by Fleur Smith
“So what's your story?” Becca's friend, Cathy, asked as she sat in the lounge beside him. He barely spared her a glance before his eyes searched for Becca again.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I don't think Becca has ever brought a boyfriend to one of these things before.”
“I'm not her boyfriend,” he said, trying to set Cathy straight before she could start the rumor mill.
Cathy pressed her hands onto her wide hips. “If you're not her boyfriend then what's the deal?”
“We're just friends.”
“Mmmhmm,” Cathy didn't sound the least bit convinced. “Becca and I have been best friends since before we were in training bras. If you two were friends, I think I would have met you sooner.”
“We're new friends,” he explained. “We met online.”
Cathy's eyes lit up with mischief. “Ooh, don’t tell me Missy B is going online for a bit of fun?” she whispered.
“No!” He didn't know why the idea of Becca putting her bootie onto the World Wide Web bothered him so much. “We met—”
“On a photography forum,” Becca said, interrupting the conversation. “Evan was showing me how to get more emotion into my prints, and one day he recognized Sunset Hills in my photos and we realized we lived close to one another.”
Cathy's husband called her, so she gave Becca a look which confirmed the conversation was far from over before leaving Evan alone with Becca.
“Sorry about her,” Becca said.
“Sorry, I didn't know what to tell her,” Evan said at the same time.
“She was bound to be curious. After all, you did drive Millie.” Becca sank into the chair beside him and tipped her head back before closing her eyes, seemingly enjoying the sun but more importantly giving Evan the chance to study her close up and in more detail.
He took the chance to study the way her long eyelashes lifted upward just before they could come to rest against her cheeks. A stray curl of hair fell across her face and Evan’s fingers twitched with need to touch her to brush it off her forehead. It was a manifestation of his growing desire to touch her in some way, even if it was in such an innocent fashion. Finding it almost impossible to resist the temptation to reach out for her while he was watching her, he turned his body to face away.
I have to get this under control. I need to find her a match before I try to claim her for myself.
The thought caused an ache through his body—he wanted her so badly that it was downright dangerous. The closer he grew to Becca, the more time he spent at her side, the more he longed that he could be human so that he could have a real chance at being her match. He could easily imagine all the ways he’d woo her and win her heart, but he knew thoughts like that could only cause problems all around. They were all the more reason to find her Mister Right. Evan took a couple of deep, steeling breaths, and then turned to Becca. “So, have you seen anyone new here yet? Anyone that’s caught your attention?”
Becca opened one eye. “I thought you’d know before I knew?”
“You were the one who was certain you’d find someone here. You won’t find anyone if you hide away by yourself off in one corner of the party.”
“I’m not hiding away by myself,” she said, opening both eyes and meeting his gaze.
Evan was about to open his mouth to argue when she continued. “I’m hiding away with you.”
A warmth spread throughout his body, not only at the words she said, but also at the tender tone she’d used and the emotion that accompanied it. It solidified his need to find someone else for her to lavish her attention on. It wasn’t fair for her to be spending the entire length of the BBQ at his side when he couldn’t offer her anything real. It was time better invested in founding new friendships with real people who could offer her everything that Evan so desperately wanted to offer her. “Let’s see the possible candidates shall we? I think some more people arrived while you were sleeping.”
“I wasn’t sleeping, I was relaxing.”
“Same difference.”
Becca sat up and scanned through the guests. “It’s the same old people I work with at the—” A sharp intake of Becca’s breath drew Evan’s attention. “Wait a minute, who is that?”
Reluctantly, and with a feeling of dread surging through him, Evan turned in the direction of Becca’s stare. He could already tell by the sharp surge of lust that had coursed through his body that whoever it was had more than piqued Becca’s interest—he’d also sent her libido crazy. It looked like some of the more agile guests had decided it was time for a football game, and they were playing shirts versus skins.
As Evan followed Becca’s gaze, the groups on the sidelines seemed to part to give him an unimpeded view of a man that could only be described as immaculate. Shirtless and crouched in the center of the make-shift field, the guy held the gaze of everyone around him. When he looked up at his opponents, he had a smile that could melt chocolate. Even Evan had to admit that the guy was a perfect specimen of what a man should be. Muscled, and toned, and worst of all—tall.
“He’s okay,” Evan muttered.
“Okay?” Becca said, leaning further forward on her lounger as if she was preparing to launch herself across the space at the stranger. “He’s gorgeous. And he’s tall.”
The guy snapped the football back to the player lined up behind him who threw it at another player on the team. The one who’d caught Becca’s eye raced around calling out instructions which faded away in the wind long before they reached where Becca and Evan sat, but it was clear he was completely immersed in the game.
The more excited Becca grew over the mystery man, the worse Evan began to feel. It was all wrong, usually this was the point—the initial meeting—that gave him one of his first strong fixes. The emotions were all right for it, but they sat awkwardly around Evan’s body and he wanted to purge them back out again—like tainted chicken in the stomach of a normal person.
“You really like him?”
“Well, I don’t know him, but he’s certainly passed the first glance test.”
