“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Hunter, stepping closer to him.
“It’s okay, Gabby.” Hunter stroked a thumb over my cheek. “I’m sorry we couldn’t finish what we started, but you have to admit that this is a funny story to look back on.”
“You getting hit and then tased till you almost pass out isn’t funny to me.” I pouted and laid a kiss on his bruised temple. “I…I don’t like the thought of you hurt.”
I was grateful we had this time tonight, but I greedily wished we could have gone all the way.
Hunter was about to speak when Josh swiftly turned around and said, “What do you guys want to drink—oh.”
Like I’d been touched by fire, I jerked away from Hunter.
Josh squinted at us, the wheels in his mind churning. Only the girls figured out we’d been on an actualdate. But they didn’t tell the boys. The latter were under the impression that Hunter and I were just hanging out. Hell, I had been under that impression too until I saw what he did for me.
And the last thing I wanted was Josh opening his mouth and asking if I was getting it on with his best friend.
Masking my anxiousness, I shimmied a hand down my dress in a guise to straighten out any wrinkles from the silky material. “I’ll, um, have a whiskey.”
“Same,” Hunter grated, his hands flexing on his hard thighs like he was stopping himself from reaching out and reeling me back into his embrace, our audience be damned.
It wasn’t lost on me that we were behaving very affectionately and all our friends took note, but no one said anything. It only added to my nervousness for when they would ask. How would we react? What would we say? All these thoughts ping-ponged inside my skull and made my head spin.
Josh slid us our whiskeys, Sam prepared two Cuba libres for Anna and himself, and Layla nursed a non-alcoholic drink, topped with a maraschino cherry. We did a quick cheering motion and proceeded to joke about the circumstance that brought us together.
For the next half an hour, we proceeded to talk about all sorts of subjects and the tension ebbed away from my coiled muscles with every passing minute. Layla was sitting in Josh’s lap, and Anna and Sam stood a respectable distance from each other but kept exchanging heated glances when they thought the other one wasn’t looking.
As for Hunter and me?
His presence on the kitchen stool next to me was a searing brand poking into my side, the intensity of his gaze making me feel like a guilty, diminished version of myself. I tried my best not to stare at him, but it was impossible.
When I did, he was giving me this borderline hurt and confused expression as if he didn’t understand why I was suddenly acting standoffish, since I’d been all over him less than an hour ago. That look inflicted a wound on me, one that slowly suppurated under my skin. I almost succumbed and grabbed his hand to reassure him that everything was fine.
But that would invite questions we couldn’t answer yet, especially when we’d barely discussed anything amongst ourselves.
Swallowing the lump burning in my throat, I let my tousled hair fall over one shoulder, erecting a curtain between us. As ifthat would keep my emotions hidden, my heart protected, my mind at ease.
The attention was thankfully diverted from Hunter and me completely when Josh started drizzling noisy kisses along Layla’s bare shoulder while she sipped her drink, hiding her lovestruck smile. Layla was a bit more demure and discreet with her affections, but Josh didn’t care about PDA. If he could shout it from the rooftop that Layla was his for the world to know, he would one hundred percent do it. He was so whipped for her, it was endearing.
“Get a room,” Sam said what we were all thinking, mockingly rolling his eyes.
A girlish laugh burst out of Anna, but she quickly tamed it by biting her lip.
Sam’s mischievous gaze snapped her way, raking her figure from head to toe almost hungrily. Anna looked every bit the beauty queen she was, her makeup flawless, her pink halter dress poured over her sculpted body, and not a single strand of her blond bombshell waves out of place. The only thing that was missing from her person to really complete the imagery was a crown, a sash, and a sceptre.
Sam wordlessly told her that he found her drop dead gorgeous.
Without looking away from her, he picked up a crystal glass from the counter and took a sip of the rum and Coke, his stance calm and collected but his energy flirting with something untamed.
Anna’s hazel eyes flared slightly and she murmured, “That was my drink.”
Dark amusement tinged his smirk. He used a thumb to rub over his bottom lip, where her lipstick stain—previously stamped on the glass’s rim—was now smudged over his mouth like an indirect kiss. “Was it?”
There’d always been a strong tension between Sam and Anna, woven from the moment they first laid eyes on each other. Despite them trying to play it cool whenever they encountered each other, I knew better.
Sam didn’t come here tonight on a rescue mission to be a saint.
He was only here for Anna.
And unfortunately, for the moment being, Anna wanted nothing to do with men…and Sam wanted everything to do with her.
