Page 22 of Spurred On

And she knew, just then, everything would be all right . . . even after Cade’s bellow of “No, hell no!” echoed throughout the room.

***

Whatever Cade and Cody had planned for Tibby didn’t play out at dinner. In fact, Sidney was horrified to discover that in Cody’s stupid little icebreaker—where each woman paired up with a hunk—Tibby had somehow snagged Logan as her partner. To his credit, he looked terrified. Hanna—saddled with one of the strippers—seemed equally consternated. Only Cody seemed blissfully unconcerned. Until he caught Sidney’s glare.

If Logan was in Tibby’s claws all night, Hanna might not even want him back—him being all shredded and fondled and molested and all.

Amy nudged her and held up a red disc. “I got Mr. Red. The hottie with all the tats.” She grinned. “Who’d you get?”

Cody’s brilliant idea was to have the men wear bandanas that matched the discs the ladies pulled from the velvet bag. Brilliant. Except Tibby picked Logan right off the bat.

“I got Mr. Green.” Sidney scanned the ballroom until she spotted him and then she sniffed. Mr. Green was cute, with short, sandy blond hair and sexy bedroom eyes, but Sidney had noticed him rubbing himself all over one of Tibby’s friends, which was a definite turnoff.

Aside from that, he was shorter than her and not half as cute as Cody.

But none of them were.

Mr. Green sauntered over with a wicked grin on his face, then pulled her onto her feet and into his arms. All she was aware of was his heat, the scent of sweat on his body, and a mild roil of distaste.

She was hardly a prude, but this dude was half naked and groping her. And she hardly knew him. Not her favorite scenario.

But Cody was watching.

Intently.

His glare was bilious.

So she decided to play along. Just to be contrary.

Throughout the evening, she made it a point to smile and flutter her lashes and let her hand linger on Mr. Green’s bare forearm. The forearm thing seemed to really ruffle Cody’s feathers, so she did it again and again.

After a while, he stormed over and barked, “Can I speak with you?”

Sidney smiled at him, because that was just what she wanted. Oh yeah, she had some things to say to him all right. “Sure.”

“Not you.” He bent down and whispered in Mr. Green’s ear and Mr. Green paled. His bulky arm eased from around her shoulders.

To her annoyance, Cody shot her a grim glower and pranced back to the stage.

Mr. Green, who had gone decidedly pale, shifted farther away and turned to her with a stiff grimace that might have been an attempt at a smile. “So,” he said. “I . . . Ah . . . What do you do for a living?”

“Me?” she asked, although it was obviously a rhetorical query. He didn’t give a shit what she did for a living. He just wanted to survive the night. And whatever Cody’d said to him had him quaking in his boots. “I’m in coffee.”

“Really?” His expression became more strained. “I, um, love coffee.”

Of course he did. Everyone did. But what any of them did for a living was way beyond the point. “Can I ask you a question?”

His eyes went wide. “Um, okay.”

“What did Cody say to you?”

The tips of Mr. Green’s ears went pink. “I . . . shouldn’t say.”

She leaned closer, set her hand on his thigh, and whispered into his ear, “But you will.”

He froze. A trickle of sweat beaded on his hairline. His eyes flicked wildly around the room.

“Well?”