“I guess we should go and introduce ourselves then,” Evan said wishing he could take it back the moment the words had left his mouth.
CHAPTER NINE
Becca re-crossed her legs as her dreamboat jumped to catch a pass and the muscles of his washboard abs contracted in response to the action. When he ducked his head to avoid a tackle, she noticed his broad shoulders flex and she bit her lip in response. He was dreamy, but also somehow oddly familiar. She knew him, she just wasn’t sure how. Surely she’d remember seeing him somewhere before.
Despite the rich chocolate color of his hair, it seemed to capture the sun with blond highlights that were completely absent in the shade. She couldn’t tell what color his eyes were with the distance between them, but she sketched in the details using the hazel-brown color that had worked its way into her subconscious lately. His smile was perfect: two rows of stunningly straight, perfectly white teeth nestled amongst plump, soft pink lips.
Could she really take Evan up on his suggestion that they just go meet the hot stranger that she wasn’t really sure was a stranger? She figured there was no reason not to. After all, she didn’t have to approach him with amorous intentions. And if she did want something more, how often did the opportunity of having a cupid at her side to give her love interest’s desire for her a supernatural boost really come around?
“We probably should go over there, shouldn’t we?” She pulled herself up from the sun lounge before turning to see what Evan was doing. Despite being the one who’d suggested forging a meeting, he seemed a little reluctant to follow her lead.
“There’s no rush,” Evan said. “He’s still playing the game.”
“Yeah, I know.” Becca brushed her curls behind her ears. “It won’t hurt to go watch the game from a little closer though, will it?” She figured his tanned skin and perfect tone would only be easier to appreciate up close and personal.
She was
halfway around the pool before Evan caught up with her.
“You really like him, don’t you?” Evan sounded almost grumpy about that fact, but Becca couldn’t work out why. Ever since he’d popped into her life—literally—he’d been adamant that his mission was to find her a match. Why did he seem to be so reluctant now that someone had actually caught her eye? Or at least, someone who’d piqued her interest more than the man-hungry need that had been an undercurrent in her life for the first week after Evan had found her.
“I don’t know yet, but I’d like to find out if I might.”
Evan trailed behind Becca as she closed the distance to the make-shift football field. Just as she approached the sidelines, one of the players in shirts threw the ball toward someone else and the man Becca had been watching rushed to intercept it. Before Becca had a chance to react, he caught the ball but his momentum sent him rushing over the sidelines and into the gathered crowd. Becca watched, unable to move, as his stumbling footfalls caused him to slam bodily into her, knocking her to the ground before he tumbled down on top of her.
For a moment, Becca lay stunned on the grass, trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her with the weight of the impact. Then she realized that she was a tangle of limbs with the sexy stranger and the offending football was lying just beside her head. She reached for the ball at the same time the stranger lifted his head to apologize to her. Just as he squeezed out the word, her elbow connected with his jaw. She felt as well as heard his teeth jar together and then he swore under his breath.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Becca muttered as pain rushed from her shoulder to her pinky finger, radiating from a small spot on the back of her elbow. “I don’t know why they call it a funny bone, there’s nothing funny about that.”
“Nothing funny from where I’m sitting either, sweetheart.” The stranger held himself off her body with one hand planted firmly on the ground beside her head. He used his other to caress the spot on his jaw which her elbow had claimed.
She looked down at their bodies, practically lying flush with one another. “You’re not sitting,” she whispered.
The guy looked down at the space between them—or the lack thereof—and swore again. “Uh, yeah, sorry.” He pushed himself to his feet and then offered Becca his hand.
She took it graciously, more than willing to be back on her feet so that she could stop making a fool of herself in front of a party full of her work colleagues. With almost no effort, he’d pulled her to her feet. Then his eyes widened with surprise, recognition lurking in their depths as he offered her a mile-wide grin.
Becca wondered for a moment whether her heart had actually stopped. She ducked her eyes away from his as a small, shy smile formed on her lips.
“Becca Lewis! Wow, you . . . grew up.”
Her eyes instantly snapped back to meet the dreamboat’s bluish-hazel gaze. It took her a moment to figure out just who the stranger was, but once she realized, she reached out and pulled him into a hug. “Oh my god, Andrew Petersen! When did you get back in town? You should have called me.”
Becca was so enthused by her reunion with her old school friend that it took her a moment to realize that she was pressing her face against a half-naked, sweaty man that made her squirm. He certainly wasn’t the lanky, pimple-faced boy he’d been when Doctor Petersen and his first wife divorced. Shortly after their separation, Drew’s mom had moved across the country to California and had dragged Drew with her.
Reluctantly, Becca let go of her sweaty dream man and stepped back to listen to his story.
“I got back last week. That’s the real reason behind all this.” He indicated the party around them, reminding Becca that it wasn’t just the two of them. “Dad wanted to celebrate the return of his son, the doctor, the proper way, I just convinced him to keep it quiet until today.”
His eyes sparkled with fun and she realized that despite his tone, he was happy to lap up the limelight.
“What about you? What are you still doing here in Flint? I would’ve put money on you getting out of town as soon as you graduated.”
