“He doesn’t tease me so much anymore. Just picks fights.”
“Oh, and you don’t? I’ve heard the two of you together,” Viola says, joining us. She hands me a glass of something before she walks down the steps back into the pool, going immediately for her daughters. “It’s lemonade and non-alcoholic,” she warns me as she stands in between Cora and Adalyn. “But if you’d like something a bit stronger to get through this crowd, we have plenty over at the bar.”
I shake my head, taking a sip. “This is perfect. Thank you.” I take another sip and then set it down on the edge of the pool.
“If you change your mind, neither of us would blame you. Keith hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you came back out. Not once. His intensity is starting to get to me and he’s not even looking at me. I swear, it’s like Jasper redux.”
Naomi laughs. “Lord, I still pant whenever I think about the chemistry Gus and I were throwing back and forth when we first met. I love where we are now and I would never go back in time, but sometimes I miss the build-up, you know?”
“Not really,” both Vi and I say in unison before our eyes clash with each other and the three of us crack up.
“Jasper and I hate-loved each other,” she continues. “We certainly didn’t have the easy-going thing you and Gus had. And Keith is acting like a freaking alpha wolf when it comes to her.” Vi points at me. “See. He’s talking, sipping his damn beer while Q-ing it up at the grill, but he’s staring so hard he doesn’t even realize I’m catching him in the act of doing it.”
Curiosity can be a real nuisance and before I can stop it, I’m glancing over. Straight into his electric blue eyes that are in fact staring straight at me. Into me. All over me. He’s now standing beside Jasper, helping him make whatever they’re grilling that smells so heavenly.
But yes, he’s staring at me—a deep look with no end.
And no, his eyes are not happy.
They’re feral. I want to yell, it was one damn kiss at him, but present company aside, I can’t. Because I’m struggling too.
I quickly look away.
Keith Dawson is a mindfuck I can’t indulge in. Even though I know I kinda started the battle, I’m holding up my white flag, needing to end the war.
I can’t keep playing this game with him. The one where I’m consumed with trying to figure him out. The one where I get lost staring into his eyes because it’s such a beautiful place to get lost in. I try not to let Viola’s words from earlier latch on, but it’s hard not to when he does, in fact, look at me differently.
I kissed him and we haven’t talked about it. I kissed him and now he pretends like it never happened. So okay. Message received.
Still… I can’t find it in me to regret it. And I can’t stop myself from wanting to do it again, even when I know I absolutely should not.
16
Keith
* * *
“If you don’t go after her, I will,” Henry tells me plain as freaking day, no punches pulled or sarcasm gracing his lips. “She’s hot. She’s smart. She’s feisty. Fuck, a total firecracker. The complete package. And she totally digs me.”
I scoff at that last bit if only to deflect. “I think you’re wrong on that last one, bro.” Because that hot, smart, feisty girl kissed me. Not you. But we’re certainly not talking about that right now because none of these guys know my sweet darlin’ planted a big one on me.
Or that I reciprocated like a man offered a second chance at life.
At breathing.
“You need to quit that. She works for us,” I tell Henry since that’s my mantra and I’m holding firm to it.
“Yeah, but look at Vi and Jas.”
I growl. Because that’s all I seem to do this week. I had a feeling he was going to go there. “That was different, and you know it.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. She lives with you, so I think that makes her more off-limits for you than me. All I’m saying is if you want her, you should stake your claim before someone better does. Someone like me.”
“I didn’t think you liked them so curvy. You tend to go for the more petit ones.”
He hitches up an unconcerned shoulder. “Maybe I’ve been missing out. Maybe it’s time I try something new.” He stabs his thumb into his chest with a smug smirk because he knows me well enough to know he’s got me. Even if he’s a lying bastard.
Because I seriously want to kill every asshole here. Especially Marco and Ethan, who keep going on and on about her body like it’s something to gossip about. It’s not. I get that they don’t like pussy, but every other dude here does. And the last pussy on earth I want the straight males focused on is hers.
“Knock it off, Okay? I mean it.”
“You’re dumb. That’s all I’m saying. You have a hot woman who you’re obviously into living in your house. Every man, straight and gay” —he points at Ethan and Marco— “want her. You want her. You want her so bad you haven’t stopped staring. What’s your hang-up? Because she works for us? Or is it something—”
I glare at him. I glare fucking hard. “Stop—”
“Gotta jump back into the ocean sometime, brother. And she might just be the perfect fish to help you swim again.”
She could be. I haven’t known her long, but I know we have something different.
I like her. Hell, how could I not? And yeah, okay, I might really like her.
But that doesn’t change our reality. Or at least mine.
We’re a ticking time bomb. A game of Russian roulette. We’re those angry looking storm clouds you see right before the funnel drops and a tornado wipes out your goddamn town.
We’re power and heat and electricity. But all I see when I allow myself to feel any of that energy is destruction. Is chaos. Is loss.
She’s sitting in the pool in those tiny panty-like bottoms and a T-shirt that does zero to hide her glorious tits beneath, and I don’t like how Henry notices just how incredible she is.
She was right.
She is my Pandora’s box.
Her evils are all over me, and I want to lick, taste, smell, kiss, touch, and fuck every last one of them. But I want more than that too, and that’s why Henry really needs to shut up.
Life rule #1: Under no circumstances can you sleep with your band’s stunning, completely untouched new assistant.
Yeah, that’s made it to the top of the heap. Because it’s so much more than the fact that her life has been rough. So much more than the fact that she’s living with me and needs to feel safe. So much more than she works for us.
And Henry knows it despite his goading.
“Since when do you care or notice things like that? Since when do you care about dating or relationships?”
He grins like the devil despite the hard glint to his eyes. “I don’t. You do. I will never want that whereas you’re secretly dying for it.”
I can’t say anything else without giving everything away, so instead I get up and move over to the grill where Jasper is dropping burgers, dogs, and steaks to cook. He even has veggie burgers for Lyric since she’s a vegetarian.