Chapter Seven
“You okay, man?” Ash asked, throwing one arm around Tyke’s shoulders and using the other to hand him a towering stein of beer.
Bryan gulped the cold liquid, hoping it would settle his nerves. “Yeah, I’m good. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Ash chuckled lightly. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because your ex-fiancée that you haven’t seen in however many years just randomly showed up at your best friends’ wedding and put your dick in a twist.”
Tyke threw a look at Ash. “My dick’s not in a twist.”
One lift of Ash’s shoulder, then, “In a vice, then.”
He didn’t comment. It was the truth. Kenna had a strong hold on him, and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to squeeze tighter or let go.
I’m happy. I have a really good life without you.
It’s what he’d wanted for her. What he’d hoped for. He’d never wanted her broken up about him. Yet, hearing her say it out loud didn’t give him the satisfaction he thought it would. In fact, it hurt like a bitch.
A tiny glimmer of struggle would’ve made him feel better. Not because he’d wanted her to suffer, but because there was some solace in knowing she hurt as bad as he did. Instead, when she said it, her eyes were clear and her voice strong. She really had been fine without him. He sure as hell hadn’t been fine without her. He still wasn’t fine without her. He wasn’t sure he knew what fine felt like anymore.
Tyke watched as she approached the bar, sexy swing in her hips and confident smile. She was a striking woman. The innocent girlish face he remembered was gone. In its place was a fierce woman with arresting blue eyes and sharp cheekbones. She used to wear a T-shirt and cutoffs, which made his blood run more than hot, but now she wore pieces that accented her curvy ass and full breasts. The tank top tonight was low cut, giving him a healthy dose of cleavage to look at. The skirt was just small enough to show off tanned, sculpted legs. It drove him crazy. He wanted to lift the tiny fabric and touch her where he knew she’d scream for more.
If he thought she’d gotten to him when they were younger, he was reaching all-time highs in temperature now.
“Tyke, I’m sorry. Sam and I had no idea. If I would’ve known, I would’ve told you.”
“Huh?” he said, trying to focus on what his friend was saying, but his eyes were glued on Kenna.
She smiled at one of the other bridesmaids he couldn’t remember the name of. A peppy blonde. Kenna fanned herself and lifted her long red mane off her neck, and he nearly charged her right there. He wanted his lips on the column of her neck. Wanted to hear her whimper. He wanted to work his way down her body and back up again until they both got out whatever frustration they were still holding on to.
“I repeated that I was sorry,” Ash said. “But, like I said, your dick’s so twisted you can’t even hear me.”
Kenna caught him watching her, so he turned back to Ash. “Tonight’s about you and Calder. Let’s fucking drink.”
Ash hesitated, probably to see if Tyke was going to jump off the deep end, then he laughed. “Yeah, okay.” Clinking his glass against Tyke’s, he lifted it in a toast and then drank.
Luke made his way over with a satisfied smirk.
“Oh, hell,” Tyke said, sliding his forearm across his mouth to get the droplets of beer left on his beard. “What now? If you say we have to dance on the bar in G-strings because Cass wants it for her wedding, I’m done. Tell her to go fuck herself.”
“You have issues, you know that?” Luke said, stopping at their side. He shook his head, but his grin belied the negative effect. “Seriously, Tyke. You need to get laid or something.”
No kidding.
Luke slapped a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “Gear up, men. The ladies want to play drinking games. They actually think they can take us. You believe that?”
Ash chuckled and looked at Bryan. “Didn’t you tell them we have the grizzly bear on our team?”
Tyke’s back teeth clenched. “Fuck you, man. We were kids. No one even calls me that anymore.”
“Take it easy on him, Ash,” Luke said through his own laugh. “I need him. I’ve got a blow job riding on this game.”
Tyke harrumphed. “Don’t you think you two have done it enough this week? Jesus, you’re getting married. Shouldn’t she be cutting you off by now?”
“So much to learn, little Padawan,” Luke said. “So much to learn.”
The trio approached the other end of the bar, where a large group gathered to watch. Five women lined one side of a rectangular table, already in place and waiting. Two men were on the other side, watching Ash, Bryan, and Luke approach. The first, Sean Sawyer, stood about six foot with sandy-blond hair and light-colored eyes. He had a baby face that drove women nuts. Right now he was rocking the start of a five o’clock shadow he’d probably started growing about a month ago. He was team leader for another four-man DEA team like Ash was the lead for Luke, Bryan, and Jason. Sawyer and his team had backed them up on some crazy shit. Sawyer was a good guy.
