Page 28 of Friends With Benefits

“Hey, Laurel, it’s late and you’re the DD,” Kerri said. “You almost ready to go?”

“Noooo!” everyone cried. Kerri smiled, but Mitch could see she really wanted to leave. The idea of offering to drive her home entered his head, but she was being such a pain in the ass tonight—nah. Let her wait.

A while later, he came back from the washroom and found a strange guy sitting in his chair talking to Kerri. Again, she was laughing and flirting with him, doing the hair toss thing, like she had been with that asshole on the dance floor earlier. She glanced up at him, standing there, and the guy looked up too and said, “Oh sorry, am I in your seat?”

“That’s okay,” Kerri said quickly. “Mitch will find another chair.”

He narrowed his eyes but said nothing, and went around the table to squeeze a chair in between Miguel and Jason.

He watched Kerri talk to the guy. This was what she wanted. She wanted to find a husband and here was a guy. He should be happy. If she met someone now it would take all the pressure off him and things could go back to normal between them.

Hell, no. This guy wasn’t even close to good enough for her. His teeth were too big and too white. He must bleach them. Or maybe they were veneers. Vain idiot.

He looked around the bar, trying to keep his eyes off Kerri, tapping his hand restlessly on the back of Jason’s chair.

“Would you stop that, man? You’re making me nervous,” Jason said.

“Sorry.” Mitch removed his hand from the chair. “Listen, I’m outta here.”

“Okay, no problem.”

He said good night to the others, but ignored Kerri, engrossed in conversation with the stranger. But as he turned away from the table, pulling his keys out of his pocket, she called to him.

“Are you leaving, Mitch?”

He turned. “Uh-huh.” He waited. If she wanted a ride, she’d have to ask.

And he waited. Then she said, “Okay. See you tomorrow.”

He turned and walked out, unaccountably pissed off. All the way home he kept thinking about her with that guy. Would she see him again? Would she leave with him? Fuck. Then he was pissed off at himself for even thinking about it.

He didn’t sleep very well that night.

***

Mitch glanced at his watch. Time to shave and change into his suit, then he’d head over to the spa to see if he could help get ready for the party. Sela was probably cracking the whip and Kerri was no doubt going crazy.

He ran a hand over his smoothly shaven face, tossed on a light splash of aftershave, and put on the suit he’d chosen to wear to the party. Okay, ready to go.

When he walked into the spa and laid eyes on Kerri, his jaw dropped. Jesus. She must have bought a new dress for the party. He’d never seen her look like that.

Her glossy black hair, usually casual and flippy, had been styled into sexy, messy pieces. And the dress…oh man.

Tiny black straps crisscrossed her bare back, revealed by the low cut dress. And then she turned and damn, it was cut low in front too. Very low. She had cleavage. Really nice cleavage. Funny that. Kerri had an awesome body, lithe with long, toned muscles from her yoga, but he’d never noticed her cleavage before. Well, okay, truth be told, he had…but not like this. She didn’t have big breasts, but the dress really showed off their perfect roundness and gleaming golden skin. He had to shove his hands in his pockets against the urge to reach out and touch.

The short skirt fluttered around her knees and showed off her legs, and a pair of black spiky heels looked dangerous. She had on more makeup than usual, her blue eyes shadowed and huge, lips shiny.

She smiled coolly at him, although a touch of nervousness edged her smile. “What are you doing here already?”

“Hello to you too.” He wanted to tell her how great she looked but his throat had closed up and he couldn’t get the words out. “Uh…I came to help.”

“Oh. Thank you.” She picked up a big floral arrangement and he tried to say, “I’ll take that,” but could only hold out his arms. She handed him the flowers. “Can you put those on the small table over there?”

He watched her climb up onto a chair to hang a bunch of silver balloons, flashing some smooth leg, and he swallowed.

Oh for God’s sake. It wasKerri.

“Want me to do that?

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