Indie

 

He was such a jerk. Completely clueless. I shouldn’t have let his comment bother me, because I should have been used to it by now, but I did. It hurt. I wouldn’t do body shots with just anyone. I couldn’t even date anyone because I always compared them to him, and then he went and brushed it off like it was nothing.

“Indie, wait!” he called from behind me. I didn’t stop or turn around. I only wanted to go back to the hotel.

“Hey.” He fell into step beside me. “You can’t walk back by yourself.”

I ignored him and kept walking. I wasn’t wasting any more time on him. I really wasn’t. We continued silently side by side until I stumbled on the cracks in the concrete path. Linc’s hand shot out and grabbed my elbow, steadying me.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. Stupid heels and tequila didn’t mix. Me and heels in general didn’t mix. “What was everyone else doing?” I was making small talk because the silence felt weird, uncomfortable.

“Drinking. I think they’re all going to be very sick tomorrow. Probably won’t even leave their rooms.”

We were approaching another bar with a loud group of—I squinted to see better—men and their motorbikes out the front. A biker bar in Fiji?

“I wish you weren’t wearing that dress right now.” Linc tensed beside me.

“Excuse me?” Was he telling me I looked like a whore as well? It was not my fault. It was all Jack and Bailey’s stupid idea to replace my clothes and make me dress like…this.

“You think I look like a whore too?” I stopped walking, a frown tugging at my lips.

“No, of course not.” He stopped and faced me, his left hand coming to rest on my hip, while his right traced the neckline of my low-cut dress. My breath hitched. “I love this dress on you. But—”

“But?” There was always a but.

“You’re going to attract all the wrong attention, like back in the club.”

I cringed at the thought of the greasy guy who tried to dance with me. He smelled of stale beer and onions. I wanted to throw up. Yuck.

Linc dropped his hands and shifted me to his other side, putting himself between me and where the bikers were already whistling and calling out.

Slinging his arm over my shoulder, he pulled me against him. With my head tucked under his chin, he directed us across the street away from the bar, keeping me shielded from the leering creepers hanging out on the footpath. Once we were a safe distance from the bar and the street was quiet, I expected Linc to drop his arm and let me go, but he didn’t. He kept me close until we reached the door to his room.

“Well, goodnight. Thanks for walking me back.” I stepped over to my door, but then I froze. “Dammit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My room key. Jack has it.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, already feeling a headache forming. I would bet that was his plan. Leave me alone at the club and take my room key so I had no choice but to call him or go to Linc’s room. He’d expect me to do the latter, but I had news for him. I was going to call him, wake him up, and make him bring me my key. It was only—I checked my thin silver watch—four a.m. It was only fair after calling me a whore when he knew damn well I wasn’t.

I didn’t have my phone. Jack had it. I groaned and dropped my head to the door, banging it a few times. Why did Jack like to torture me? It was like he was doing everything in his power to force me and Linc together, but it wouldn’t work. Lincoln didn’t see me that way. I was like his little sister. He’d made that perfectly clear on many occasions, and I was stupid for holding out hope. Jack was only making it worse.

“What’s wrong?” Linc touched my shoulder.

I pulled my head back to look at him. “Jack has my phone, too.”

“Why?” He stepped away and nodded at his door, indicating for me to follow him.

So I’d do exactly this. Follow him into his room for the night.

“In his pockets, so I didn’t have to carry everything all night.”

“Here,” he pulled his phone out and handed it to me, “call him.”

I smiled gratefully and took the phone, punching in Jack’s number quickly and putting it to my ear. It rang three times before he answered.

“Tell me you’re in his room right now.”

“Yes,” I sighed.

“So why are you calling me at four a.m.?”

“Because—”

“You want me to join you?” He cackled into the phone, sounding far too excited by the thought.

“No! I need my room key.”

“Nope, sorry. You’re just going to have to stay with lover boy.”

“Please, Jack. Please bring it up for me,” I begged, my voice catching at the end. I’d had too much to drink, and I was still hurt from Linc’s comments earlier. For some reason, my head kept replaying every conversation and interaction we’d ever had that turned bad, that usually ended with me crying myself to sleep. From our first kiss in my dad’s office, to the time I thought he was going to kiss me again when I returned home for the summer holidays after being away for most of the year, only to jump back in shock and mutter something about “little sister,” and to every other time he acted like he cared, flirted, looked after me, only to ruin it by dismissing it as nothing.

