Chapter Four – Kyle

“What are you doing here?” Roxy asks as I walk through the door of the café.

“Your customer service could use some work,” I reply, sitting on a stool at the counter.

“I’m sorry.” She smiles sweetly. “Can I get you anything?”

“Coffee.”

“In a mug or over your head?”

“Over yours, if possible.”

She purses her lips and turns to the machine. Her ponytail swishes over shoulder, exposing the curve of her neck. I narrow my eyes at her.

“You should probably take your hair down.” My jaw snaps shut.

“What? Is having it up too promiscuous?” she snaps.

“No, but the small hickey you clearly haven’t noticed on the back of your neck is.”

A quiet slap rings out as she puts her hand over her neck. “Are you kidding?” She turns back to me slowly.

If my eyes are as hard as my clenched jaw, she shouldn’t even have to ask. “Do I fucking look like I am? Cover that shit up, Rox.”

“I can’t have my hair down.”

“Bullshit. Selena wears hers down all the time when she’s working.” I nod to her hair. “Take it down.”

“Fuck you,” she replies.

I jump from the stool and move round the corner of the counter. I pull the hairband out in one swift movement, and her hair drops and falls around her shoulders.

“Kyle!” She spins and stares at me, her eyes wide. “Give me that!” She makes a swipe for the band.

“No.”

“Yes!”

I grin and shove it down the front of my pants. “Want it now?”

She stops. “You’re not a child. Don’t be so stupid.”

My elbows rest on the counter and I lean toward her. “And you’re not a whore. So don’t be stupid.”

“Again, nothing to do with you.”

“It is if someone’s trying to eat your neck every time you drop your pants.”

“Ouch. Say it like it is why don’t you?”

“Someone has to.”

“What is it?” She leans on the counter too, her face level with mine, and her lips curve up. “Is no one asking you to drop your pants?”

I tilt my head to one side slightly, moving closer to her. “Rox, if someone had me dropping my pants, you’d hear about it across town.”

“Likely because they’d be screaming at you to leave them alone.”

“Wrong. You’d hear it because they’d be screaming for more, and don’t you doubt it.”

She swallows and straightens. “Someone just needs to give you a good punch, y’know that?”

“Someone needs to give you several.” I laugh.

“You’re so funny,” she bites out. “Don’t you have anything better to be doing?”

I sit back on the stool. “Not really. I’m still waiting for my coffee, by the way.”

She clicks her tongue, sighs, and turns to the machine again. Her dark hair falls down her back, a kink halfway down where she had it tied up. My eyes go down, further again, and I look over her body.

Even in her work clothes you can see every one of her curves, from her waist to her hips and her ass to her thighs. And I should not be looking at her this way, but god fucking damn.

I can’t help the stir in me at the sight of her. I’d have to be blind not to be attracted to her, and every time she opens that mouth of hers and tears into me it gets harder not to shut her up with my own.

“Here.” She puts a mug in front of me.

“Thank you.” I take the mug and smile at her. She freezes for a second, her blue eyes on mine.

“How do you do that?”

“Do that?”

“That.” She waves her arms. “Be a prize dickhead then charming as hell the next?”

“It’s a skill. I was born with it, Rox.”

“Yeah? How’s that skill working out for you?”

“Wanna find out?” I raise my eyebrows as the door opens and Mia, a girl we went to school with, walks in.

“With her? Really?” Roxy hisses.

“Get ready for a lesson in seduction.” I wink and turn to Mia. “Well, hey, Mia. How are you?”

She stops next to me and tosses her brown hair over her shoulder. “I’m good, Kyle. How are you?”

“Better for seeing you.” I run my eyes over her body appreciatively. She’s not a patch on Roxy, but she’s attractive enough. “Looks like Florida has been treating you well. It is Florida, right?”

“Yeah.” She leans against the counter, smiling. “Hey, Roxy, can I get two coffees to go?”

“Sure,” Roxy answers tightly.

I smile slowly and sexily at Mia. She blinks once and takes a deep breath. I lean toward her.

“Hey, what are you doing tomorrow night?” I ask her. “How about…” I glance at her chest. “Catching up?”

