Chasing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 4)

by Jayne, Kris

  Rather than avoid Graham’s narrowed gaze, Alexa looked at him straight and didn’t blink.

  * * *

  Graham’s heart raced with unjustified fury. He and Alexa were just connecting, so he had to expect there would be one or two other guys in the wings. Still, seeing another man’s flowers displayed in her office stung his ego.

  He searched her impassive face for some clue as to how attached she was to Red Rose Guy. She stared back, giving him nothing.

  Graham smirked. “Beautiful. Incredibly cliché, but beautiful.”

  “You think you could’ve done better?” Her obvious joy at his discomfort added a roguery to her smile.

  “You are not a clichéd woman. I would’ve gone for something more exotic. I mean baby’s breath? Come on.”

  “I think they’re lovely.”

  Lovely? The primness of the word on Alexa’s lips caused a burst of laughter to erupt from his chest.

  “Sure you do. When is Mr. Cliché arriving?”

  “I’m not entirely sure, but he’s supposed to be here for South by Southwest.”

  “Does he work in the entertainment industry?”

  The thought that this could be some oily bigwig who knew Alexa from her modeling days made him crazy.

  “No, he works in technology as a consultant.”

  A consultant, Graham thought, might be worse than some overly tanned executive.

  When he didn’t say anything, Alexa continued. “I met him when I went to visit my friend in England at Thanksgiving. He’s British. And he’s also an artist. He paints and sketches.”

  Graham envisioned a pale, long-haired hippie with bad teeth.

  “He sounds fascinating, but I don’t want to spend lunch talking about some other guy—especially one as uninteresting as this one sounds.”

  “Your jealousy is kind of exciting.”

  “No jealousy.” Graham waved his hands to sweep away the notion. “Frankly, I can tell you’re not that into him.”

  “What on Earth makes you say that?” Alexa leaned back and crossed her arms.

  “Number one, you’re not even sure when he’s arriving. If you were that excited, you’d be counting down the days. Number two, since you’re not counting down the days, his sending flowers is only bound to annoy you. I know you well enough to know that. You’re not his girlfriend. And number three, you called them ‘lovely.’ Lovely is a word old women use when they’re trying to be nice about ugly children or friends they secretly can’t stand. You don’t use ‘lovely’ to describe anything related to a guy who makes you hot.”

  Alexa emitted a soft rumble of laughter. “Wow. Wouldn’t you make an excellent detective.”

  “I’m a keen observer, but no worries. I can handle some ‘lovely’ competition.”

  His cocky assertion drew a smile from her. Maybe she found it stimulating—more stimulating than some stodgy British guy. He’d bet the guy had snaggleteeth. And rickets. Or was it scurvy? How rude would it be to send a basket of limes to the guy’s hotel?

  Alexa blew off his snide remark. “You men and your pissing contests. Am I a trophy now?”

  “It’s nature. I’m a man, and I can’t help puffing out my chest when I hear that some other man is after one of my ladies.”

  “One of your ladies? Maybe I should be puffing out my chest. Or I could pee on your leg.”

  Graham knocked back his head and erupted in laughter. “I know a guy who’d pay you to do that.”

  “Who the hell do you hang out with?” Her top lip curled up in disgust even though she laughed.

  “I have a varied assortment of friends.”

  Alexa palmed her face, shaking her head. “Is there anything else we need to discuss? Unlike you, who seems to have unlimited amounts of time for gallivanting, I need to get back to work.”

  “Gallivanting? I’m checking in on one of my most valued tenants.”

  Alexa blew him a raspberry. “Get out of my office.”

  She flipped her index finger toward the door and gave him a stern look. He laughed and stood to leave.

  “So bossy. I know a guy who’d pay for that, too.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Over the next three weeks, Alexa counted down the days, but not necessarily with anticipation.

  After their initial conversation, Graham never mentioned Adam again or asked when he was coming. With South by Southwest starting over the weekend, he had to know Adam’s arrival approached.

