Page 26 of Seducing Cinderella

“Fuck, I’m sorry, Lu. I acted like a prick. If you’re about to get lucky or whatever with that guy, then that’s…” He brushed a hand over his hair from back to front and then dragged it over the stubble on his cheeks. “Then that’s great,” he finally forced out.

“Reid, that’s really sweet of you—I think—but what are you talking about? There’s no guy I’m about to get lucky with here.”

He pointed in the direction of where he’d seen them together. “I saw him kiss you, Lucie, and you didn’t exactly look surprised when he did it.”

“That’s because he does it all the time.”

She said that like it should’ve been all the explanation he needed. But the situation made even less sense now.

“Come on.” Now it was her turn to grab his hand and lead them back to where they’d started from. She gestured to the blond dude who’d had his lips all over his girl. Hold up, what?Lucie. He’d had his lips all overLucie. “Reid, I’d like you to meet Kyle. Kyle, this is Jackson’s best friend and my patient slash house guest slash…um, personal trainer.”

From the corner of his eye he saw an impish grin steal over her face, which was sexy as hell. She was obviously proud of her play on words with their unique relationship, and he had to admit, it was pretty damn clever. Kyle held out his hand and Reid shook it like a good sport, but he made sure to add a little extra pressure and a meaningful stare in the universal male Don’t-fuck-with-this-chick-or-I’ll-eat-your-heart-for-breakfast-with-my-Wheaties look.

The guy wasn’t a slouch in the muscle department, but it made no difference. With Reid’s training he could take any street fighter, no matter their size, if it came down to that.

“And you already met Eric last night,” she added.

Reid turned and shook Eric’s hand. “Eric. Didn’t think I’d see you so soon.”

“Lucky for me,” Eric said with a smile. “Now you can buy my beers tonight.”

Lucie interjected with a pointed look at Reid. “Kyle is Eric’spartner.”

“At the hospital?”

Kyle smiled behind his beer as he took a drink and Eric laughed as he answered, “No, man, you missed it. Lucie emphasized the word ‘partner.’ She all but did the air quotes with her fingers for you.”

“Air quotes?”

Vanessa doubled over with laughter, but thankfully took a break to help him out. “They’relifepartners, Reid. Eric and Kyle are gay.”

Reid cut a look over to Lucie for confirmation. Shit. Well, didn’t this just change everything. Holding his hand out to Kyle again, he said, “Sorry, bro. I just assumed…”

“That I was macking on Lucie? Don’t sweat it, man, I totally get it. You were standing in for Jackson as a protective brother. But you’ve got a better chance of me hitting on you than our adorable Lucie here.”

Eric narrowed his eyes at his partner and Reid couldn’t resist a little tit for tat.

“Careful, amigo,” Reid said to Eric. “Your fangs are showing.”

“Yeah, I know. Kyle thinks it’s fun to see my hackles go up.” Then he turned to Kyle who seemed to be rather enjoying the exchange with his arms crossed over his chest. “Watch yourself, K, or you’ll pay for it later. That’s a promise.”

Kyle just scoffed, not the least bit intimidated by the threat. “You should know by now that I don’t do things by accident. I’ll go get us another round.” Before Eric had the chance for a retort Kyle winked at Reid—not the flirtatious kind, but the kind that said he was having fun pissing off his boyfriend—and then walked past him to the bar.

“Hey, Orange Crush!” The five of them turned in the direction of the guy yelling over the crowd, but it was clear as to who he was addressing. Reid decided he was hiding that damn shirt when they got home. “You’re up!”

“Oh, crap, game three started,” Lucie said before finishing off the last few swallows of beer. “We lost the first game and won the second, so whichever team wins this one goes to the playoffs. Wish me luck!”

Her teammates all raised their glasses and yelled, “Luck!” at the same time. It seemed to be something they probably did often. Now that he was no longer seeing red, it was obvious they were a tight-knit group.

Reid bought a bottle of water and settled in to watch Lucie play darts. Every time she was done throwing, she’d stand next to him at the bar as they all talked and laughed. He’d tried offering her the stool he was on, but she declined saying that she’d just be getting up every few minutes or so anyway. It seemed like most of the players didn’t bother sitting down, choosing to stand on the perimeter of their respective dart board and cheer on their friends and try to distract their opponents.

That was fine with him because sitting sideways as he was with the bar to his right and the dartboards to his left, Lucie just happened to stand casually between his knees. And since her friends stood just beyond her, it gave Reid the perfect opportunity to touch her without anyone being the wiser.

The first time he did anything—a light caress over her lower back with one finger—she actually flinched in surprise. Because someone had recently put a heck of a lot of quarters in the jukebox, everyone had to either shout over the raucous music or speak directly into a person’s ear. Yet another thing working in his favor. Placing his lips to Lucie’s ear he said, “Easy, baby. No one can see that I’m touching you. Take your hair down, Luce. I like it down.”

After a fortifying drink of her beer she reached up with one hand and pulled the plastic rods from her hair, placing them on the bar. Her thick hair cascaded to her shoulder blades in the back with shorter pieces in the front to frame her face. She had Pantene-commercial hair, but she rarely wore it down, which was a shame.

The next time she came back from her turn, she flicked him a lusty gaze and shy grin before once again situating herself between his legs as Vanessa took her spot at the dartboard. As she listened to Kyle tell a story of some event from work and responded appropriately at all the right times, Reid slid a hand up the back of her shirt, being careful to stay close to her so no one could see what he was doing.

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