The second man at the table was one of Sawyer’s teammates, Tyler Murray. While he was taller than Sean, Tyler wasn’t as broad. What he lacked in muscle mass he made up for with agility and speed. The guy was like a jujitsu master.
“Where’s Reese?” Tyke asked.
Luke gestured with his chin to a table a few feet away.
Jason sat with his cute blonde, smiling over a set of drinks. The two seemed in their own world together.
Red plastic cups had been placed on the table in preparation for the competition, five on one side and five on the other.
Tyke sidled up to the middle of the table across from Cass, but Luke checked him hard in the shoulder. “Nice try, asshole. You’re anchor.”
Looking at the far end of the table on the women’s side, across from where he was going to stand was Kenna. Of course. Because his friends hated him.
“Kenna,” he said, standing across from her.
“Bryan,” she said just as evenly.
“You ready for this?” he said. “I mean, I don’t want you to feel bad when you girls lose. Calder’s got a lot riding on this game.” He leaned in like he wanted to tell her a secret. “And we’re pretty fucking good.”
She made a thoughtful sound deep in her throat and didn’t look very worried.
He couldn’t be happier to have something else to focus on other than all the unresolved shit between him and Kenna. Nothing like a good, healthy dose of competition to ignore one’s real problems.
“All right, everybody,” Maybel’s voice shouted over the din of the bar. The eighty-something woman was in a sleeveless shirt and skirt down to her knees. Her gray hair was more fluffy than normal, and she wore pink lipstick on her usually bare lips. She was the fourth member of the old-lady squad. She lived on the same street in Baltimore as Sam and Ash, Rose, and Celia. “Some ground rules. One round. That’s it. Winner takes all.”
“ ’Cause that’s all we’re going to need to beat you guys,” Sam said across the table at Ash.
Ash and Luke exchanged looks, laughing.
“Don’t touch your cup until the person before you is finished and their cup lands upside down,” Maybel went on. “Any premature actions will result in your team’s forfeit.”
“You hear that, Tyke?” Luke jabbed him in the side. “Don’t blow your wad prematurely. I need this.”
He grunted but didn’t comment. There was a reason Tyke was anchor. Calder was usually the one who choked.
Sending Kenna a cocky grin, he cracked his knuckles. “Let’s do this.”
She mirrored his move. “Yes. Let’s.”
He wanted to laugh. Little five-foot-nothing woman thought she could outdrink Tyke? Hilarious.
“Everyone ready?” Maybel shouted.
Ten murmurs of agreement sounded around the table as onlookers watched in anticipation.
Bryan looked into his cup at the light amber liquid, then to Kenna. She was watching him with a self-satisfied gleam in her eye. As if their previous conversation had given her plenty of ammunition to kick his ass.
“And…go!” Maybel shouted.
Samantha and Ash each picked up their cups and guzzled them. Ash dropped his cup onto the table about three seconds before Sam. Sliding it to the edge, he wore a look of concentration as he used his index finger to flip the cup over. His first try missed, and the cup landed on its side. Sam started flipping her cup.
“Come on, you dickhead! Christ!” Tyke yelled down the table.
“Not helping!” Ash said, keeping his eyes on the cup. He flipped it again, and this time it landed upside down.
“Yeah!” the crowd shouted. “Go! Go!”
Sawyer’s throat worked as he drank. He placed the cup on the edge of the table and started flipping.
Sam finally got hers to land the right way. “Come on, Grandma! You can do it!”
Aw, how sweet. The chicks were cheering one another on. Ha. This was a high-stakes game of flip cup. Not a friendly match of tennis.
Rose lifted her glass and placed it to her mouth.
Sawyer flipped his cup, and it landed upside down.
Tyler immediately grabbed his beer and chugged it.
Rose downed hers in one shot, and on the first try, she flipped her cup over and it landed perfectly.
“Woohoo, Grandma!” Sam shouted.
Rose dropped her chin once and dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief from her pocket.
Estelle reached for her beer.
“Come on, Aunt Estelle,” Kenna said. “You’ve done this a million times. Bring it!”
