Page 5 of Pucking Rebound
He throws me a sexy wink. “Absolutely. Disembowelment by hockey stick would be a long and painful death. It would take weeks. But I would do that because he made you cry and I fucking hate that. Hatehimfor upsetting you.” His fingers drift down the column of my neck to my shoulder, then my arm, where he finally takes my hand in his, entwining our fingers. “If you want me to make him scream in pain, you call me.”
“I’ve got your number if I decide to go through with your offer,” I joke, and for the first time since lunch, I feel slightly better.
“Good, now where is this pool?” Jordy sweeps his gaze around Wade’s home, and whistles in appreciation at the interior décor.
“It also has a theater,” I remind him, making him tut in fake annoyance.
“What a fucking showoff.”
His hand is still in mine, which feels intimate, and makes my heart flutter. Something it shouldn’t be doing. Because it’s broken, completely devastated, and feeling anything other than heartbreak right now feels as thoughI’mcheating. When I’m not. Because Graham and I are not together anymore.
We’re done.
“After you’ve given me the grand tour, would you like to come out for dinner with me, then we can go have some fun?” Playfully, Jordy squeezes my hand.
I scrunch my nose. “I don’t think I’m up for going out.” Right on cue, my stomach growls, as if accepting his dinner invitation.
“Your hunger pangs disagree.”
I chew the inside of my mouth, considering his proposed night offun.
He tries to persuade me. “I’ll make you feel better.” His gaze locks on me, unblinking, as if challenging me before he throws me one of his pantie-soaking grins. “Promise.”
I’ve just split up with the man I was supposed to marry. I should be eating a gallon of ice cream and crying into it while watchingThe Notebook,shouldn’t I?
But that sounds so unappealing. And quite frankly, really depressing.
“Okay. I’ll come out with you,” I agree.
“Atta girl.” He teases his lower lip between his teeth, a gesture that has me wondering what it would be like to kiss him. It feels wrong to be having these sinful thoughts. For one, I’ve just split up with my fiancé, and two, Jordy is my brother’s best friend.
Jordy sounds confident when he says, “I’m going to make you forget you ever had a fiancé.”
I let go of his hand. “Oh, I’m sorry, was I engaged?” I slide the engagement ring off my finger, examining the small Cubic Zirconia. “It’s not even a real diamond. He couldn’t afford one and promised me he would replace it eventually.” I paid for everything else, I refused to pay for my own engagement ring.
Jordy makes anughsound from the back of his throat as if he’s disgusted, then lays his hand out flat and does agimmiegesture with his fingers.
When I lay the ring in the palm of his big hand, it looks so tiny, so pointless. It no longer has any meaning.
A tight lump fills my throat. “I’ll have to cancel all the wedding plans.” A surge of emotion builds behind my eyes and like a dam, it bursts, and I’m crying again.
Jordy pushes my ring into the pocket of his jacket and sweeps me up in his powerful arms. He’s so big, he could swallow me whole.
“I’ll lose the deposits,” I whisper, aware that my tears have soaked into his expensive-looking canary yellow padded jacket.
“Fuck the deposits,” he says.
I look up as he looks down, brown eyes hitting mine, and somehow his long fingers are now wrapped around the back of my neck.
He continues, “It’s better losing them now than being unhappily married for the rest of your life.” His thumb brushes back and forth across a sensitive spot at my nape. It tickles and sends a wave of something I can’t explain down my spine.Excitement, arousal?I don’t know, but it feels nice in comparison to how I have been feeling all day.
“All I want is to be happy, Jordy.”
“That’s where I come in. Tonight, I’m going to take you out, cheer you up, and help you forget about your punk-ass ex. Okay?” With the sleeve of his jacket, he wipes away my tears.
“Don’t do that. The salt will leave a mark.”
“Hush now, Teacup. Let me take care of you.”
