Love is a Battlefield

by Vivian Arend

  The next morning, Jack strode into Starbucks after a sleepless night that had involved constantly rolling over onto a throbbing erection, waking up thanks to said throbbing erection, then taking care of that throbbing erection so he could try to get some frickin’ sleep. Hadn’t worked, and now his right hand hurt and his dick was just mad at him. Because his dick wanted Pepper, and Jack had given it his hand.

  To make matters worse, he’d gotten a text from Charlene at nine o’clock reminding him about their ten o’clock meeting to discuss her parents’ party. It was a good thing she’d contacted him, otherwise he would have completely forgotten all about it, and being a no-show for a meeting wouldn’t have reflected well on the company.

  His former flame was already in the coffeehouse when he walked in, taking up residence at a table near the window. A stack of papers sat next to her tall coffee cup, and she was flipping through it, her dark red hair streaming over one shoulder.

  Catching her eye, Jack smiled and gestured to the counter, then headed to place an order. A couple minutes later, he pulled out a chair and joined her, setting his steaming cup on the table.

  “Morning.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked him up and down. “You look like shit. Late night?”

  “Not really. I actually went to bed at ten thirty,” he admitted. “Couldn’t sleep, though. It sucked.”

  She laughed. “Ten thirty? I’m disappointed in you, sugar. What happened to the wild Jack I knew and fucked?”

  He shifted in his chair, uncomfortable with where the conversation had gone. He had fond memories of sleeping with Charlene, but being reminded of it now felt…wrong. And it did absolutely nothing for him. His mind was consumed by dirty thoughts of Pepper, and his body tightened with anticipation. Now that he’d gotten the talk with Parker out of the way, he could take Pepper to bed and make all those dirty fantasies come true.

  Without responding to Charlene’s flirty remark, Jack pointed to the papers. “Is that the final guest list?”

  “Among other things.” She popped the lid of her cup and took a quick sip. “I also brought a list of allergies—pretty much the only thing my grandmother can eat is lettuce. Okay, that’s a joke, but she is allergic to a bunch of things.” She grinned. “And yesterday I did some sleuthing and got my folks to talk about the songs that played on their first date and at their wedding. You said you have a list of bands that play covers, right?”

  Jack nodded. “We can audition a bunch of them if you want, and you can pick whichever one you think is the best fit. Or we know some great DJs—you’ve got options.”

  “That sounds wonderful.” Dimples appeared as she smiled again. “Why don’t we arrange to see some of them tonight?”

  He hesitated. “Uh…you know, I think I’d prefer we do it during business hours.”

  Charlene rolled her eyes. “Right. Because it’s unprofessional for you to fraternize with clients.”

  He offered another nod.

  “Jack…” She set down her cup and reached for his hand, snatching it before he could pull away. “I get that you don’t want to get in trouble with your partners at DreamMakers, but…” her eyebrows waggled, “…what they don’t know can’t hurt them—or us. There’s no reason why we can’t see each other on the sly.”

  Jack gulped. Crap. And here he’d thought she’d been cool with the end of their fling.

  “We had fun together, didn’t we?” Her voice lowered to a seductive pitch. “I mean, I know I had fun.”

  “So did I,” he said awkwardly. “But…um…yeah. The thing is…” A breath flew out. “I’m seeing someone.”

  Charlene’s hand left his abruptly, unhappiness clouding her expression. “Oh. You are? Since when?”

  “It’s pretty recent. Like, really recent,” he confessed. “But it’s an exclusive thing, you know?”

  Her head jerked in a nod. “I get it.”

  She avoided his gaze, and he stifled a sigh as a fresh wave of awkwardness swept over their table. Hell. This was what he got for being such a damn player. Flings and one-night stands were all fun and games—until they ended.

  “I’m sorry if this is awkward for you,” he said quietly. “If you want, I can ask Dean to be your point man from now on.”

