She grimaced even harder. "Hell no. Those guys are like brothers to me. That would be icky and weird."
Why did I feel a wash of relief? It wasn't as though I was interested in either of them anyway. I liked the idea I wasn't the only one immune to them. Yeah, that made sense. They thought they were irresistible. Or Riley did anyway. But they weren't. Not at all. That could be their exact problem. Us women see right through them and their bullshit.
"You're not interested, are you?" Fiona asked.
"In either of them?" I pulled a face. "No way. They made it clear they both don't like me. That goes both ways." No way in the world was I going to end up on my knees choking on either of their cocks. Painting their likeness and putting them on a dartboard for target practice on the other hand? That wasn't off the table. With any luck, they'd leave me alone from now on. No doubt they had better things to do with their time than harass me. I had better things to do than be harassed.
"Right," she said slowly. But the expression on her face suggested she didn't completely believe me. That was okay, she was just another person I needed to prove wrong.
5
CONNOR
I pouredmyself a bourbon before stepping out from behind the bar. I spent enough hours stuck behind it for one day. Zara and Luke could handle the crowd.
If you called a couple of dozen people a crowd. Everyone pretended they weren't bored as fuck during the lull, but Thursday night they always ended up here. Whatever, it was good for business. One that would be mine someday. No time fucking soon if I had my way.
"Hey," Riley greeted me as I stepped over to the table where he was sitting, shooting the shit with Blaise Edwards and Ryan Evans. Both guys we went to school with. Ryan was built like a tree trunk, and Blaise like a whippet. Both of them were okay, I guess, for dumbass mountain boys with no ambition.
"Hey." I toasted Riley with my drink before taking a gulp. I needed the burn as the liquor travelled down my body. It soothed and numbed, taking the edge off. "What are you assholes up to?"
"Riley here was telling us there's some new chick in town," Ryan said.
For some reason, his words irritated me, but I shrugged it off.
"What's new? There's always new people in town."
"Not a tourist," Blaise said, his eyes on me like he was watching my reaction carefully. Who knows why? He was always thinking too much.
"He's talking about the woman living in the cottage beside Fiona," Riley said. "Leah. She paints." He looked pleased with himself for some reason.
"How do you know she paints?" Blaise turned his searching look to Riley.
"She showed me." Riley sipped his beer. Now he was the one watching me for my reaction. His eyebrow twitching at the way my jaw worked back and forth.
"Is that all she showed you?" Ryan asked.
"For now." Riley sat back in his stool, cocky as fuck. "She's hot for me. She was almost ready to drop to her knees and suck my cock."
"Bullshit," I said. "If she was ready for that, you'd let her." Asshole could be persuasive.
He shrugged one shoulder. "A guy can play hard to get."
I snorted loudly. "Since when have you played hard to get?" I fixed him with a steady look to remind him he never turned me down. Of course not, Riley Crane and I had been tight since high school. We'd gone through all sorts of shit together. Shared women and each other. He was many things, but celibate wasn't one of them.
He pretended to be offended. "I hardly know the woman."
I stared at him for a moment before barking out a ha. "That's never stopped you before. How many times have you fucked a woman without so much as asking her name?"
"How many times have you?" He levelled the accusation at me without flinching.
"This isn't about me," I said. I nodded my thanks to Zara, who placed a fresh bourbon in front of me and took away the empty glass.
"She told you no, didn't she?" Ryan grinned at Riley.
Riley flipped him off. "It was a 'not yet,' not a no. Trust me, she wants me."
"Was she sober?" Blaise asked.
