Page 11 of Layne Closure Ahead

There he was saying her name like that again. Growing weary of his insistence about fulfilling his request, her arms dropped to her sides getting the feeling he wasn’t going to let this go. She just didn’t have the fight in her to argue with him for days, and knowing him he would argue with her for weeks if he felt so inclined. “What’s in it for me if I do?”

An amused grin appeared on his face. “Always about the bottom line, aren’t you? What do you want?”

The way he asked that second question seemed to hold a lot more than what met the eye. Then, he took a step toward her, his hands running up along her shoulders and up the sides of her neck until his palms settled on either side of her face. “Hm?”

A dryness overcame her mouth as he peered down at her while embracing her face in his hands.

Days before Mick’s ultimate betrayal, Layne was coming out of her bathroom after her morning shower. Joey had greeted her right outside the doorway as she exited. His hands cupped her face and pulled her in to steal a kiss from her.

After claiming her lips for a moment, he looked down into the sparkle of her green eyes. “Where was my invitation to join you?”

Layne grinned at him. “Since when has a lack of an invitation ever stopped you?”

Snapping back from the playback reel inside of her head, she found herself in the same place and looking up into the very same eyes as he held her face between his hands.

“Just… behave yourself. This isn’t an open invitation for you to start hanging around all the time.” Her hands came up to settle on top of each of his trying to will herself to pull them away.

Joey chuckled at such a minimal request. “Is that all?”

“I mean it, Joey. This one favor changes nothing. I will get you into the party, but that’s it. I’m washing my hands of all of this, including you. I’ve got enough shit going on without having to deal with yours, too.” Layne had no idea why she was bothering to grant him this one favor, but if it meant that he would quickly be back out of her life afterward, then she was willing to bend a little.

He pressed his forehead against hers as his thumb stroked over her cheek. “Thank you.”

She cleared her throat and finally managed to pull away from him before she made any more stupid decisions with her life. Layne hoped that he wouldn’t make her regret this.

“There are going to be ground rules because I don’t want to get dragged into this blindly. One,” she raised a finger at him as she counted, “you need to see someone about a tux. I can’t have you showing up like you rolled out of a Humvee. Two, I don’t want to know what the hell you need or why you need it at the party. I want total plausible deniability. And three, all your favors are all used up after this. Every. Last. One.”

Seemingly, Joey was in agreement with all of her rules as he nodded after each demand. “It’s a done deal then. We can talk about specifics as it gets closer.” The temptation to seal it with a kiss lingered in the air. A temptation that neither of them gave into.

After Joey got his boots back on, she shooed him off so she could go about her busy day of doing damage control around town, primarily trying to rein in Liam.

Layne did her best to convince herself that this wouldn’t get messy and that it was strictly a one-time business deal. The problem was that this had all the hallmarks of going to hell in a handbasket. Wasn’t that how everything in her life went?

CHAPTER FIVE

Finally, she felt like she could suck in some fresh air after Joey left her house. Fresh air that wasn’t tainted by the head swirling scent of him. She made a note that if she wanted to erase evidence of his time there, she was going to need to toss all her bedding in the laundry unless she wanted him haunting any more of her dreams. Damn it, she had forgotten the laundry again thanks to Joey’s unexpected visit.

Layne was seriously questioning her mental state in agreeing to this batshit insane request from him. She shouldn’t have agreed to it, but if there was anybody who wasn’t going to give up, it would be Joey.

Right now’s problem though? She had to deal with her brother which was an entirely different fiasco. One that had immediate and more damning consequences.

First things first, she went downstairs and pulled the invitation to Eric’s soiree out of a drawer filled with various other paperwork and takeout menus. The fancy script listed a phone number to RSVP. Well, there wasn’t going to be a better time than the present.

After dialing the number from her cell, she held it to her ear while it rang. Deep down, she hoped it would go to voicemail. That was until the smooth male voice answered on the other end.

“Eric Ellis.”

She mouthed the word ‘fuck’ and winced at the thought of actually having to have this conversation with him. Layne had been doing an expert job of avoiding talking to him after their encounter at the Brass Mirror, though it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part.

“Hi, Eric, it’s Layne O’Reilly.”

Immediately she could hear the smile reach his voice. “My little harpy, I’ve been waiting to hear from you.”

She cringed at his pet name for her but swallowed her pride for a brief moment so she could get through this discussion without compromising the whole damn setup.

“Things have been hectic. Look, thank you for the flowers but they aren’t necessary.”

“They were entirely necessary.” He sounded far too sure of himself.

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