Page 50 of Free to Dream
“Neither have I, Ms. Freeman,” Keene tosses back.
So arrogant. So cocky. Such an asshole. So completely wrong.
“Are you so sure?” I taunt. “By the way, has the tattoo on your thigh healed well?”
Keene’s jaw opens slightly, and all the men are now staring at me. Finally breaking eye contact, I reach for my purse and pull out my cell phone, going to the photo app. When I start scrolling through the pictures, everyone at the table goes silent.
I pull up a picture of Ali and I from Phil and Jason’s wedding last summer and slide my phone across the table. “Maybe you remember me from entertaining my sister Alison at the Plaza in the city over the summer? Or have you fucked enough women that one more is just like another?”
Keene reaches for the phone, and I dispassionately watch him look at the picture of me and my knockout sister and swallow. Hard. He places the phone carefully on the table and lets out a breath. “What you don’t realize is that we were sharing a suite that weekend at the Plaza. Next time, you might want to have a care in how loud you are for the other occupants of the hotel.” I pick up the phone and smile at my sister’s image before placing it back in my purse.
I raise my eyes to meet Keene’s shocked ones. I could not be more delighted with his reaction and I quietly think to myself, thank you Ali for keeping me up all night screaming with this asshole.
“When y’all were done and you left that morning—or would that be you snuck out—you didn’t exactly have your pants on. I was in the sitting room and saw your tattoo on your thigh. By the redness of it, I could only assume it was new or infected. So again, has the tattoo healed well? Maybe you’d like to tell me more about who Riley is?” I lean forward with my chin on my hand. His eyes flash with some unreadable emotion.
Keene still hasn’t said a word, his body frozen by what I’ve revealed. I feel Caleb’s arm squeeze around me so tight, that if I wasn’t taking shallow breaths to control my anger, I likely wouldn’t be able to breathe. I deliver the kill shot.
“So, who had the moral fuck up first, Keene?”
Keene looks at me for another moment, then at Caleb before turning and walking into the crowd without turning back. Silence reigns around the table.
My eyes go to Jared first, his holding admiration. Ryan’s eyes show that too, as well as shock. I turn my head to Caleb’s and almost clock him, his face is so close. He leans down to my ear. “I have to know after our conversation earlier, how much you can take of me being blunt right now.”
I tilt my head slightly, wanting to get the lay of the land. Is he pissed I just laid out his best friend like that?
I turn my face toward his and see heat, but not the angry kind.
“I think I can take it,” I murmur back, taking a sip of my drink.
“I could not be more turned on right now than if you had spent the entire night whispering ways you wanted to take me to bed. That was so fucking hot,” Caleb growls.
“I know he’s your friend…”
Caleb shakes his head back and forth.
“No, Pixie. He has to work his shit out and either respect my decisions or stay the hell out of them.” His voice is filled with admiration. “You knew who Keene was?”
“I didn’t until I saw his face. Ali was seriously pissed he walked out on her without giving her his number.” Well, she was pissed because she wasn’t done with him yet, but I keep that to myself.
Caleb throws his head back and laughs. Once he’s winding down, he reaches for his drink and holds it up. “A toast to you, Pixie. The strongest woman I’ve ever met.” His eyes meet mine over his glass of scotch. They’re warm and filled with heat.
I tip my glass back at him before throwing back the remainder of my tumbler of Jameson's.
Turning into him, I tip my jaw up at him. “You a little warm there, Harvard.”
“Can you blame me?”
Shrugging, I turn back to Ryan and Jared who are staring at the two of us with stupid grins on their faces. “Anything else I can do to entertain you boys?”
Jared looks at Ryan, then over at me. “I think Ryan might have a bit of a crush on you now, just for the record.”
Caleb glares at his brother. “For the record, brother, stick to your man.”
Jared and I burst into laughter at the antics of the Lockwood brothers. Then a familiar chord starts playing and I start to smile. I turn to the man next to me. “Do you dance, Harvard?”
He finishes his Bowmore and slides out of the booth. “I’ve got some moves.”
I wink at him and slide out. Shaking my body as I make my way to the center of the dance floor, I let Luke Bryan’s “Move” flow through my body. I’m in my own world dancing when I feel Caleb pull me closer. My eyes fly up to his as his hips start swaying in rhythm with mine. Another first.
