Page 91 of Reckless
Ben shifted his attention back to her and, in the most normal, reasonable, unthreatening voice imaginable, said, “You still owe me a drink for ditching me at the marina fundraiser.”
I stared at him.Charlie bit into a grin beside me hard enough that his whole face suffered.
Kelly looked faintly horrified.“That was not a date.”
Ben lifted one shoulder.“It had potential.”
My entire body has decided something before my mind thought it through.Tight in my chest and lower in my stomach, heat edged with something darker and less civilized than I preferred to admit to myself.
He was exactly the kind of man who could stand near a woman like Kelly and look.
Kelly laughed in that flustered, defensive way women laughed when they had no intention of giving a man what he wanted and didn’t want to be cruel about it.
“It did not.”
Ben looked entirely unconcerned by the rejection.“Agree to disagree.”
Then, because apparently the universe had chosen violence, he glanced at her drink and said, “Let me get you another one.”
“No,” I said.The word came out before I chose it.
Ben watched me.
Kelly looked at me.
For one second, my control had slipped and I set my own glass down.
Then forced my voice back into something more even.“I’m getting the next round.”
Ben’s brows lifted.
Kelly’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Ben, to his credit, didn’t puff up or posture.He gave me one measured look and said, “All right.”
Then to Kelly, “Nice running into you.”
“Yeah.”She smiled, but it wasn’t quite the same smile as before.More careful now.“You too.”
He squeezed her elbow lightly on the way out.
Ben disappeared back into the crowd.
The second he was gone, Charlie muttered into his drink, “Wow.”
Hope elbowed him.“Shut up.”
“No, I mean wow.”
“Charlie.”
“I’m being silent now.”
Liar.
Kelly turned to me slowly.
Worse, I knew what I’d earned from it.
