Page 16 of Between the Lines

“You look well, Theo.” There, that was normal. No hint of weirdness there. “What brings you back to Boston?”

For just the merest blink of an eye, she thought she saw something like confusion flicker through his stare. Then it was gone, and she was sure that she’d imagined it, because he turned the charm back on—and he still had plenty—showing her a flash of teeth against that delicious skin.

“Business.” He didn’t elaborate; she didn’t ask. “And you’re still writing.”

It wasn’t a question, and she resented the hell out of what he hadn’t said with that, with the drink. “You don’t know me anymore, Theo. Don’t presume that you do.”

“I suppose that’s true.” She didn’t miss the hint of danger that snaked its way into his voice—he never had enjoyed being told that he was wrong. “For instance, I never would have pictured you as a voyeur.”

Time crashed to a standstill. Jo’s fingers, suddenly sweaty, slipped on her drink, which would have crashed to the ground if Theo hadn’t caught it, setting it back down on the bar.

“What did you say?” she finally gasped, her pulse stuttering before starting to throb double time. Her mouth was dry—she wanted her drink but didn’t trust herself to pick it up.

“I think you heard me,” he replied mildly, gesturing to the bartender, who brought him a glass of something that looked like club soda. In some dim recesses of her brain, Jo noted that it was odd to see him drink something nonalcoholic in a party setting, but she couldn’t give the matter more than a passing thought.

“I heard you,” she managed, narrowing her eyes. She tucked a strand of her loose hair behind her ear for something to do with her hands, and when his stare tracked her movement, it caused conflicting sensations to reverberate off one another inside her. “Explain.”

“I know you were just in that room upstairs.” The way he was looking at her was like a dare. He knew—there was no sense in denying it. He knew she’d just watched him get sucked off.

Of course, she hadn’t known it was him. Though really, it seemed like some part of her had. Hadn’t he always been the only person in existence able to arouse her? Just her fucking luck.

“I was already in the room when you and your little friend decided to have a private party,” she replied tartly. Damn it, now she sounded like a jealous shrew when in fact she felt nothing of the sort. No, when she thought of what she’d seen, she got that sticky, sweet sensation between her thighs again—and knowing it was Theo was a new but not entirely unwelcome element. “I couldn’t exactly go anywhere while your dick was in her mouth.”

“I suppose not,” he replied thoughtfully, looking at her over the rim of his glass. To avoid that stare, Jo looked up, down and around, but all she managed to do was note that he still wore a suit better than any man she’d ever met—and that even to her unskilled eye, the suit looked like it cost more than she made in a month. “But you didn’t have to watch, either.”

Jo cleared her throat. What the hell was she supposed to say to that? It was one hundred percent the truth. She’d gouge her eyeballs out with one of those little plastic cocktail swords, though, before she admitted to him what watching had done to her—for her.

“How did you know it was me?” This seemed safe enough.

His grin was both wry and the tiniest bit wolfish. Her pulse responded, even as her brain scolded it. “You still smell like cinnamon.”

She’d never cared about makeup, but she’d always like to smell good, and she always had a little bottle of cinnamon essential oil on the go, ever since she was thirteen. That he remembered should maybe have been touching, but instead it brought out her caged fury yet again.

“I’m surprised you noticed it. You were a little busy.” Her words were too loud, too sharp—social awkwardness was back in the room. But where lots of people would have recoiled, starting to look at her like she was a bit odd, Theo didn’t even seem to notice.

Nor did he apologize, though Jo certainly didn’t expect him to—not for this. But neither did she expect what he said next.

“Then I suppose my next question should be, did you like it?”

Jo barely held back a strangled sigh. He was deliberately pushing her buttons, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why. Surely he didn’t think they were just going to pick up where they’d left off? Theo was a lot of things, but he’d never been crazy.

She didn’t answer. He let the silence between them stretch and thicken.

“Everything all right here?” Like a wave of fresh spring air, Beth appeared at Jo’s elbow. Gratefully, Jo tore her focus away from her ex to pay attention to her sister.

Clad in a slinky little red dress, Beth looked like she’d never been sick a day in her life. The spaghetti straps and short hemline left her many tattoos on full display. The purple streaks in her dark hair should have clashed with the deep crimson of her dress, but instead they made her look effortlessly cool.

On her other side, her fiancé, Ford Lassiter, was dressed in a suit that was probably even more expensive than Theo’s. He looked like he’d stepped out of an issue of some men’s business magazine. He definitely didn’t look like the kind of man who would be enamored of a woman who was a walking advertisement for a tattoo parlor—namely, her sister’s tattoo parlor—and yet somehow they worked.

“Theo!” Placing her hand on Jo’s elbow, Beth offered up a polite smile. “It’s been forever. What brings you back to Boston?”

“Business.” Theo offered the same one-word explanation he’d given Jo. The smile he offered Beth was genuine, however, with none of the layers of undertones that his voice had when he spoke to Jo.

“I haven’t seen you since that tournament...was it at Palm Springs? Two years ago. What are you into now?” Ford, too, seemed friendly as he offered Theo his hand, but the other man had been hanging around the Marchandes for long enough now that Jo caught the hint of stiffness in his voice. “It’s funny that you didn’t mention you knew my girl’s family when you accepted this invite.”

“I didn’t put two and two together.” Theo smiled smoothly, but Jo’s bullshit alarm screamed. He was lying through his teeth—but why? “I never would have imagined the girls opening a hotel on their property.”

“The girls, huh?” Ford rocked back on his heels. “You must go way back.”

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