Page 30 of Dangerously Tempting

“So, I may spend way too much time with Theo and have adopted how extra he can be sometimes.” We both laugh, and I shove his shoulder. He catches my hand, pulling me into him, and he snags the tablet off the table to pass it to me.

“There is absolutely no way my karaoke will be anything like that, so don’t get your hopes up,“ I warn him.

“Just have fun, beautiful. That’s the only goal here.”

“I think I can do that,” I reply, scrolling through the songs until I find the one I have in mind. He offers me the mic he was using and I take it, standing up.

I lip sync the well-known intro before the song drops in, turning to give my ass a little wiggle before I drop into singing Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot. Jameson watches with a wide smile on his lips, cat calling me at points through the song when I throw it back or give a shimmy.

We both fall into a fit of laughter when I’m done, and I can see why he and his friends end up here once a month. There’s something about not giving a care in the world while you shout/sing along to a song that’s absolutely ridiculous while making a fool of yourself in front of those you’re closest to.

By about the third song in, we’re both sweating, but can’t wipe the smiles from our faces. We’re having a ton of fun with something I wasn’t fully sure I’d even enjoy doing. Jameson is half way through Rollin’ by Limp Bizkit when the door swings open and a really well dressed, good looking blonde man strolls in, snatches the extra mic off the table with a saucy wink in my direction, and joins the second half of the song like he’s been here the whole time.

They both jump around, throwing their firsts up in the air as they belt out the lyrics, and I laugh as I watch them. With the way they nudge at each other, make exaggerated facial expressions at one another, and how in sync they are as they jump around, I just know that this man can be none other than his best friend, Theo.

The song comes to an end and they both bow with hand flourishes, doing it so in sync I know it’s not the first time they’ve done this. I clap, wooing at them. They collapse onto the couch beside me, and Theo extends his hand out past Jameson, where he sits between us.

“You must be Amelia. This one won’t shut up about you,” he says nodding his head towards Jameson, who gives him a little shove so he has to resituate himself and offer his hand again. I take it with a laugh.

“And you must be Theo. He doesn’t shut up about you, either.” We grin at each other and Jameson swivels his head between us.

“I don’t like this at all,” he says, as the grins on our faces grow bigger as we shake each other’s hands for what would be an incredibly awkward amount of time, if we weren’t just trying to get a rise out of him. He finally reaches up, pulling our hands apart, and Theo and I laugh.

“New rule,” Jameson says with a serious look on his face. “There will be no touching, no getting chummy, no plotting nefarious things amongst each other, and no tormenting of yours truly.”

“Awe, but that would ruin all the fun,” Theo whines. “Besides, you know you can’t deny me.” He slings his arm over Jameson’s shoulder, tugging him close as he puckers up like he’s going to lay one on his cheek, but Jameson shoots a hand up between them, pushing his face away.

They’re both laughing, and so am I, but my stomach clenches anyways. He’s funny as hell, obviously the fun playful type that I vibe with very well, but there’s one thing that’s very transparent to me about Theo. My thought is only hammered home when Theo ruffles Jameson’s hair and says, “The only real rule here is that if you hurt him, I hurt you.”

It’s not the words, or even how he says them, that gives him away. It’s how Jameson is looking at me, waiting to see how I’ll react to his best friend’s threat, while Theo looks at him while he speaks the words, the sort of longing that is bone deep shining in his eyes. It’s a look I’ve seen countless times on the faces of my friends when they’ve fallen so hard they don’t even see anyone else.

My stomach doesn’t pitch because I’m jealous. It does so because my heart goes out to him. He’s head over heels for a man who doesn’t even notice, and even if he did wouldn’t return the sentiment. An unrequited love like that is putting your heart in a guillotine and waiting with your breath held for the inevitable fall.

I try to smile, but know that it doesn’t fully reach my eyes when Theo finally turns his gaze to mine. His eyes widen a fraction as he sees straight through me, seeing straight through him. His eyes flick away quickly and he swallows roughly.

“Never,” I say with all seriousness. “I will never hurt him on purpose.”

Theo turns to look at me again, and I let him see how serious I truly am, doing my best to portray with a look that I will take care of Jameson and protect him in all the ways that Theo can’t, and that includes not ever coming between them and their friendship.

He smiles, his eyes sad, and I’m almost certain he understands. “Good,” he says softly. He reaches over, grabbing up the tablet of songs, and offers it to me. “Now do a duet with me so we can really get acquainted.”

I grin, taking it from him, having the perfect song in mind.

The songs bleed together after that, and time melts away. We stay out singing until way too late for a weekday night, but it’s easily one of the best nights I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t trade it for sleep even if I could.

18

Jameson

Playlist: "WOW," Zara Larsson

The next day is really busy at work, so thankfully I don’t have time to over analyze or think about how the situation with my bike could have possibly been Tori. Most likely it was just a fluke. I could have run over a nail or any number of things. Flat tires happen all the time. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and think that it was her. That’s giving her more power over my life than she deserves.

Besides, the cops treated it like it was nothing. They brushed for prints and looked everything over and then kind of shrugged it off like all of this is normal. I’m sure they didn’t believe me when I said that nothing really happened between us but a single date, and thought that this whole situation is somehow of my own creation.

I would fess up to that fuck up immediately, if that were the case. I’ve done my best to make it clear to her that I want nothing to do with her, so I know this isn’t on me. I’ll just have to wait for the detective assigned to my case to look over everything I’ve given them to see where they go. I’ll be surprised if they do anything with it at all, at this point.

I’m sitting in my living room shortly after getting home when my phone buzzes across the coffee table. I scoop it up, expecting word from Amelia, but I’m caught off guard by the words on the screen.

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