Estelle did bring it. Like Riddick Bowe brought it to Evander Holyfield. She finished her drink in record time. The guys were waiting for Tyler to flip his cup. And they still had Calder and Tyke to go.
What the actual fuck. Tyke was starting to sweat. How were the women closing in this fast? He eyed his beer again, envisioning himself downing it in one shot and flipping his cup in one try.
The women would not win.
Finally Tyler hit his mark.
Luke drank from his beer. He dropped the cup onto the table at damn near the same time Cass started flipping hers.
“Goddamn it, Calder!” Tyke said, his pulse pounding so hard his heart might crack right out of his ribs. “Come on!”
Bryan looked at Kenna, who was grinning.
His fingers started to tingle. As soon as Luke finally landed his cup, Tyke was going to take these women down.
In three…
Two…
The second the lip of Luke’s cup touched the table, Tyke grabbed his cup and placed it to his mouth, opening his throat. He slammed it onto the table and flipped it.
Shit.
Flipped it again.
Fuck.
Flipped it a third time.
Kenna had just picked up her own drink. She swallowed and lowered it to the table.
Damn it. His heart was definitely going to break his rib cage.
“What the fuck, Tyke!” came shouts from the other end of the table.
“What?” he shouted back, keeping his concentration on the cup. “You idiots get twelve years to get it, and it’s left up to me to clean up in two seconds?”
“That’s why you’re the goddamn anchor!”
He flipped his cup again, and the thing wouldn’t sit. The cup’s lip hit the table, wobbled side to side, and it tipped over, rolling. Tyke inhaled a deep breath, adjusting the cup on the edge of the table—
Kenna flipped her cup and stuck the landing. Repeat: she stuck the fucking landing.
Game. Over.
Screams erupted. The women jumped up and down, hugging one another like they’d just found out some high-end store put a bunch of overpriced leather handbags on sale.
What the hell just happened? Someone please tell him, because he couldn’t make sense of it.
Bryan met Kenna’s gaze, and his heart stopped. She stood across from him, hand on her full hip, wearing a naughty smirk, swiping a red-painted finger across her lips. All he could think about was placing his mouth on hers and licking where her finger had just been. He wanted to taste her. So fucking bad. And not just her mouth.
A hard punch connected with his shoulder, jolting him back to reality. He massaged the area and glanced in Luke’s direction. His friend’s eyes were narrowed and his face flushed.
“Sorry, babe.” Cass wormed herself under her fiancé’s arm and patted his stomach. “That’s too bad you guys lost. Guess you’ll be going with me to that four-hour antiquing class tomorrow.”
Luke swung a look at Bryan. “Goddamn you, Tyke.”
Cass dragged her fiancé away, amused, so Tyke made his way around the table to Kenna.
“Think you’re pretty slick, don’t you?” he said when he reached her.
A playful smile split her lips. “Maybe.”
“I didn’t think you girls had it in you. I’m impressed.”
“Please,” she said. “There wasn’t any doubt.”
“Careful,” he said. “Don’t get too cocky.”
“Why? Because then the size of my ego would rival yours?” She chuckled. “No one is catching up to you. I think we’re safe.”
“You love laughing at my expense, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Good thing I can take it, huh?”
“Definitely.” There was a glow in her eyes that hadn’t been there earlier in the evening. A playfulness between them he’d missed.
“Wanna see how big my ego really is?” he asked.
She drew back, and her mouth distorted. “Was that a euphemism for the size of something else?”
“No, but I like the way you think.” His voice was too enthusiastic, but he didn’t care.
As he hoped, she let out a huge laugh. “It’s cute that you’re so confident.” She stepped past him toward the bar.
Confident? Of course he was confident. He knew what he was packing. So did she.
“You know why I am,” he said, following her. “You’ve seen it.”
She didn’t turn around.
“You remember, don’t you?”
She kept walking.
“Kenna?”
At the bar, the two parties of guys and girls meshed together. The older ladies called it a night. Single men and women paired off, the betrothed couples whispered into each other’s ears, which left Tyke and Kenna.
She looked at him and then glanced around at the others. “So…”
“You wanna drink more?” he said. He didn’t want her to walk away. They were getting along. Laughing, even. He wanted more of that.
“Sure,” she said with a casual shrug. “What did you have in mind?”
