake but I sure as hell hate the breaking up part.
It sucks and I suck at it.
It’s been four days and I’m only now getting around to dealing with the dreaded task. In my defense, work has been crazy busy this week. The team’s been putting in twelve-hour days to finish updates on the RenderIt project, and as of five o’clock today, we handed it off to Renault at DreamSpinner.
But yesterday, I ran out of time—and excuses. Chloe called me before I could call her. She wants to talk so she’s coming over tonight. I’d planned to do it in a public place but she called first, which means she gets to set the rules. I can only hope she feels the same as I do and is coming to break up with me. If not, I’ll just have to man up and do what has to be done. All I can say is I’ll do my best to let her down easy.
The ring of the doorbell startles me out of my thoughts, prompting me into action. Damn, she’s early. She wasn’t supposed to be here for another hour.
But it isn’t my soon-to-be ex-girlfriend standing on my doorstep.
“Erin.” I blink at her in surprise.
Wearing a white blouse, blue-pinstripe pants and heels, it looks as if she came directly from work. I love her hair up like that almost as much as I love it loose. She looks gorgeous as usual.
“Hi,” she says and promptly breezes past me. “We need to talk.”
By the curtness of her voice, I sense this may not be your typical social call. I close the door and follow her inside.
After placing her purse on the couch, she turns to me, parks her hands on her hips and tips her chin up. I get an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. Forget social call, it looks like she’s gearing up for a fight.
“You said you were breaking up with Chloe.” Her statement comes at me with the speed of a fast ball and lands heavy like an accusation.
“As a matter of fact—”
She’s only getting started. “You said you couldn’t stand the idea of me dating other guys.”
I give a slow nod, my brow furrowed. Where is she going with this?
Her gaze on me is steady and sure. “I was afraid that was the only reason you wanted to give us a shot.”
“Erin,” I say softly, walking over to her and clasping her gently by the upper arms. “I told you that’s not the only reason.”
“Right but that’s before I found out that you haven’t been having sex with your girlfriend. That you’ve never had sex with her.”
Holy shit. My hands drop abruptly to my sides. “Who told you that?”
She paces to the other side of the room, stopping beside the fireplace. “Chloe did.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. It would have to be Chloe as I never said a word about it to anyone, including Mitch. “I didn’t know you and Chloe were that close.”
She waves her hand around. “We’re not. She came by yesterday to talk about Evan. The next thing I know, she’s telling me about how patient and wonderful you’ve been in waiting for her to be ready to take your relationship to the next level.”
I close my eyes on a groan. Is nothing sacred? Why do some women have such big fucking mouths?
My eyes open to her accusing glare.
“What?” I ask, bewildered. “You’re acting like it’s a bad thing. I’m breaking up with her. I never had sex with her. I want to be with you. What is so bad about that?”
Erin shifts her hands on her hips, her mouth firming into a straight unyielding line. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe the only reason you suddenly want to be with me again is because your girlfriend isn’t putting out?”
I let out a strangled laugh of disbelief. She can’t be serious.
Her eyes narrow dangerously, making it clear she isn’t in on the joke. Or she simply doesn’t get it.
“You think that’s the reason I want to be with you? That I’m simply hard up for sex?”
Uncertainty flickers in her eyes.
Yeah, when put like that, it sounds a bit ridiculous doesn’t it?
“Don’t act like it’s impossible,” she snaps as if reading my mind.
Sighing, I run a hand along the back of my neck. “Okay then, how about this. Do I look like I’m hard up for sex?”
Her cheeks turn pink as her gaze takes a quick tour of my body, going from head to foot and then up again until our eyes meet.
I cock my eyebrow. “So what do you conclude?”
Erin
The guy is cocky and then some. But as much as I hate to admit it, he’s got a point. Josh may be a lot of things but hard up for sex has never been one of them.
His expression remains unchanged as he makes his way toward me. It takes everything in me not to react to his proximity. The delicious scent of him.
“Look at me.”
Instead of demanding, his voice is coaxing and oddly soothing, qualities in him I find impossible to resist. I angle my head. Looking into his beautiful slate-blue eyes is like being sucked into a vortex of emotions, pulling me under against my will, knowing fighting against it is an exercise in futility.
“Do you want to know why I haven’t had sex with Chloe?” he asks softly.
Ugh. Now he hits me with the smooth velvety purr. God, I hate how my lady parts respond. “I already know. Because she didn’t want to.”
“Yes, she told me that,” he concedes with a nod. “Did she also tell you I never pressed her? Did she tell you I was more than willing to go along with whatever she wanted?”
“What are you trying to say? That you’re just a nice guy?” Josh can be nice, but I’ve never thought of him as a nice guy. He’s too…too cocky to wear the label.
He steps forward and widens his stance, bringing our bodies in electrifying contact. A whoosh of air escapes my lips as a bolt of heat sparks between my thighs. I do my best not to visibly react, give any overt indication of what physical contact with him does to me.
“Okay, then let me ask you this. Do you think that if we were dating and you told me the same thing, I wouldn’t have done everything in my power to change your mind? That I wouldn’t have done almost anything to get you in my bed inside of a week?”
I swallow
to clear the sudden obstruction in my throat. The mere question conjures up images I don’t need contaminating this discussion. His bare chest and ripped abs. His head between my bare thighs. My nipple disappearing inside his mouth. His cock disappearing inside me.
So much fiery heat floods my face, I have to lower my eyes from his too-knowing gaze. And damn my nipples. It’s like they have minds of their own. I wish I’d worn a bra with more—more substance.
“What’s your point?”
“Don’t play games with me, Erin. You know what I’m saying.”
In response to the heated look in his eyes and the way his gaze dips to my mouth, I edge away, doing it as subtly as I can in a desperate attempt to hide the tension rising inside me. The kind of tension being acutely felt between my legs.
That he can do this to me with just a look is embarrassing.
“Are you trying to convince me that you didn’t really want to have sex with your girlfriend?” I ask, skepticism lacing my voice.
Lifting his gaze from my lips, he stares into my eyes. “What I’m saying is the reason I’m not trying to get Chloe into bed is because I still want you there.”
If I thought his eyes were smoldering before, it’s nothing compared to what they’re doing now. Devouring me. Eating me alive. Lighting my body up in flames. Making me wet.
“What if you couldn’t get me there again?” My voice is but a fraction above a whisper.
His gaze softens but is no less heated. “I’d have to convince you otherwise. When you ended things, we weren’t close to being over.”
“Oh, is that what this is all about? That you weren’t done with me yet?”
His laugh emerges low and soft. “Don’t go getting your panties in a knot—”
Good lord, if he only knew the state of my panties.
“—but you know damn well that I wasn’t done with you anymore than you were done with me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I was done with our arrangement.”
Played (Trapped Book 3) Page 13