  She couldn’t tell whether arrogance or envy kept Graham from acknowledging the arrival of…her old lover? She didn’t know what to call Adam.

  “Lover” made her cringe. Much about the situation gave her an acid stomach. That afternoon, she worked out her nerves by finishing her kickboxing class with furious combinations of hooks, jabs, and round house kicks before the cool down.

  “Damn. You kicked our asses today,” wheezed Hannah, one of her loyal clients. The woman dropped her hands to her knees, bracing herself and gasping.

  “Working through some bad energy.”

  Shortly before her class, Adam left her a voicemail to let her know he’d landed at Bergstrom Airport. The anticipation in his voice provided the nervous energy for her workout.

  When she got back to her office, she called him back. He wanted to have dinner.

  “I assume you want to get to your hotel and freshen up.” She hoped the casual persuasion in her voice would cut off debate. “I’m still at work, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to get out of here. I taught classes this afternoon, so I have some office work to finish.”

  “Well, I’d love to see you tonight, if you have time.”

  “How about we make plans for tomorrow?”

  Graham had challenged her to a pool tournament. Competitive, Alexa told him to bring it on. Knowing the flight from London would arrive after five p.m., she hadn’t expected to see Adam today.

  Silence lingered on the phone line, followed by a hiss. Sigh or a tick in their phone connection—she couldn’t tell. “Alright then. Tomorrow at eight o’clock? I’ll make reservations somewhere.”

  “That works. Just let me know where, and I’ll meet you there.”

  “You could just meet me at the hotel, and we can go together.”

  “It depends on where you make reservations. With the festival traffic, meeting you there simplifies things. During South by, it’s tough to even get a pedicab. The streets are crazy.”

  “You certainly would know more about that than I do, so I’ll let you know where I make the reservation. You can meet me there.”

  Alexa felt as if she had to pull acquiescence out of him. That didn’t bode well.

  * * *

  “Your shot, my lady.”

  Graham gestured toward the cue ball after missing a tough bank shot to the side pocket. Alexa chalked her cue and surveyed the table. She had two relatively easy looks, but one might better position her to sink the other on her next shot.

  She lined up her stick and quickly fired, nailing the solid blue ball in the perfect spot. It dropped in the corner pocket, and the cue ball rolled into alignment with the solid yellow. Alexa sank that one as well and fist pumped at her competition.

  “So, when is Red Rose Guy getting here for the conference?”

  If he thought surprising her with a question about Adam would throw her off her game, he underestimated her focus. His mistake. She banked in the six and examined her next shot.

  “He got here today, actually.”

  “And you didn’t welcome him?”

  “He’s settling in at the hotel, and I’ll see him another time.”

  Alexa smacked the next shot too hard, scratching. Graham chuckled as he walked away from her to the end of the table to collect the cue ball and pick his next shot.

  “Sounds lovely.”

  “Smart ass. It’s not a big deal. It seems silly not to meet up with him since he’s flying all the way here from London.”

  “We’re keeping things easy, right
? You don’t know me an explanation.”

  Alexa stood her cue stick on the floor, leaning slightly against it. Although she didn’t have to justify herself, she still wanted to explain. “No, but you seem to have questions.”

  After making his first, Graham fired his second shot wide and the cue ball careened all the way back to the other end. He laid his stick across the edge of the table.

  “I’ll admit that I’m curious. You met him at Thanksgiving, and he’s coming to visit you now, but you seem nonchalant about it.”

  “Would you like me to be more excited about it?”

  Alexa’s eyes met his with a challenge.

  “Nope. So you’re not…dating him?” Graham’s pause piqued.

  “No. I didn’t invite him here. He’s in town on business. We’re friendly. It’s not a big deal.”

  “It’s a big enough deal that you felt compelled to tell me. You could have said nothing, and I would never have known.”

  “I wouldn’t say ‘compelled.’ You asked about the roses. I answered your questions. There’s no reason for me to be cagey about it.”