“Just good old-fashioned shots.”
Her relieved smile made him wonder if she needed something to get through this week, too. If she’d been struggling as much as he had with this whole reunion thing.
And it gave him that little bit of solace imagining she did.
Tyke stumbled off the elevator at the seventh floor, carrying Kenna fireman-style over his shoulder, and staggered down the hallway toward his room.
Kenna let out a loud giggle-snort combo that most likely woke up half the hotel.
“Quiet, woman,” Tyke said, probably just as loud. He was so drunk he couldn’t be sure.
“This isn’t my floor!” She struggled against his hold like she was trying to get down.
“I said quiet.” He smacked her ass and took immense satisfaction in the loud cracking sound it made.
She gasped and then slapped him hard on the back.
Damn what he wouldn’t give to slip his hand under her skirt right now. It was all he could think about. Having her bottom so close to his face and not being able to do anything about it was the worst sort of torture. There was no other feeling in the world that compared to Kenna’s legs wrapped around his neck, writhing underneath him. Pure euphoria.
He pulled his key card out of his back pocket, balancing her on the opposite shoulder. Sliding it into the access pad, he threw the door open, went in, and dropped her on the bed with a bounce.
“Where are we?” she said, lifting her head to look around. “This isn’t my room.”
“I know. It’s mine.”
Her features locked up as her body stiffened.
“Thief, remember?” he said, kicking off his boots. “I’m not taking you to your room while both of us are drunk. Just a safety precaution.”
“Oh,” she said, her body relaxing. “Okay.” Rolling onto her side, she snuggled into the pillow, and all he could do was watch her. The past and present converged with a vengeance. Everything he’d had that he walked away from was currently lying in his bed.
He approached her side and sat next to her. “Let me help you with your shoes.” Tugging on her feet, he took off her sandals and tossed them toward the dresser at the end of the bed. He looked down at her outfit and thought long and hard about taking that off her, too. So she’d be more comfortable, of course. But he didn’t dare. That would be even more dangerous than taking her back to her room with the thief. He’d get a full view of her body, barely covered by her underwear, and there’d be no stopping him. And given the fact that she was drunk, she’d give in, which would spell disaster in the morning. He could separate past from present. He could sleep with her knowing that would be it. It wouldn’t mean they had a future. Kenna, on the other hand, would want more. She’d expect it.
Tyke stood, reaching for the collar of his shirt as he made his way around to the other side of the bed.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?” he asked, tossing his shirt in the corner of the room. His shorts were next. He stepped out of them and flicked them with his foot in the same direction as his shirt. Pushing the covers back, he slipped in and then pulled them up to his chest.
She brought the sheet up to her neck and curled to face him. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
How could she even ask that? “Why wouldn’t I?”
A loud yawn sounded from her side. “Because you never came back to me.” Her voice was soft and sleepy. “What did I do? What was wrong with me?”
“Not a fucking thing.” He urged her onto her back and looked down at her. “I don’t wanna hear you say shit like that again. It’s not you. It was never you.”
Her eyes were heavy and she yawned again. “Had to be. I needed you, and you weren’t there. You didn’t want me.”
He could’ve shoved a dull knife through his gut right then, and it wouldn’t have hurt half as bad as what she’d just said. She wasn’t over him. Not at all. He’d hurt her, and she never got over it.
That killed him the most. She’d spent the last twelve years with hope that he’d come back. He’d failed her. He was the worst sort of man. Leaving her hanging without a reason, letting her think it was her. Christ. It was never her. It was all him. What he wouldn’t give to change the past. To never enlist. To never leave her. They would’ve been married by now.
She’d be his.
His.
She yawned again and flopped onto her stomach. “It’s fine. You didn’t want me. I get it.”
“No, you don’t get it. Not at all.” He leaned over to see her eyes closed and mouth slightly open. Her back rose and fell on a soft snore. “Kenna?”
Another snore.
“Kenna, I wanna talk about this,” he said, amazed at how effective the alcohol was at opening him up. “It wasn’t you. You hear me? It was never you. You’re perfect and I’m just… I’m nowhere near enough for you. You deserve a hell of a lot better than me.”
She didn’t respond, except for deep, steady breaths.
Tyke lowered himself beside her and threw an arm over her, savoring the few moments he had to remember what it was like to hold her.