“Fuck, Brynny!” he howls and drops to his knees. “You clipped a nut with your damn foot. Get the hell off me and start explaining this wilderness hike of yours, or I swear, one ball in my stomach or not, I’m gonna be kicking some ass!”
He’s a Kendrick man all right...ready to throw down for one of his own and quick with the profanity-filled threats I have no doubt he’ll deliver on if needed. So, unnoticed and forgotten, I step from the background to attempt and help my friend.
“Um, hi.” I offer him my hand. “I’m Bellamy Morgan, Brynn’s friend. We haven’t met, but, can I help you up?”
“Bellamy,” he repeats, turning my name into something else altogether, spoken with a deep, indecent consideration that rattles every bone in my body.
He takes my hand and smirks, devilishly sexy, when I gasp, taken aback by the spark that zings up my arm at contact. “No, we definitely haven’t met. I’d remember you.” He stands, keeping hold of my hand. “I’m JT Kendrick, Brynn’s older brother. It’s very nice to meet you, Bellamy.”
My entire body blazes with foreign, exotic heat from the molten suggestiveness in his smoldering, dark brown eyes, locked on mine and the gradual slide of his tongue over his full, bottom lip.
“It’s, uh, very nice to meet you too,” I fumble out in a skittish stammer, trying to retrieve my hand, which his bold grip won’t allow. “I just wanted to make sure you knew I’m here with Brynn and Ryder and assure you, nothing was going on in the woods that should worry or upset you.”
“No?” He arches a single brow, as dark as his eyes. “Then what was happening? The party, is that way.” He points without looking away from me, adding a crooked, irresistibly provocative grin to his unwavering gaze.
“JT!” Brynn’s sharp tone pierces the air. “You need to trust me and not ask questions that might embarrass anyone.”
“Ah, but beautiful Bellamy here wants to tell me, don’t ya?” He winks.
I have no siblings, and no guy has ever made it past two dates with me, but I work part-time at The Pit Stop to help my parents with the costs of college. It’s a burger/ice cream diner-themed little hole in the wall that all the jocks frequent...so I’m practiced in the ways of cocky guys who know they have the right stuff to be cocky. And I’ve learned, the best defense with those types of guys is an offense so bold it knocks them on their pretty asses.
I gulp down my nerves, raise my chin, and project a bravado he’s doing his best to make impossible. “If you must know, Jefferson, Brynn and I had to find adequate coverage to squat and take a piss. Not the sexy scandal you envisioned? Sorry to disappoint.”
“What is happening?” I hear Brynn whisper behind me.
“I believe,” Ryder answers her just as not-quietly-enough, “that your friend has rendered JT Kendrick speechless.”
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