Page 41 of A Taste of Trouble

“Austin,” Patti called. “Do you always have to make people aware that you're gay?”

Jake gave Liv a wide-eyed stare. She always thought it was so obvious that Austin was gay. Apparently not for everyone. She chuckled to herself.

“You're just jealous, Patti, because I'm more of a lady than you'll ever be.”

“Yeah, a lady with a five o'clock shadow.” Oh. God. The two of them were already going at each other and Jake hadn't even been at the table for two minutes. She glanced in his direction expecting a horrified look, but he was smiling.

Austin waved off Patti's comment and patted his hand on the seat of the chair. “Sit down, handsome. We'll get you another beer.”

“So, Jake…” Brett's intention was clear. It was interrogation time. “What do you do for a living?”

“I'm Senior Executive at Weston Communications.”

“Your office is just down the street, right?” Patti asked.

“It is. That's how I ended up here a couple of weeks ago. I was meeting some friends for drinks after work.” Jake took another pull on his beer. It didn't seem like the inquisition was bothering him at all.

“Is that what you're doing tonight? Are you meeting some friends here?” Austin leaned in closer.

They were giving him the third degree. And Liv couldn't help but smile. He deserved it after being so nosy with her.

“I did have drinks with friends. They just left.” Jake settled into his chair. He looked comfortable, as if he had no intention of bolting for cove

r any time soon. “I saw you sitting at the table…” he looked toward Liv “…and I thought I would come by and say hello.”

As if Jake had just announced the cure for cancer, Patti, Austin and Brett beamed with excitement, glancing furiously at one another. If their intention was to be subtle, they were doing a bad job.

“How long have you worked at Weston, Jake? Where did you go to college?” Brett assaulted Jake with question after question. “What about your family? Where are you from?”

“Do you have a girlfriend, Jake?” Austin's question was a little more personal—intrusive, actually.

Jake stared at the group with a slight curve on his lips. “Ten years, Queens, father, mother, two sisters and a nephew who lives in London, and no, no girlfriend.” She recognized that smirk. And it was not the look he used when he was answering questions during an interrogation. It was the expression he gave her when it looked like he was thinking of nothing other than the dirty, sweaty things they could get done in a refrigerator.

Liv shivered. “All right, children. Show and tell is over.” Obviously, she didn't need her friends to embarrass her. She could do that all on her own. “I'm sure Jake didn't come here to be interrogated. Let's move on to more interesting topics.” Crap! “I mean, not that you're not interesting. I just…other things would be more appropriate to talk about.”

“It's okay, Liv. I'll answer whatever questions you have for me.” He hesitated. “No secrets here.”

If he did have secrets, she didn't want to know. That would make it okay for him to know her secrets.

“Good to know, handsome.” Austin gripped Jake's shoulder. “This group has boundary issues. If you're going to hang with us, you better be ready to give full disclosure.”

Full disclosure. It was a tit for tat thing. And it scared Liv to death. The more he hung around, the more opportunity he had to slink behind her boundaries.

The only question was whether Liv was willing to show him her tat.

Chapter Nine

A couple of hours and a lot of drinks later, Liv was stunned to see how well Jake had fully immersed himself in the party. And she couldn't help but notice that…he belonged. Now her friends were practically walking them down the aisle. A surefire way to make him run the other way. Even though everything in her told her the longer he stayed at this table the harder it would be to let him go, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if Jake were her boyfriend.

Austin drained the last of his drink and slammed the glass on the table. “I don't know about anyone else, but I'm officially drunk.”

“Oz, I think you were officially drunk a couple of hours ago,” Patti said.

Austin always had a problem with moderation. And it was much too easy to overindulge when the alcohol was free.

“It is getting a little late,” Liv said to Jake. “We didn't mean to keep you so long.”

He needed to leave. And not just because he made her nervous, but because she'd had to go to the bathroom for the last hour but was afraid to leave the table for fear of what her friends would say while she was away.

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