But it was never nothing. Not to me.

“Okay, baby cakes, I’ll be right there.” Jack’s voice softened in understanding.

“Thanks.” I hung up and handed the phone back to Linc, who was pacing the room, pulling on his hair.

“So?”

“Jack’s on his way up.” I stood and moved toward the door, intending to wait outside.

“Stay. Wait here for him,” Linc said. “I’ll get you a water.”

“Water?” I turned and crossed my arms, watching him curiously. He pulled a bottle of water from the mini fridge and gave it to me.

“You’ve had a lot to drink. You should drink all of that before you go to bed. Have you got painkillers for the morning?”

So we were back to the caring big brother act. And this was why my head was always a mess around him. I didn’t know which way was up. “I think so.”

We stood awkwardly facing each other, me taking sips of my water, unscrewing the lid, and putting it back on, over and over. Finally, after what felt like hours but was more like two minutes, the door burst open and Jack came charging in.

“I’m so sorry, baby cakes. I was a jerk before.” He cupped my face with his hands, weaving his fingers through my hair and tilting my face up to his. What was he doing now? “Forgive me.”

“Of cour—” I didn’t even finish speaking before Jack’s mouth came down on mine, hard, dominating, intense. Whoa. Who knew he could kiss like that? My knees actually buckled, and I had to cling to him to stop from falling. He smiled. The jerk smiled into the kiss, knowing he knocked me off my feet. His hands travelled down my back, pausing on my butt to give it a squeeze.

He broke the kiss and looked over my shoulder at Linc. “Thanks for looking after her tonight. I owe you, man.” He held out his fist to bump with Linc’s. Then Jack did the one thing I least expected. He gripped my legs and lifted me up, forcing my ankles to lock behind his back so I didn’t fall. Oh my God. It was awful. Horrifying. So awkward and inappropriate. “But, ahhh…we should get going now,” he said, giving my ass a light slap.

He slapped me.

He was a dead man.

I couldn’t look even look at Linc. I was so embarrassed. Instead, I buried my face in Jack’s shoulder and wished the ground would open and swallow me whole.

He carried me to my room, not releasing me until we were at my bed, where he promptly dropped me on top like a hot potato before throwing himself down beside me.

I sat up and straightened my dress, which had ridden so scandalously high it would even make Her Royal Whoreness Christina blush, and that was saying a lot. Christina was a hussy, to put it mildly. She was sleeping with Bailey’s ex-boyfriend when he and Bailey were still together in high school. And to make things worse, she and Bailey were best friends at the time. Couldn’t get more skanky than that.

“What was that?” I seethed at Jack.

“That,” he paused for dramatic effect, “was a lot of fun.”

My lips pinched, and my eyebrows joined. “That was embarrassing, and unnecessary, and—”

“Fun. Admit it. You liked kissing me. I made your knees wobble.” He laughed and threw himself onto the pillow Linc had slept on the previous night.

My eyes widened, and I lurched forward, ripping the pillow out from under him. “Not that one,” I clarified when he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. But it still smelled like him. I might even pack it in my bag when I left here.

“Okaaaay…crazy pants.” He sat up. “Now, where were we? Oh, yeah!” He snapped his fingers and grinned at me. “Wobbly knees and passionate kisses.”

I shook my head and thought of something to change the subject. “So what did you do today?”

“Nuh-uh. We were talking about us.” He flicked his hand between us.

“There is no us, Jack.”

“I’m hurt, baby cakes. Real bad. Right here.” A pained expression crossed his face as he beat his chest over his heart twice with his fist. Idiot.

“You’ll live.” I rolled my eyes and climbed off the bed to grab my pyjamas.

“Not if I don’t get to experience more of your kisses.” He was smooth. Sometimes.

“Do you sweet talk all your girlfriends?” I laughed because he didn’t have girlfriends or boyfriends. He was committed to playing the field.

“Only you, sweet cheeks,” he called out when I closed the bathroom door behind me so I could dress for bed in peace.

I pulled on the tiny pink “Kiss My…” top and decided to slide Linc’s black basketball shorts on instead because they were much more comfortable than the booty shorts Jack had bought. And besides, they were Linc’s.