Becca was about to respond when a chorus of voices called out for Drew to grab the ball and join the game.
“Sounds like your adoring fans are chasing you,” she joked, even though part of her didn’t want the conversation to end.
“I’ll just finish this game and then I’ll come find you, yeah?”
Becca nodded.
Drew bent down to retrieve the ball, and Becca didn’t miss the way his eyes raked over her legs as he did. Or the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed heavily when he stood upright. She could have sworn her panties evaporated the instant he met her gaze again, his eyes full of salacious intentions. “Don’t you leave until we’ve caught up properly, Becca Lewis.”
All she could do was shake her head to indicate that she wouldn’t. Her mouth was so dry that all the water in the swimming pool behind her would have barely wet it.
She turned away from the game, certain that a loopy smile was plastered on her face. Her gaze searched for Evan, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She was certain his interference was what had fostered the reunion with her now older—and way hotter—middle-school friend.
Evan was on his fifth drink, wondering whether it was even possible for him to get drunk anymore. He could vaguely recall what it was like, being so blind to the world around him that nothing could hurt anymore, but he hadn’t experienced it since his death. Just like the pleasures of food and sex, the oblivion hidden at the bottom of a bottle of booze was something denied to him. He was a paradigm for love, and yet seeing it blossom in front of him this time made him feel nauseous. It was opposite to how this moment usually made him feel, but he didn’t want to examine the reasons behind that fact.
No matter how happy he tried to be with Becca’s first meeting with the stranger—who clearly wasn’t a stranger based on the way she’d thrown herself into his arms—it was impossible. Even as the beginning strains of her love took residence in Evan’s body and provided him with the energy he needed, he couldn’t enjoy the sensation like he usually did.
He closed his eyes, waiting for something to happen. He’d been so certain that Becca had been the last match for him, that finding her a partner would be his ticket off Earth and into whatever paradise was supposed to await him—albeit without his Rose—that he’d half expected to disappear the instant he’d felt the mutual stirring in both Becca and Drew.
Drew. He sneered even as he thought the name. Drew who’d been granted everything denied to Evan in his life—good breeding, money, looks, strength. Drew wasn’t just Becca’s ideal; he was the ideal of every woman everywhere. The one that they all wanted but very few would ever get. Becca had got him though. Evan knew exactly how Drew felt and it killed him. Drew’s love for her was very nearly as strong as Evan’s own—not that Evan was supposed to be feeling that.
Evan also knew how Becca felt. With the lust surging through her and Drew’s body responding in kind, Evan was somewhat surprised they’d been able to keep their hands off each other even with the surrounding crowd.
“Don’t you have anything stronger?” he asked a waiter walking by with a tray of champagne. “Shots maybe? Lots and lots of shots.” He snickered at his own private rhyming joke.
Maybe the alcohol was having more of an effect on him than it usually did. He would have wondered why, except he was too happy to send himself toward the blessed goal of oblivion instead.
“I was wondering where you disappeared to.” Becca’s voice was behind him and he turned to see her standing before him with her hands on her hips. “I thought you might have left.” Her tone made it clear that she didn’t mean she thought he’d returned to her house.
“I thought I might have left too.” It was true, ever since he realized that he wasn’t going to poof out of existence, he’d been screwing his eyes shut at random intervals to see if there was another name on his list—but each time there was nothing but
Becca.
“Are you drunk?”
He shook his head. “Can’t be. Cupids don’t get drunk.”
Three people nearby turned their heads at his exclamation, which had been louder than he’d desired or expected. Becca moved over to him, linking her arm through his and dragging him far away from all the people. Even though she released his arm, she reached for his elbow, holding it in a pincher grip between her fingers as she hissed, “Are you sure about that, because you smell like a brewery and you’re talking a lot louder than you normally would.”
“Maybe, I’m just a teensy bit under the influence.” He chuckled.
“I don’t know what’s funny about that.”
“I don’t either.” He laughed harder.
“Oh god, Drew’s coming over here. Please, help me? I think you were right. I think I might really like him.”
Didn’t look or feel like you needed my help before, Evan thought as he spun around, his eyes searching for the offending sight. He was relieved to see that Drew had found some clothing and had a polo shirt pulled over his chest. Even if said polo shirt was stretched taut across the other man’s thick pecs. A quick glance at Becca confirmed she didn’t share his relief at Drew’s newly-clothed status. In fact, she looked downright disappointed.
“I’m sorry, Becca, I didn’t realize you’d brought a date.”
Evan found himself staring at Drew. Even his teeth are perfect.
“He’s not a date. He’s just a friend. We met on a photography forum.” She looked at Evan, who swayed a little while he met Drew’s perfect version of hazel irises—more blue and warm than his own muddy-brown color. “In fact, he’s gay.”
“What?” Evan’s head just about snapped off his shoulder as he spun it to glare at Becca. “Who said that?”
Becca offered a grin which said she was having way too much fun with her lie. No doubt it was payback for his drinking. The worst thing was, he couldn’t even call her on it without embarrassing her in front of Drew and despite everything, he didn’t want to do that. He’d have to play along.