Page 29 of Temptress

I started to turn when he spoke up. “So this is what it’s going to be like from here on out?”

I slowly turned back around, my eyes doing a quick sweep around us to make sure there was no one close enough to overhear. I kept my voice low as I asked, “What do you want from me, huh? You said you weren’t interested, that nothing was going to happen, so I backed off. That’s what you wanted.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked, anger flashing in those deep blue eyes. “I didn’t want it to be likethis,” he said on a low, husky rumble. “I didn’t want you to start avoiding me at every turn. So, what? We can’t even be friends now?”

I had to swallow the bark of sarcastic laughter trying to push its way up my throat. “Silas, we wereneverfriends. And that wasyourchoice. We went from you grunting in my direction and walking right by me to whatever the hell that was that night. Now we’re back to what it was to begin with: absolutely nothing.” I shook my head in disgust. “I’m just playing by your rules here. You have no right getting mad about it.”

With that, I turned on my heel and started back toward my friends, making sure to school my expression so they wouldn’t know anything was amiss.

I handed the bottles to Asher and Charlotte, wishing I’d had the forethought to get something for myself. Something much stronger than beer, because something told me I was going to need it.

Asher let out a sigh of appreciation. “Thanks, babe. You’re a life saver.”

I pinned a smile to my face, hoping like hell it looked believable. “Happy to help,” I said as I resumed my seat.

“You know, you were looking pretty cozy over there with Sexy Neighbor Guy,” Marin teased. My friends had taken to giving me shit about my neighbor on a regular basis, ever since we discovered he was the new head of security for the club. For a while, they’d gotten it into their heads that there had to have been something going on between the two of us. Fortunately, those jokes had died down, only rearing their heads every once in a while.

Only, now that I’d put myself out there and Silas had shot me down, the jokes stung like hell.

I thankfully managed to keep my mask in place as I waved her off. “Nah. We only talk once in a while because I’ve gotten close with his daughter. That’s all. He was just saying hi.”

Asher looked in his direction where he was now standing among a cluster of other guys who worked at Whiskey Dolls, her expression thoughtful. “You’re absolutely positive there’s nothing going on between you guys?”

I let out a snort and made a face. “One hundred percent positive.”

What she said next had my stomach plummeting to the ground. “Then I think I’m going to try and fix him up with Hardin.”

A record scratched in my brain.

Hardin Shields was a friend of all of ours, as well as the sister of Asher’s boyfriend. We’d gotten really close since Asher and Owen got together, and even though she ran a pizzeria instead of danced with us, she was very much an honorary Whiskey Doll. She was sweet and funny and gorgeous, and after things went sour with her asshole ex-baby-daddy, she deserved a man who would worship at her feet, no doubt about it.

But the thought of that man being Silas Bridger made my stomach twist into knots. A clammy sweat broke out on my palms, and I had to drag them down the front of my cut-off denim shorts to wipe them clean.

“I can see it,” Layla said. “I mean, they’re both insanely attractive, and they’ve got that single parent thing in common.”

I didn’t want to be the friend who stood in the way of happiness for someone I cared about, but before I could stop the words from spilling out, I found myself saying, “Oh, um... I’m not really sure.”

Asher and the rest of our friends looked at me quizzically, my cheeks heating under their scrutiny.

“You don’t think they’d be a good match?” Asher asked with a puzzled frown.

I shook my head, trying to piece my jumbled thoughts together. “It’s not that. I think anyone would be lucky to land Hardin.” And that was the god’s honest truth. She was a freaking treasure. “It’s just that I don’t think he’s looking for a relationship,” I blurted.

Charlotte spoke up next. “But I thought you said you guys weren’t that close. How would you know something like that?”

“I overheard him say it,” I spit out quickly. “The night I watched Darcy for him.”

It wasn’t a total lie. I had heard him say it, after all. And it just so happened to be that very night. My answer seemed to placate my friends’ curiosity enough for me to lean back in my chair on a relieved breath. I hoped that would have been the end of it. However, Asher had other ideas.

“I’m going to introduce them anyway,” she said with finality as she rose to her feet and shrugged. “And who knows, maybe she’ll be just the thing to change his mind.

* * *

I’d tried my hardest to ignore Silas the rest of the afternoon, forcing myself to mingle and pretend I wasn’t a mess of tangled emotions on the inside. As time passed, it got easier to act like everything was just peachy. I was surrounded by friends, the beer was ice cold, and the sun was pleasantly warm on my skin. On days as beautiful as this one, it was easier to forget all the negative.

At least until it was shoved right in your face.

Marin came up to me, playfully bumping into my shoulder to get my attention. “Hey, check it out.”

---