Pippa’s eyes lit up. “Perfect, we can have ithere. I’ll whip up a tasty dinner and then we can relax in the hottub.”
Wedding planning banter bounced around thetable until his head was spinning. No one seemed to notice that hedidn’t have a useful thing to say on the matter. He cared, ofcourse, but he sort of planned to just show up where and when hewas told.
Lincoln was a good guy and would take on herlovable crazy; he was glad Pippa had reconnected with him.Although, knowing Pippa, their reuniting in Seattle hadn’t been acoincidence. Nothing she did wasn’t premeditated. Including thefact that he hadn’t laid eyes on Sophie until it becameunavoidable.
Despite his better judgment, his eyes keptstraying across the table to Sophie. Catching him watching her, shebit her lower lip shyly. Devouring a cluster of fries, he nearlychoked as he imagined those perfectly lush lips sliding over hiscock so smoothly.Knock it off, he mentally kickedhimself.
After dinner, Asher cleared his plate and wassurprised to find Sophie right behind him, handing him her plate.He took her plate and rinsed it before putting it in thedishwasher. She was back with more. Kept coming back with moreplates, pans, whatnot… until before he knew it the dishes weredone. He’d dodged dishes from the day he’d gotten home, butsomehow, he’d just done them all. Sneaky woman.
He refused to glance in his mother’sdirection. Without even looking, he could see the smug, if notshocked, expression on her face as she relocated into the livingroom. Might as well go all in. He grabbed a bottle of red and thelast of the white and topped off the wine glasses in the livingroom.
Settling in on the end of the well-cushioned,beige linen couch facing out the window, Asher crossed his feet onthe coffee table and leaned back to enjoy his wine. Sophie sat inthe seat opposite his, her crossed feet not quite touching his. Wasit hot in here?
A few millimeters separated their feet, andhe was toast. If even almost-footsy made his head rush with Sophie,he couldn’t imagine the inferno of just touching her, his tonguerunning between her perfect breasts, his hands gripping her ass ashe… Blinking, he brought himself back to the moment. Must be thelong epoch without getting any, and he hadn’t gotten much action inthe few years before that.
The rest of the evening was actuallyrelaxing, despite his overactive imagination. No one expected anyinput from him. As usual, Pippa carried the conversation quite wellon her own, bouncing wedding ideas off her willing listeners.
Paul had a few comments, mostly involvingmoney-saving alternatives. Sophie mostly sat back and smiled,enjoying her friend’s enthusiasm, but her ideas clearly differed.Not that she would make Pippa feel any less for having bigideas.
The four of them had been a tight unit whenhe was a kid. Perhaps he’d blown it a bit his teenage years, butthey’d still been a good team. Somehow, Sophie didn’t feel like aguest in their midst. Like Lincoln always fit right in. He’d knownthen Lincoln was the guy for his sister. His parents must have feltit as well, having included pictures of Sophie and Lincoln mixed inwith those of their own children.
Across the coffee table, Sophie pulled herfeet in and curled up in her chair. Immediately, he felt cold atthe distance between them. She sipped the last of her wine, hersmile warm and her gray eyes sleepy. Even fatigued, he didn’t missthe storm that still lingered behind them.
Like dark clouds that hinted at a dark pastshe masked with her easy smile, her eyes held a deep intensity.He’d never quite seen eyes that shade before. If it weren’t forthose eyes, he’d think she was a goodie-two-shoes like his sister.Those eyes had seen more than their fair share.
Sophie, Denise, and Paul turned in early. Assoon as the bedroom doors were closed, Pippa’s face changed fromcalm and collected to determined and nosy. Fast as a damn cheetah,she left her own seat and sat opposite him, leaned forward in fullready-to-pounce position.
“Don’t even think about it.” Her eyes drilledinto him, like lasers blasting him into submission.
“Sorry?” He played innocent. He knew exactlywhat she was talking about.
Counting on her fingers, she made a ratherembarrassing list. “Jenny, Alyssa, Fiona, Bethany. Oh, and don’tforget Lyric.”
Oh yeah. Lyric. That was her name. She wasn’tvery lyrical in her noises, a bit more of a hyena. Not that he’dspent more than ten minutes in her company. But she sure seemed toenjoy herself.
He lowered his feet to the carpet and setdown his empty wine glass on the coffee table. Trying his very bestto not crack a smile, knowing it would throw her over the deep end,Asher wiped his expression and faced his sister and heraccusations. “I am really, truly sorry for… well, for ruining yourfriendships, and I won’t let it happen again.”
Not sure what to do about the lack ofargument, Pippa leaned back and adjusted her posture. “Okay.”
“In my defense, they really weren’t very goodfriends if they judged you based on my failings–” She tried tointerrupt. Understandable, this was not his best retort, but on allthose occasions, it had taken two to tango.
Grimacing, he powered on before she couldbowl over his poor defense. “-Pip, I haven’t done anything likethat in years.” She gave an unladylike snort and rolled her eyes.“Really, sis. It’s been nearly two years since I’ve even been withanyone.”
Brow rumpled; disbelief threatened to takeover her expression. “Two years?”
And he went on, when he probably shouldn’thave. “Yeah. Two years. Back in the day, I was a stupid, albeithorny, kid. I grew up a while back. You just weren’t around tonotice.”
The ability to think things through beforespeaking or acting had never quite come naturally for Asher. Hisfoot ended up in his mouth more often than not. Or his dick whereit shouldn’t be. Well, at least he’d grown out of that poor impulsecontrol issue.
“Besides, most of those were when I was onbreak from college or the navy. With the amount of credits I wastaking to graduate early, then the brutal SEAL training… let’s justsay I was eager for a little release.” Not that he needed to defendhimself, but he felt defensive, dammit.
All had been old enough; always more thanconsensual. He never made any promises. They clearly hadn’t beendecent friends to Pippa if they’d blamed her for his not calling.Or to jump in her brother’s bed so easily.
Her face dropped and her eye softened. “I’mreally sorry. I admit that I avoided visiting when I knew you’d behome. Usually, I’d bring Sophie home as she didn’t have any placeelse to go, and she’s the best friend I’ve ever had, so Idefinitely didn’t want to risk losing her. I certainly neverbrought her to San Diego with me the few times I came to visit; Ilearned that lesson with Jenny from freshman year at UCLA. I don’tknow how I would have gotten through finishing up at UCLA andfinishing grad school without Sophie. And, quite frankly, she’s hotand she doesn’t date much.”
He was a pretty decent judge of character andseriously doubted that Sophie was the innocent Pippa seemed tothink. “She’s gorgeous, but I’m not doing that to you again. Evenif she begs, I’m not going to have sex with her.” Well, maybe ifshe begged.
His poor imagination flashed to all kinds oferotic fantasies… of Sophie laying naked on the hood of his truck,begging him to lick her sweet pussy… Cut it out. Don’t digthat hole any deeper.