  He picked up his stick and let it slide through his fingers, banging it on the floor. “Okay.”

  The subject of Adam clearly irritated Graham. She supposed a little natural human jealousy was bound to crop up.

  Alexa took another solid off the table, then shot well wide of her target and put her hand on her hip. “I hope you aren’t grilling me thinking you can distract me.”

  “If I were, I’d be failing, wouldn’t I?” Graham moved around the table, evaluating his position. On one side, he had to turn and sidestep past Alexa in the narrow space.

  She angled away to give him more room, but he stopped, pressing toward her. Alexa backed up against the table, and he leaned into her.

  “Is this more or less distracting than my line of questions?”

  The twisted sparkle in his eyes made her laugh. His thick thigh pressed against her zipper. Even though she thought about riding him like a horse, she kept her legs firmly together.

  “Neither. I’m not distracted by you at all.”

  He bent toward her ear and leaned in with a whisper. “You sure? I’m trying pretty hard here.”

  “I can see that.” She rotated her hips away from him and walked to the end of the table. “I do have some questions for you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Do you really know a guy who would pay to have a woman boss him around?”

  “Seriously?” He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and laughed until he was nearly breathless. “Yeah, I do.”

  “How do you even find something like that out about somebody?”

  Graham drilled one of the stripes into a side pocket and straightened up.

  “There was a guy I worked with. We were out of town together on business, and in the morning, I was downstairs at breakfast waiting for him. He didn’t show. After a while, I got concerned because he wouldn’t answer his cell phone, and I couldn’t get him on the hotel phone either. I convinced the hotel to let me into his suite. Lucky for him, I went in alone. He was gagged with his hands behind his back tied up in zip ties. I had to use toenail clippers to chew through the plastic and cut him loose.”

  Alexa’s blast of laughter drew curious stares from a handful of people playing at the next table.

  “He kept saying, ‘You can’t tell anybody. Seriously, you can’t tell anybody.’ I promised him I wouldn’t. I asked him what his deal was. He said that he likes to hire women who specialized in bondage and domination stuff. And, I mean, this guy was a bigwig. A real power player in development and politics. He said it helped him relax to have a woman take control.”

  “The men who hire dominatrices are mostly really rich powerful guys, right? I just kind of assume that.”

  “I couldn’t tell you. I’m not really an expert. I only know the one guy.”

  “You don’t know a guy who hires women to pee on his leg?” Alexa shook her finger at him as if she caught him in a lie.

  “Oh wait, I know that guy, too.”

  “Different guy?”

  “Yeah, different guy. That was a guy in college. I think he just watched too much weird porn.”

  “I’m beginning to wonder about you. Part of the measure of a man is the company he keeps.”

  He pointed his stick at her in emphatic denial. “Hey, I don’t keep company with these guys. I only know them. I keep company with guys like my friend, Jonah. Settling down and becoming a family man. Maybe on our next date, I’ll bring references.”

  Graham focused back on the game, positioning his stick and firing. The cue ball bounced off the rail and straight at the eight ball.

  “No, no, no,” he groaned, leaning the opposite direction as if he could will the ball away from the hole. “Shit.”

  “That was quick.” Alexa sauntered over and smacked him on the ass. “You have my sympathy. Let’s rack them again.”

  She grabbed the triangle and suppressed a mocking laugh. She knew better than to make too much fun of a man when she was kicking his ass.

  Chapter Seventeen

  After their lopsided games of pool, they settled in at the bar and waited for Melissa and Kyle to join them. Alexa’s friend called as they were wrapping up to see if she wanted to hang out.

  Graham ran to the bathroom, and when he returned, he saw Alexa’s petite, dark-haired business partner holding hands with a stocky blond guy who had to be her fiancé. They exchanged introductions and found a table.

  “What have you guys been up to tonight?” Melissa asked.

  “Someone was killing me at pool, and now I owe her drinks.”

