Page 24 of Play Your Part

I dropped the knife. “Okay, hold on. There was none of that.”

“You know what I mean,” she said with an eye roll. She watched me resume her cookie sandwich routine for a moment before motioning for the knife. “I can’t watch this anymore. Hand it over.”

I fixed her with a look, but she did not relent, only continued to hold her hand out for the knife and cookies.

“I’m playing my part—”

“Of what, a horny teenager?”

“Of a man falling in love,” I said a little louder than intended. Both of us quickly looked toward the stairs, but thankfully, neither Gemma nor Matt had returned yet. “At least I don’t look like someone has a gun to my back. Do you recoil at everyone’s touch?”

Kennedy offered a snide, half smile. “Only from those I can’t stand.” She finished icing the cookie sandwich and handed it to me, placing the knife on a paper towel on the counter. “Stop trying so hard. Gemma already knows this isn’t real.”

“We need to convince Matt. Ifhebelieves, the rest of the team will. So play your part, all right?”

“Play my part,” she repeated with a sharp nod. She placed one hand on my shoulder, then trailed it across my back as she walked out of the kitchen, my skin tingling at her touch. “Okay. Sure,babe, no problem.”

Back in the living room, Kennedy wasted no time before showing me what those words meant. She inched closer, much closer than we were before, and draped her legs over mine. The position made her sweater dress slide up her thighs, revealing creamy skin that had me thoroughly distracted. This move of Kennedy’s sent Gemma’s eyebrows sky-high when she saw us while descending the steps. Gemma opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she heard Matt lumbering behind her, lamenting a twist in the movie. His eyes fell on us, and he cleared his throat and took his seat beside Gemma.

Kennedy snaked an arm around one of my shoulders, her fingers dancing across the base of my skull as she tugged lightly at the hair there. “What do you think, Alexei?”

“Of what?” I croaked a terribly embarrassing sound I hadn’t made since I was an inexperienced teenager. What was it about this woman that made me act like this?

She nodded toward the TV. “This movie.”

My breathing increased. “It’s… fine.”

Kennedy smirked. “So what’s your thing?” she asked, borrowing my words from earlier.

Gemma stopped watching the screen, her too-wide eyes rapt on Kennedy. Maybe she’d never seen her best friend behave like this. I wondered what her dynamic with Ward had been. The thought pissed me off, but before I could fixate too closely, Kennedy tugged my hand toward her ass. The action caught me off guard, and I didn’t resist the movement. So there I sat, with my hand cupping one of Kennedy’s ass cheeks, trying to think of anything other than how amazing she felt beneath my touch and how I wanted to bunch up the fabric of her dress—

Shit.I needed to put some distance between us.

But when I pulled my hand away from her, Kennedy upped the ante by pushing herself into my lap. I sucked in a breath as she adjusted her position, back and forth, then back again, each movement grinding against my crotch.

“Kennedy,” I hissed. I blew out a breath, directing my stare to the ceiling and my thoughts to anything but the feel of her on top of me.

“Something wrong?” she whispered, her breath hot against my ear. Her teasing voice, full of false innocence, pulled my gaze to her. I cursed my mistake; meeting those eyes of hers—those soft brown eyes, the dark freckle underneath her right eye, the way she captured her bottom lip in her teeth—caused me to lose the last bit of control.

Kennedy went stock-still when she felt me harden beneath her.

“Stay still,” I said directly into her ear. My hands rested on either side of her hips, keeping her in place. “I need a minute.”

The combination of violence on screen and taking deep breaths resolved the situation. Kennedy hopped off my lap as soon as the movie ended and walked quickly into the kitchen. I couldn’t help but watch as she snagged a beer from the fridge and launched her head backward to chug half of it. The action was the most relatable thing I’d ever seen her do. Except I needed something stronger to erase what happened. Maybe we managed to convince Matt about our relationship tonight, but things were infinitely more awkward between us.

Kennedy plastered her back against the counter as she saw me approach. I would have stopped in my tracks, but I couldn’t say what I needed to say from this distance, not without risking Gemma or Matt overhearing. “Kennedy, I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

She put up one hand, placing the beer bottle on the counter with the other. “Don’t—”

“I didn’t mean for that to happen—”

“It’s fine,” she cut me off again. “Let’s forget about it, okay?”

She didn’t wait for a response before brushing past me, bidding goodnight to Matt and Gemma before heading to her room without even a glance in my direction.

11

KENNEDY

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