Chapter 14 #2
Clementine smacked Jagger’s arm. “Since you’ll be living here, I think it’s appropriate you introduce me. Not that I’ll be coming here unless absolutely necessary.”
Was she trying to speak in code?
I sensed their relationship was tumultuous. Her glare was harsh, cutting through me like a sharp knife used to gut roadkill. There was no doubt she was telling me to keep my mouth shut.
“Sure,” Jagger said, his upper lip curling into a smile. “These two assholes are my teammates. Hudson and Cole. Last names don’t matter because you won’t be getting close to them.”
The glare she tossed in his direction had the same poisonous venom.
“This is Chelsea. She’s my sister, which means hands off. If you touch her, you fucking die. That’s my only rule.”
I wasn’t certain if my mouth was hanging open or if I was still rocking the nasty look fully directed toward Jagger, but her contempt for her own brother was clear.
Or maybe her hate-filled expression was directed at both of us.
Whatever the case, she huffed, tossing her hair behind her shoulder and storming out.
“Men. You’re all fucking alike,” she hissed.
“Wait. Chelse. Come back.” Jagger dutifully followed and only then did I allow myself to exhale.
Hudson’s grin was back. So was his slap on my back. “Well, you dodged a bullet.”
“Yeah? How so? Girlfriend or sister. What’s the difference? It means one damn thing, Hands off.”
* * *
Chelsea
“There is nothing like witnessing the hottest male stripper on the planet taken away in handcuffs.”
“You’re kidding me?” I laughed as if on cue, although I was still reeling from the last two days. Between the passion, the dance, and my brother’s heartfelt request, I wasn’t entirely certain I hadn’t shifted into an alternate life.
Jagger had been right to ask me to go with him to grab his things, my appearance taking the wind out of our father’s sails, which I’d been glad to do.
Of course the man had gotten in a few nasty words, but we’d held our own even while Dad had tried to convince us to come talk to him about this big new project he was initiating.
The other reason for feeling as if I was living an alternate life? The moment I’d realized he was moving into the same house where Roy lived. I mean Cole, oh… It would seem karma had it out for me. That’s what I got for enjoying a night of sin.
“Nope,” Samantha continued. “It would seem the day before he’d been involved in an armed robbery at a liquor store. The guy was wearing the teensiest tiniest skivvies. Flaming hot pepper in color, baby.”
I burst out laughing, thankful I didn’t have a mouthful of liquor. “Now, you had an exciting night.”
“We did. Here’s the funniest part,” Samantha cooed while lifting her martini glass. “The bride to be asked one of the cops if he’d consider stripping instead.”
“She did not!”
“Oh, yes, she did. Still not the hysterical moment of the evening. Just when the event was winding down, we had a sexy little visitor.” She enunciated the last word while fanning her face.
“The cop?”
“Hell, yeah, babe, and he shamed the other dancers, he was that good. I’m wondering if the wedding is still on since he was single.”
I sat back, happy to have someone else’s crazy story to concentrate on. “That sounds crazy but like a lot of fun.”
“Too much alcohol. My head was spinning. Thank God for limo drivers and a handsome hotel concierge who guided us to our rooms, or I might have fallen asleep in the hotel fountain.”
While shaking my head, I noticed a group of girls sitting at a table near us were staring. Hard. Were we being that loud? Well, maybe Samantha was. “You are such a bad girl.”
“You should try it some time. It does a body and soul some good.”
I shrugged and noticed the women were whispering. Did I have something on my face? Granted, I’d been dragged out with barely any time to change, but I thought the hot little black dress, one of only three dresses I owned was at least acceptable.
“What is wrong with you tonight? Did something happen at work? The dance?”
Her question caught me off guard. “Why do you ask?”
“I know what you’re going to say. That I don’t know you very well, but when you have something on your mind, you have a tiny twitch in your right eye.”
Of course I immediately slapped my hand over it. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I’m just a keen observer. Comes with the territory. So what gives?”
“There’s supposedly some talent scouts for a couple dance companies going to come see one of the performances.”
“That’s amazing. I have no doubt you will win them over.”
I started to say she’d never seen me dance before remembering why I was likely her roommate in the first place. “Well, I told off the dance director and he’s allowed me to interpret the dance. So I’ll either fall on my face or be the star of the show.”
“I vote star. You have that kind of aura. But that’s not what’s bothering you. Is it?”
Leaning over the table, I wagged my finger. “How do you do that?”
“Call it a gift. I get that from my mother’s side of the family.”
“You mean a curse.” All I’d been doing was thinking about Roy for hours. My brother’s roommate and of course Jagger had issued some ultimatum like he was my keeper. I’d told him off, but he’d just shrugged and made a Neanderthal statement about how that’s what brothers did.
If Jagger ever found out we’d slept together, I could only imagine what he’d do. I’d already learned he and Cole were co-captains, which of course further complicated everything. Everything.
She wasn’t budging. I’d been able to tell from minute one of living with her that she would nag me until the end of time unless I confessed sins I hadn’t even known existed. “I met somebody.”
The way she jerked up in her seat made me incredibly nervous.
I grabbed my dirty martini, hoping that I could act cool, as if what I’d shared with the guy was no big deal.
I honestly wasn’t prepared for her to grill me on details, even if images of Roy’s smile and the way he’d looked at me were burning holes in my frontal lobe.
Let alone what visions of his body were doing to the rest of me.
“What guy exactly?”
If I confessed to almost flirting with him at the hockey game, her intuition would pick up on the fact he was a player. “At the gym. I was tidying up around the pool, he was swimming and I wasn’t paying attention and we ran into each other. He saved my phone from taking an eternal deep-sea dive.”
“And you went out with him.”
A sip of my drink had to give me courage.
A laugh from the women caught my attention and I glanced in their direction.
Three other girls had joined them. With the bar being super crowded, I certainly had no clue what they were talking about, but I didn’t like how they continued to rake their eyes down to my shoes.
Okay, so they were cheap knockoffs, but who cared?