  Charlene finally met his eyes. “No, that’s fine,” she said, her tone terser than he liked. “We’re both grown-ups. I’m sure we can plan a memorable celebration for my parents without our brief history getting in the way.” As if to punctuate her not-so-convincing conviction, she picked up another piece of paper and slid it across the table. “This is a list of the out-of-town guests who are flying in. They’ll need hotel rooms and transportation from the airport.”

  “We can handle that.”

  “Good. Okay. Let’s talk flowers.”

  Jack swallowed another sigh. Shit. It was going to be a long morning.

  Pepper stood at the railing of the fifth-story apartment balcony, supposedly to examine the view Kendra had informed her was killer, but really she wasn’t concentrating nearly as hard as she should.

  She’d forgotten she and Kendra were scheduled to go apartment hunting that Saturday. Heck, she could have had anything on the calendar for that day, and it would have been forgotten in the mental blur of wondering when Jack was going to call.

  She refused to be the one to chase him. All it would have taken were two moves on her phone, and she could have a text message flying his way. But no way.

  No way would she let herself appear that needy.

  Except if he didn’t call by this evening she might have to reconsider. Maybe go back to his place and knock some sense into him, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

  She pulled out her phone again to double-check if she still had battery power, and catching herself in the act just pissed her off even more.

  “I like this place best of all we’ve seen so far,” Kendra said, resting her elbows on the railing next to where Pepper stood. “The kitchen is a little small, but the bedrooms are a good size, and I really like that there’s two bathrooms—we wouldn’t have to share.”

  Pepper pulled herself back to attention. If she wanted out of her parents’ house stat, she needed to focus. “Two bathrooms? Really?”

  Kendra nodded. “Didn’t you see there’s one off the bigger bedroom? Come on, I’ll show you.” She exited the small balcony and headed back into the living space. “There’s enough room in here we could put a couple of work desks, or do you think it would be better to put them in our bedrooms?”

  A rude noise escaped before Pepper could stop it. “I know we had desks set up like that in our dorm room, but I really don’t want my office in my bedroom. Bedrooms are for other things.”

  She swallowed hard, thinking exactly what kind of bedroom things she could be enjoying before the day was out.

  “You’re right,” Kendra agreed, leading the way down the tiny hallway, past the main bathroom to the master bedroom. She opened what Pepper had originally thought was a closet door, and pointed inside. “See? Just a shower, sink, and toilet. But it’s got a window, although the view doesn’t look like much.”

  Pepper snuck into the miniscule room, checked out the view, and laughed. “That right there is some of the best graffiti in town. Do they charge extra for that?”

  There was barely enough room for the two of them when Kendra joined her, peering outside. “Fire escape. That’s good.”

  The door swung shut behind them. “We won’t be holding any dances in here,” Pepper joked. “You don’t get claustrophobic, do you?”

  Kendra laughed as she reached for the doorknob. “Maybe it’s like a circus act. One of those cars where the clowns keep coming out and out and out.” She turned the knob and pulled, but nothing happened. “What the hell?”

  She tried again, jiggling the doorknob. Still nothing.

  “Great. How come we couldn’t get locked in a room that had a refrigerator?” Pepper asked.

  Kendra banged her knuckles on the door. “H
ello. Hello, we’re stuck.”

  Fortunately, the woman who had been showing them around noticed they were missing pretty quickly. She knocked lightly on the wood paneling. “Are you girls nearly done in there?”

  Pepper snickered. “What the heck does she think we’re doing?” she whispered to Kendra.

  Kendra grinned at her, but answered the landlady. “We’re fine, if you can just help us get the door open.”

  In the end, though, it took the building attendant with a set of tools to get the door off the hinges to let the girls out.

  The maintenance man shook his head in confusion. “I swear I fixed this door only last month. Don’t you worry. I’ll get it done up again, and this time, hopefully it’ll hold.”

  Thirty minutes of paperwork later, Pepper and Kendra were the proud owners of a three-month trial lease.