  Melissa gave Alexa a high five and shook her head at Graham. “Her dad taught her to play pool when she was, like, four or five years old. She’s a pool shark. She suckered you.”

  “You were hustling me?”

  “You’re the one who suggested we go play pool. I’m trying to be an agreeable woman.” Alexa batted her eyelashes and folded her hands, propping them under her chin.

  Her attempt at demure set the whole table tittering. Graham planted his elbow on the table and sat back in his seat.

  “I hope Alexa passed along my congratulations, Melissa.”

  “She did. Thank you. Kyle and I are so excited.”

  “How long have you been dating?”

  Kyle stroked his chin. “We’ve been together…almost three years now. We kinda started then stopped, and then started up again.”

  “Yeah, there is a gap in there of four or five months.”

  Since they’d brought it up, Graham figured it was okay to ask about it. “Why the break?”

  Alexa smacked his knee under the table with the back of her hand. Her admonishment wasn’t as surreptitious as she’d hoped. Melissa laughed.

  “It’s fine. I had an old boyfriend who came back. I was stupid, but it all worked out in the end.” Melissa dropped her head onto Kyle’s shoulder and squeezed his hand.

  Graham stiffened. He couldn’t imagine how embarrassing it was for Kyle to have his girlfriend up and leave to chase some old boyfriend. Obviously, she came crawling back at some point.

  The other couple exchanged an amorous glance.

  “Graham and I were looking at venues a few days ago and found a wonderful spot. It overlooks the river and has indoor and outdoor space. I meant to send you those pictures, Melissa.”

  “You and Graham are looking at wedding venues?” Kyle gasped and sputtered. His beer sloshed as it slipped out of his grasp to the table with a thud.

  “No,” Alexa and Graham vociferated simultaneously.

  Melissa set the record straight before her fiancé coughed up a lung. “I think it was for the juvenile diabetes benefit Alexa is helping out with for Toby and Sarah. Am I right?”

  “Yes. You’ll love it, and it’s not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be.”

  Alexa fished her phone out of her purse and climbed off her stool, walkin
g around to stand shoulder to shoulder with Melissa and page through the photos. With the women hunched over the phone, Graham stared at Kyle who sat opposite him, trying not to think about his last inappropriate inquiry into the other guy’s life.

  Kyle drummed the table then pointed. “Melissa tells me that you’re their landlord?”

  “I’m a partner in a commercial real estate management and development company. We purchased their building. What do you do?”

  “I’m an orthopedic trauma surgeon at University Medical Center.”

  Graham whistled. “Wow. I can’t imagine the stress.”

  “It’s tough, but I love the pace of it and the variety, just not the hours, which suck. I’m already taking extra shifts for colleagues so I can call in some favors and take a honeymoon. Melissa has thrown down one rule. We are having a honeymoon, longer than a week. My wedding gift to her is making that happen.”

  Talking about making his fiancée happy put a glowing light in Kyle’s eyes. Whatever had gone on before, Kyle had clearly put it behind him. Graham wasn’t sure he could do the same.

  “Are you talking about our honeymoon?” Melissa nudged Kyle with her elbow. “I’m making a list of places I want to go. I can’t decide between Europe, someplace with a beach, or maybe something unusual like an African safari.”

  Kyle reached over and stroked Melissa’s hand. “My vote is for the beach. I want to sit and do nothing. If we go to Europe, we’ll be running around all day. I’ll need a vacation from my vacation.”

  “I know. It’s just all the places I’ve ever really wanted to go are in Europe. We could find a place to sit and relax in Italy or the south of France.”

  After sitting back down, Alexa perked up. “I love southern France. You could stay near Nice and visit Monaco. I have a friend who owns an apartment there. She rents out on occasion to friends. I can get the information if you’d like.”

  “I love that idea,” Kyle exclaimed. “It’s a nice compromise. By the way, how was London? I don’t think I’ve seen you since you got back.”

  Graham glanced sideways at Alexa, who stiffened next to him. “London was nice.”