Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Don't look now," I said in Brody's ear after I rose from my stool.
The moment I watched Rhett slide off his bar stool and stalk toward where Sassy and I were dancing, I knew this night was about to devolve into a shit show.
Sass and I were each already three shots and two beers deep.
Rhett had left behind a befuddled-looking Brody at the bar.
Some unwanted but not unpleasant sense of protectiveness washed over me when Brody'd sent his best friend after his ex-fiancée with a simple hand on his shoulder.
I had an inkling his confusion would turn to discomfort the moment he saw Rhett's hands on Sassy's waist as they slow danced to "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait.
Best I could do for him was to control the situation, give him a distraction.
"Your best friend and your ex are getting cozy on the dance floor."
He tipped his head up from where he'd bent it to listen to my whisper-shout, giving them a quick glance. Couldn't place the look that crossed his handsome face.
Then he smiled. "Good. How it was supposed to be all along."
You could've knocked me over with a feather. Sure, I knew Brody was attracted to me. But he'd been nursing a broken heart, rebounding when he met me. Yet he looked so at peace seeing Rhett and Sassy together.
It was hard not to admire him for it.
"You are a strong man, Brody Lancaster." I ran my fingers across his cheek and through the hair peeking out of his hat. He leaned into my touch, then turned and kissed my palm. He reached up, gripping my hand in his, dropping them between us and squeezing. "A good man," I added.
A self-deprecating laugh rumbled through his chest. The music swelled around us, but I caught every word despite the noise from the crowded bar.
"Eh, I don't know about all that. Big fuckin' fool of a man, sure. But everyone's got their part to play, I reckon."
The resignation in his voice lit a fierce spark in my chest. This man who'd walked away from his own wedding because he loved his best friends enough to step aside—calling himself a fool.
"No. You're no fool."
My fingers tightened against his, forcing him to meet my gaze. Those green eyes held too much pain for someone in his thirties. Too much self-doubt for a man who'd shown more integrity in one moment than most people managed in a lifetime.
"Lies. Pretty lies, viper."
The way that nickname rolled off his tongue made me want to slap him and fuck him at the same time.
Who the hell did he think he was, making me feel things?
I didn't do this. Didn't get invested or attached.
But like hell would I walk out of this bar tonight with this boy scout thinking I was feeding him sweet nothings, playing some game.
Didn't he realize I'd already seen through that charming smile to the raw honesty underneath?
"Honey, I tell no lies."
Whatever games other people played, I didn't have the patience for them.
I wanted this man, despite throwing around the word friends like a weapon.
If Rhett and Sassy could do whatever it was they were doing, surely Brody and I could do whatever it was we were doing without interfering with my work or my newfound friendship with Sass.
"Honey, huh? Friends don't call friends honey either, Calvin."
"But we're so much more than friends, aren't we, boy scout?"
I stared up at him. A challenge. Waiting to see if he'd rise to it.
It took a beat or two, but he didn't disappoint.
Brody tugged me into his big body by the hand he still held in his. He didn't let go—just bent down, tilted his head to avoid knocking his hat off, and kissed me like he meant it.
There was no lie in my words, and no lies in this kiss, either. It was nothing like the kisses we'd shared stumbling our way up the steps toward his apartment less than a week ago. This was less desperate and more reverent.
I'd never felt anything like it.
Like I was being savored.
Cherished.
Like he was memorizing the taste of my lips and the way they felt against his.
When he pulled away, I was the one chasing his mouth this time. I wanted more of whatever that was. I wanted teeth and tongue. But all I'd gotten was the axis-altering glide of his mouth against mine.
He smirked down at what I could only imagine was a dazed, lust-drunk expression on my face. The music switched from the sweet, slow shit Rhett and Sassy were swaying to into a more upbeat song.
"Ah, this is a good one." Brody grinned. "Now how's about that dance?"
Before I could fully pull myself out of my Brody-induced stupor, he was pulling me onto the dance floor.
Gone was the melancholy man mourning his fool-heartedness.
The Brody that stood before me now was all confident cowboy, manhandling my body until I was pressed up against him, one hand in his and the other around his neck, playing with the ends of his hair as he two-stepped us in circles around the rest of the crowd.
In addition to very enthusiastically eating pussy, my boy scout could dance.
I vaguely registered the shapes of Rhett and Sassy moving nearby as Brody suddenly spun me out before pulling me back in. I crashed into him on a laugh that had him smiling down at me like he'd just won first prize in the rodeo.
Other patrons hooted and hollered, as enthralled by the show Brody was putting on as I was.
Being in his orbit, in his arms, was intoxicating.
Despite all that lay underneath, Brody was a good-time guy.
He was fun—energetic and entertaining. He drew the eyes of every person in the bar, and when he dipped me at the end of the song, letting me hang there dramatically, it was Sassy's eyes I caught.
There was no malice in her gaze, no jealousy.
More like understanding or approval, even.
After all, if anyone knew the spell that Brody Lancaster could put you under, it was her.
Hell, it had her avoiding her feelings for Rhett for the better part of a decade.
The music shifted back to something slower. I was sweating and smiling.
Happy.
Brody pulled me impossibly closer and pressed a kiss to my forehead. For fuck's sake, I wasn't a woman who swooned, but Jesus… this man was doing things to me that he had no business doing.
Before we could cement this little number as more than simple fun between two more-than-friends but not-quite-lovers, I panted up at Brody. "Need some water."
He nodded, leading me back toward the bar with a hand on my lower back. That small gesture alone had my heart banging against my rib cage.
Instinct told me to beat it into submission.
But I found I didn't totally hate it.