  “I’m so excited.” Kendra lifted her cup of coffee in the air in a toast. They’d marched out of their new apartment building into a small coffee shop right next door where Pepper could see herself spending far too much money in the near future. “To independence and a place of our own.”

  Pepper clinked her coffee cup against Kendra’s, before glancing at her phone for the millionth time that morning.

  Kendra laughed. “Are you still waiting to hear back on that interview? I thought you’d decided working for DreamMakers would be enough for now.”

  It wasn’t that she was trying to keep anything secret, more that the whole idea of her change in relationship status was still so shiny and new that she didn’t want to share. But at the same time, this wasn’t a secret she could keep for long, not with Kendra having expressed interest in Jack.

  It was like walking a tightrope carrying lemon meringue pies in either hand. No way this could go without getting at least a little messy.

  “I’m waiting for a call,” she admitted.

  “Oh, right, the big date last night with Billy.” Kendra rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward, eyes bright with interest. “Confession—maybe this is a little creepy, but I wanted to see where he was taking you. I Googled the restaurant. Bizarre.”

  Which fit Pepper’s assessment of the evening perfectly, since her date had been pretty bizarre as well. Her curiosity got the better of her. “What do you mean?”

  “The chef’s specials? Oh. My. God.”

  Not that Pepper could tell her anything about them, since Jack had ix-nayed that bit of the evening. “Spectacular?”

  Her friend’s nose crinkled. “Spectacularly disgusting. Last night it was tripe and haggis.”

  Pepper choked on her coffee. It appeared Jack had saved her from more than she’d expected. “You’re not serious.”

  Kendra nodded enthusiastically. “So, tell me, how did things go?”

  It was one of those situations where Pepper wasn’t sure she could really describe everything without writing an essay. Or a short story. Or at least a really bad pun. “They didn’t. But they did. But not with Billy, and actually nothing really happened, but it looks as if it might in the future.”

  Which was a whole lot of nothing.

  Kendra looked suitably baffled. “What?”

  There was no direction to go but straightforward. “My date got interrupted. Turns out Billy wasn’t as much of a catch as he wanted me to believe.”

  “You’re kidding. Oh, that’s too bad. He seemed like such a nice guy.” Kendra sat back in her chair, playing with the swizzle stick from her drink. She shrugged. “So that means you and I are back on the market.”

  “Umm, not completely. And I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, but then, I don’t want to not tell you because that would be worse. Jack and I are seeing each other.”

  Kendra’s jaw hung open. “You and…” A crease appeared between her friend’s brows as she puzzled that out.

  Pepper shifted awkwardly in her chair. “I guess there’s always been something there between us, and last night he showed up to kind of rescue me, and…”

  “Well, of course.” Kendra bumped the palm of her hand against her forehead. “All that time you were complaining about Jack it was because you secretly had the hots for him.”

  Pepper didn’t think so, but it was as good an excuse as any. “I didn’t want you to think I did anything to get in your way.”

  “You stole him right out from under my nose.” Kendra glared for a second before her expression broke, lips folded to blow a long raspberry. “I don’t think so. I mean, yeah, he’s cute, but he’s too old for me.” She glanced over her shoulder at the guy working the coffee bar. “Now he, on the other hand, is both cute and closer to my age.”

  “Well, nice surprise, ladies. Can I join you?”

  A familiar voice interrupted their conversation, and Pepper couldn’t help but smile as Lynn’s friend Suz slid onto the chair next to them. “Hey, you. What are you doing down in this neck of the woods?”

  “I just finished an interview at the precinct around the corner. Something for my job with the special events page at the Bay City Press. And then I had to say hi to everyone—one of my brothers is stationed there, so the whole department is like family.” Suz turned toward the drink counter and waved a perfectly manicured hand. The young man Kendra had been admiring waved back.

  “Do you know him?” Kendra asked.

  “I have a feeling Suz knows most of San Francisco’s population, especially if they’re male,” Pepper teased.

