Thirteen

Jasper

“I don’t want to come between you and Bryce.” Ann blurted the words out as soon as I took her coat and led her into the living room.

“Sweetheart, Bryce and I wouldn’t let you come between us.” I didn’t mean the words to come out as harsh as she took them, but I did mean them. Girls and women had both tried to get between us for their own reasons and none of them had succeeded. Ever.

“Good,” she answered with a shaky breath, looking small and vulnerable in the oversized leather chair. “The last few times I’ve seen you guys, you’re both reluctant to talk about each other. You clam up and occasionally get defensive,” she explained with a none too pleased roll of her eyes. “So what’s the problem?”

I watched Ann as she fidgeted with the hem of a blue V-neck sweater, crossing and uncrossing her shapely legs. I knew she didn’t do it on purpose, but those knee-high leather boots had me trying to remember what we were talking about. “Who said there’s a problem?”

With her eyes closed so I could no longer see her blue depths, Ann took a deep breath and opened them to mine. There was a war going on inside her and I had no idea what had caused it. She won the battle and straightened her spine, squared her shoulders and took a deep cleansing breath. “I like you Jasper, more than I planned to.”

I grinned, leaning back against the sofa with my legs up on the table, crossed at the ankles. “All good from where I’m sitting.”

She grinned but her heart wasn’t in it. “I also like Bryce, more than I planned. Honestly, I didn’t plan on either of you beyond a bit of physical fun. But,” she paused and searched my face for a long time, looking for something I didn’t know I had to show. To give.

“But?”

“But it turns out that you’re both pretty great.” I wanted to feel flattered by her words but a cool drop of unease slid down my spine at the tortured look on her face. “In and out of the bedroom.”

That’s when I understood. I couldn’t say I wasn’t disappointed that Ann was a game player, but I understood. After that one night together, she’d gotten the wrong idea. “I don’t share my women, Ann.”

She froze at my words and nodded nonstop, “Right. Okay, then. I should probably get out of here,” she said uncomfortably.

“You just got here.”

With a shrug she slid to the edge of the chair and pushed up. “Yeah, I don’t think I should be here.” She looked past me as though she could see something, some scenario that I couldn’t, and shook her head with a sad smile. “I’ll see you around Jasper.”

I reached out and wrapped my hand around her upper arm. “So that’s it? You come here to play games and don’t get what you want so you pout and leave?”

She struggled under my grasp, but I was too strong. “Get your hands off me!” she said with more anger than I expected and I let her go. “I don’t play games.” She turned and walked away, and realizing she was headed the wrong way, she grumbled and retraced her steps. “I don’t know why I even bothered with either of you.”

“Why did you? Did you think you could play two friends off each other? I never pegged you for that kind of mindfucker.”

She sucked in a breath, clutching her chest as though I’d struck her. “Glad to know what you really think of me, Jas.” She slid her coat on, fire shooting out of her skin until she tamped it out with her heavy wool coat. Big, hurt blue eyes looked up at me but the anger was still there. “We could have all been really great together. I’m glad we met again. Merry Christmas.”

“Wait.” I felt like she was slipping away from me, just out of reach even though she stood not five feet from me. “Can I see you again?”

She shook her head again. “I told you Jasper, I like you both. I want you both. In and out of the bedroom. But you don’t want it and neither does Bryce, and I know choosing between you would not only break my heart, but it would tear apart your friendship.” She reached up and gave me a chaste peck on the cheek before she raced out of my apartment.

I could have caught up with her, it would take the fucking elevator forever to get here, but I didn’t. Her words stunned me. Made me ashamed of how I’d spoken to her when she was just honest about her feelings. I had no answers for her because I didn’t know what to think about what she’d said. She wanted me and Bryce both. That was surreal in itself, but that she liked us both when we were so different felt kind of special.

Annie was the brave one. She’d put herself out there to be judged by me—and Bryce—and we’d done it beautifully based on her reaction. “Shit!”

I didn’t have the answer and my plans for making love to Ann all day and night were shot to hell. I grabbed a bottle of eighty-year-old whiskey and got down to the very serious business of drowning my sorrows.

Merry fucking Christmas.

What a joke.

Bah-fucking-humbug.

Yeah, that was more like it.