I returned to the room, and Jack stared, slack-jawed. “The top looks great. But those are not the shorts to match.”

“I know. I wouldn’t call that scrap of matching material shorts. They were tiny, Jack!”

“So…where did these abnormally large shorts come from?”

“Linc,” I huffed, making Jack laugh again.

“Yes! It’s working.” He clapped his hands.

“It’s not.”

“You should have seen his face after I kissed you. He was insanely jealous. Did he dance with you tonight at the club? He did, didn’t he? I bet he did. He would have been all macho and charged onto the dance floor like…” Jack stood and flexed his biceps, pulling his face into a frown. “Back off, creepy dude. She’s mine.”

I pressed my lips together to stifle the laugh that was threatening to escape, but I couldn’t. He wasn’t far off.

“I knew it! Lincoln ‘I should have been a Greek God’ Andrews saves the damsel again.” Jack threw himself back on the bed and patted the space next to him. I curled up beside him, my eyelids getting heavy.

“I don’t know, Jack. He’s hot and cold. I think this whole plan of yours might be useless.”

“It’s not useless. Trust me. This will work. He wants you. I know it. He just doesn’t want to admit it because you’re Nate’s sister. But no matter what, he can’t stay away from you.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pressed a kiss to my head. “We are going to get you your man, one way or another.”

I smiled into his chest. I was grateful to have him as a friend. He’d do just about anything for me.

“You’re not a bad kisser, you know, baby cakes,” Jack murmured after a few minutes of silence.

“What?”

“Not bad. I mean, the earth didn’t move, and you didn’t make my knees shake, like I so clearly did you, but overall, it wasn’t bad.”

“Not bad?”

“I’d give it a solid C.”

“A C? You’re grading my kiss?” I sat up and punched him in the shoulder. “A kiss, mind you, that I didn’t even want or expect. Are you forgetting one thing?”

“What?” he hissed, rubbing his palm over the spot I hit him. Good. Served him right.

“That I have only ever kissed two people. You…and him.” I pointed at the door separating my room and Linc’s.

“Well, do you want to practice? I’d be more than willing to sacrifice myself, to make sure you sweep the sexy lifeguard off his feet. Take one for the team and all.”

“No! I don’t want to practice!”

“Are you sure?” Jack wiggled his eyebrows.

“Yes,” I breathed. At least I didn’t think I wanted to practice. Did I? Urgh, I was confused. I’d never given any thought to the fact that I hadn’t kissed anyone since Linc on my eighteenth birthday and that I was terrible at it. I was so inexperienced. I should practice so when Linc finally realised…

No, that was stupid. It wasn’t going to happen, so what did it matter that I wasn’t an expert kisser?

“Well, the offer is there if you need.”

“I need to go to sleep. That’s what I need.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Night, baby cakes.” Jack rolled over, grabbed my face in his hands, and kissed me. On the mouth. Again. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.” He chuckled then pulled away and walked to the door.

“Idiot.” I threw a pillow at his head but missed because he darted out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Reluctantly, I got up from the bed to get the pillow and lie back down when the door handle between the two rooms jiggled.

I went over and opened it a crack.

“Hey.” Linc peered around the door. “Why was the door locked?”

“Hi. Must’ve been the staff,” I lied and returned to my bed. I pulled back the covers and climbed in. What was he doing here? It had to be close to five a.m.

“Just wanted to check you were okay. I heard you shout and the door close. Where’s Jack?” He stepped into the room and looked around.

“He left. I’m fine. Just tired.” I snuggled into my pillow, which wasn’t nearly as comfortable as sleeping on Linc’s chest, but I made use of what I had. It smelled like him, so I wasn’t complaining too much.

“Okay. Well, goodnight,” he said softly, smoothing his hands over his hair.

“Night.” I yawned, closing my eyes.

The bed dipped beside me, jolting me from the brink of sleep only moments later.

“Sorry, just wanted to make sure you had water and painkillers for when you woke up.” I thought I smiled, or at least I tried to, but I was so tired, my eyes drooped closed again. “I’ll go now. Everything is on your side table.”

“Stay,” I mumbled into the pillow and reached for his hand, or arm, or leg. Anything I could grab to stop him from leaving.

“Okay.”