  “Guilty as charged.” The gorgeous blonde flashed her brilliant smile. “Why live in the City of Love if you don’t believe in sharing the message?”

  Pepper could see more and more why everyone down at DreamMakers enjoyed having the woman around. “What do you think of this area? Kendra and I are going to be living here.”

  Suz paused and considered. “It’s not as safe as some, but it’s not as bad as others. If you keep your eyes open, you should be okay. Which apartment? And it better have security at the door, or I will harp on your ass.”

  Kendra pointed next door. “The Towers. And yes, they have security at the front door, and we have both a deadbolt and peephole.”

  “Make sure you use them,” Suz warned again. “Drives me crazy when I see people propping the front door open with a box, or letting somebody in who casually stood in line behind them, waiting until the security code gets entered.”

  Pepper pretended to cover a yawn.

  “Trust me, you don’t need to continue the lecture. If Parker lives up to his usual standard, I will not only get briefed for longer than you could talk about the dangers for a woman in public places, he’ll provide me a report in triplicate and expect me to memorize it and initial the bottom of each page after I finish reading it.” She sighed. “I thought he’d outgrown it, but in the past couple weeks he’s gotten even worse than before I went to college. I wonder at what point he’s going to actually realize that I’m no longer twelve.”

  “That’s what family does, hon. They worry about you. I’ve got the five brothers, plus my mom and dad—all of whom are cops. Either I could let it make me crazy, or I could learn to live with it.” Suz turned to face the eager young man who had brought her drink to the table. “Well, aren’t you a darling? Thanks, Timothy.”

  She slipped him some money, and he smiled at them, his gaze darting over Kendra as he backed away without a word.

  “Maybe since I’ll be living close by, you should introduce me to Timothy,” Kendra suggested. “He’s cute.”

  “He’s a baby,” Suz admonished her. “A cute baby, I give you that, but it’s hard to find them attractive when they still look like they might be surprised they have pubes.” She ignored the sputtering, taking a sip of her coffee before looking far more serious as she addressed Kendra. “I thought you were interested in Jack Hunter?”

  Kendra rolled her eyes. “Fat lot of good that did me. Pepper snapped him up.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Pepper protested.

  Suz looked very interested in this new develo
pment. “Oh, so that’s what had Lynn attempting to interrupt my date last night. Hmmm, this is juicy. And so is Jack, if I might say so.”

  “I thought you said he was too big of a flirt for me,” Kendra complained.

  “He was. He is.” Suz rested an elbow on the table, leaning closer to Kendra. “Look, the man has been setting the world on fire, but I think it’s because he couldn’t have what he wanted. And what he wanted…”

  She tilted her finger across the table at Pepper.

  An electric pulse raced through her belly in response. “Oh, stop it. He has not been longing for me forever.”

  Suz shrugged. “I call them as I see them, and I think that boy is smitten. But you can go on denying it if it makes you feel better.”

  “I’m going to pout,” Kendra announced. “I don’t think this is very fair. Why do some girls always get the guy?”

  Pepper opened her mouth to protest, but Suz beat her to it, patting Kendra sympathetically on the hand. “I know it seems one-sided when someone like me has all the boys following her like bees beaconed to a flower patch. Like wasps to an open bottle of beer. Like ants to a picnic.”

  “You’re making me want to break out a can of Raid. Just saying,” Kendra warned.

  Pepper agreed, but from everything she’d heard, Suz was that desirable. “Maybe you have the right pheromones.”

  “You know I was talking about you,” Kendra grumbled, “but that’s fine. I can be the poor, spinster sister, sitting at home and polishing the silver.”

  If she didn’t know how much Kendra had dated in college, Pepper would have felt more guilt. “I thought you said you needed about a year to recover from that debacle of ‘accidentally’ dating three guys at one time? On the same night?”

  Across the table from her, Kendra’s and Suz’s expressions were opposites in extremes. Suz looked impressed, Kendra resigned.

  “You had to go and remind me of that?”