“Yes, Oz?”I asked, grinning as I took another drink.
His jaw was jutted out as he clenched his teeth.He needed to lighten up.I shifted my focus to the guy to his left.It had been years, but I recognized Calvin.He had more of our mother’s features than we did, and that pissed me off.Why?I didn’t know, but it did.
“Long time,” I drawled, sticking the bottle between my thighs and stretching an arm across the back of the seat.
“Yeah, it has been.I appreciate y’all doing this for me,” he replied.
“We’re happy to help,” Kash told him.
I just laughed.Because, no,wefucking weren’t.
“Ignore him.He’s drunk,” Kash informed him, as if that wasn’t obvious.
My gaze moved over the room.I didn’t really care what else was said.I wasn’t sure I’d remember it anyway.A pair of wide gray eyes stared at me.I paused momentarily, forgetting that I was pissed and annoyed.Thick black lashes made them appear almost like a pale silver instead of gray.There was fear and something else I recognized, but couldn’t place.It was forlorn, lost, dark.
When they blinked, I snapped out of whatever trance I’d been in, and my gaze began to take in the owner of those eyes.Hair the color of the blackest ink, parted in the middle and hanging in waves over her shoulders.Skin that reminded me of porcelain yet not as pale in color.Then, finally, I checked out the lips, and, mother of God, they were a perfect Cupid’s bow, unpainted yet a rosy pink.
There was no way that this was just Calvin’s best friend.That was utter bullshit.A man wasn’t just friends with a woman that looked like that.I hadn’t gotten past her damn face, and I was already imagining bending her over the portion of the sofa she stood behind and fucking her.
I reached for the bottle between my legs as my eyes traveled down what I could see of her body, then muttered a curse as I took a long pull of the whiskey.Big tits.Best friend, my ass.
Tearing my eyes off the girl, I looked back at Calvin, who was watching me with uncertainty.
You brought her here, dipshit.She’s a smoking hot piece of ass.We aren’t blind.
“Best friend, huh?”I asked with a smirk, and his gaze darted to her.
“Forge.”Oz’s tone was a warning, but I did not care.He could suck a dick.
“What?”I asked, grinning at him.“You don’t believe that shit either.Unless our dear cousin is gay.”I looked back at him.“It’s okay if you are.To each his own and all that shit.”
“Jesus Christ,” Kash muttered.
“You can just call me Forge, little brother,” I replied, then looked back at the girl.“Is it abest friends with benefitsthing?”I asked her.
The instant reddening of her cheeks made me chuckle.
“Go sleep it off,” Oz barked at me.
I ignored him and winked at her.“I’m just getting to know our new housemate.”
“Forge, Kash,” Winslet said cheerily as she entered the room.“I didn’t know y’all had arrived.”She walked to the large coffee table and put a tray of cookies, muffins, and some slices of lemon cake down.“I just need to go get the plates,” she informed us.
“Why don’t you take Elsie with you?”Oz told her.
Winslet kept her smile, but I could see the question in her eyes as she looked back at my brother.
“He wants to get her away from me,” I drawled, then held up the bottle in my hand.“I’ve been drinking.”
She cut her gaze at me, and then without missing a beat, she looked over at Elsie.The name didn’t fit her.It sounded young and cute.She was more siren-like.I was gonna need to give her a new name.
“I can show you how to use the espresso machine.It’s fabulous once you get the hang of it.That is, if you like coffee,” Winslet told her.
She nodded.“I do.”
Winslet began to chatter on about nothing important as she walked back over toward Elsie.But Elsie wasn’t paying her much attention either.Her gaze was back on me.I puckered my lips at her as if to kiss the air, then took another drink.
This might not be so bad after all.I needed a distraction, and she was proving to be just that.