She runs her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip. “Nothing I can’t cancel. Catching up sounds great.”

“Why don’t you meet me here about seven?”

“Perfect.” She takes the two cups from the counter and throws down a five. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kyle.”

“You sure will.” I give her that grin again, and she smiles like a little girl as she turns and bounds out of the café. She turns before she disappears around the corner and gives me a small wave.

I look at Roxy. She’s glaring at the door, her blue eyes hard and unforgiving.

“And that, Roxy, is how my charm is working for me.”

“You don’t even like her,” she throws at me. “You only did that to make a point.”

“And?” I raise an eyebrow, stand, and drop my own five dollar bill on top of Mia’s. “Like you said, no one else round here is trying to get into my pants. See ya.”

She stares after me as I walk out of the café. Her eyes burn into me until I disappear from her view, and even then I can feel her gaze on me.

So she’s right. I only asked Mia out to make a point to her – whatever point that was. Except it kinda backfired.

Now I’m stuck with a date I’m not interested in. And a hairband down my pants.

Fucking hell.

~

“Help me,” I say into my phone.

“What have you done this time?” My sister sighs.

“I’d love to say nothing, but I can’t.” I pause. “How do I get out of a date?”

Iz laughs. “Aren’t most guys trying to get dates, not get out of them?”

“Whatever. I’m not most guys. Just tell me.”

“I don’t know, Ky, sorry. I’ve never got out of a date before. Funnily enough I only agree to ones I want.” Amusement laces every one of her words. “In fact, why are you even trying to get out of a date?”

“Yeah, that doesn’t matter,” I say quickly. “What’s the kindest way to let a girl down?”

She says nothing.

“Hello? Iz?”

“I’m not sure whether to bug you to tell me why or tell you there’s no kind way to let a girl down.” She grunts. “And I’m trying to pack. Closing this stupid… fucking… suitcase… is… impossible!” Her last words sound like she’s saying them through clenched teeth, and I imagine her sitting on a suitcase, holding her phone to her ear with one hand and the other fighting a zip.

I chuckle. “Maybe you stop buying so many clothes.”

“Maybe you should shut… Ah, shit. The zip broke.”

“How do you even afford so many clothes?”

“It’s called a job. You should try it sometime.” She injects ten tons of sarcasm into her words, then mutters, “Stupid suitcase.”

“God, you’re funny,” I say dryly. “So you can’t help me then?”

“Nope. Sorry.”

“Good to know I’ve just wasted the last ten minutes of my life.” I hear another grunt down the phone. “I’ll leave you to packing up your mall-sized wardrobe.”

“Wait! You’re still picking me up from the airport, right?”

“Yes, Iz. I gotta go. Don’t break anymore suitcases.”

“Asshat!” she calls as I hang up.

I sigh and lie back on my bed. What use it is having a sister – who is single and actively dating other guys – if she can’t help you with the best way to let a girl down?

The only choice I have is to make other plans. Then I can call Mia and tell her I have to do something really important. Believable? Yes. Kind? Well, sort of. As kind as I think I’m going to get. I could lie about other plans – but that would make me a dick.

Just like planning a date to piss Roxy off does…

Right. Well, I have to think of some shitty excuse soon, since it’s almost four, and if I don’t call her soon I’ll have to go out with her.

The doorbell rings as I ponder that last thought. Fuck. Maybe I can help Dad with something and hope she isn’t the kind of girl who asks so many questions she might as well have the size of my dick too.

Who am I kidding? She’s a girl.

I make my way downstairs and open the door to—

“Roxy.”

“Can we talk?” She looks up at me and continues before I can answer. “Fabulous.”

I raise my eyebrows as she sneaks past me into the front room. “Of course we can, Roxy. Come on in and have a seat.”

Her eyes shoot daggers at me. “Why are you so determined to treat me like a child?”

“We’re here again? Really?” I shut the door and walk toward her. “One, I’m not treating you like a child, and two, I’m making sure you don’t get in any serious trouble.”

“Right,” she draws the word right out. “Like Cam would?”

“Yep.” Mostly…

“Except with a lot less brother and a lot more petty.”