Chapter Six
Jesse felt like pouncing. Maybe if he just jumped her, he would feel better, but he simply took another sip of beer and watched as Gemma stepped up to the jukebox. Her booted foot tapped against the hardwood floor and that heart-shaped ass swung back and forth.
She was there. She knew what it meant, and she was standing there.
“You’re drooling.”
He shrugged. He didn’t care if Cade caught him drooling. She was droolworthy. She was also a puzzle. He liked puzzles—interlocking pieces that individually meant nothing at all but as a whole created something lovely. He stared at Gemma the same way he would an engine that wasn’t functioning properly. A woman was like a car. She could look beautiful on the outside, but if she hadn’t been taken care of, she wouldn’t run properly. Someone hadn’t taken care of Gemma Wells. “She’s alone now.”
Cade’s eyes slid off Gemma and back to his beer, his fingers tightening around it. “Yes, she is.”
Fuck. He could feel Cade pulling away. Gemma was standing there. He didn’t have time to discuss Cade’s problems. If he didn’t get a move on, Gemma might think he’d set this up as some sort of joke. “We need to go in.”
Her friend had left, and Gemma was all by her lonesome, listening to some music, waiting for him. She was ripe, and he would really like to pluck her.
Cade stared at her. “I don’t know. I don’t have much to offer her. You were right about that.”
Jesse kept his cool. “I was merely talking about the way you’ve been up to this point. And here’s the deal, you were right, too. This doesn’t have to mean we end up married to her. Let’s just take this one day at a time. She’s standing right over there. She’s saying yes.”
“She’s saying yes to you. She always kind of frowns my way. Maybe she’s just putting up with me to get to you.”
Jesse nearly groaned. There weren’t many women in the world who were so crazy about one man that they would take on his crabby best friend, too. Gemma was interested in them. She was interested in ménage. Jesse figured if he ended the night with his cock up Gemma’s pussy, then it meant she was okay with his lifestyle choice. And if she wasn’t, then he would just have to show her. With his tongue and his fingers and his filthy mouth. He just needed to get Cade on board. “You kind of called her a bitch.”
Cade nodded toward Gemma. “She still calls me Ape Man from time to time.”
Ty tipped back his beer. “Half the women I sleep with call me something different. I just say yes.”
Jesse was pretty sure he shouldn’t take relationship advice from Ty. “What can it hurt? We ask her to dance.”
Cade’s eyes widened. “What can it hurt? Ask Max Harper.”
Jesse slid out from his seat. “I’m going in. I’m not afraid of her. I’m faster than Max Harper. I intend to evade her Taser and any other weapons she might have on her person. And if we leave her there for too much longer, she’ll likely walk away. I won’t let that happen.”
Those weapons might be plentiful. She was deeply prickly, but he’d seen some softness underneath her sarcasm. He’d seen the hurt in her eyes when Cade had talked about her. She’d put on a good front, but she couldn’t hide it all.
He had to treat her with real care and patience. And he had to make her comfortable enough to bring Cade in. If he had to, he would take care of her on his own and then try to work Cade in. She wouldn’t wait. If he backed off now, he could lose her, and he didn’t want to lose her. Over the last week he’d grown addicted to her sass and sarcasm. When he’d walked in and seen her grinning at Cameron Briggs, he’d wanted to plant his goddamn fist through the man’s face. He wasn’t possessive. Or at least he hadn’t been before. He’d had no problem with women coming and going, their effect on his life as transitory as his existence seemed to be.
But Gemma had roots. Gemma needed them. And he intended to provide them.
He walked up to the jukebox, keeping a decent distance between them when all he wanted to do was cuddle against her backside and sway to the music.
“Hey, Gemma.”
She smiled, her lips curving up in a little satisfied grin that told him she hadn’t been unaware of him. “Hi, Jesse.”
She’d sent her friend away. She was standing at the jukebox. He should put an arm around her and lead her out of the bar. They could go back to her place, and he could be inside her before midnight. And still he had a hard time walking out and leaving Cade behind.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Jesse asked. What he wanted was to buy a little time.
“No.” Gemma turned to him. “But I can buy you one.”
There it was. He smiled, catching on to what she was doing. She wanted to control the situation. He could go along with that for the time being. “I would like that.”
She turned and walked back to the bar, simply expecting him to follow. Again, he could do that for the time being. He hopped up on the seat beside her.
“Zane, could you get my friend a drink? I’ll take another one, too.” Her voice was completely steady. She looked like quite the seductress. Sexy smile on those gorgeous lips. Honey-blonde hair flipped back.
And her hands were shaking.
Yes, someone had damn straight not taken care of Gemma Wells.
He put his hand over hers, curling their fingers together. She looked up, a little startled at the contact, but she relaxed, her hand still in his. “How’s your momma doing, Gemma?”
He could see plainly that she hadn’t expected that, either. She seemed to fumble for a moment. Had she expected him to hit on her with tired, old pickup lines and easy come-ons now that they were getting down to the nitty-gritty?
“She’s good.” The husky seduction was gone the minute she talked about her mother. “She’s so happy to be back here. I guess I never really thought about it, but she considered this home all these years. I wonder why she stayed away for so long.”
Zane slid their drinks in front of them, breaking the oddly intimate moment. Her hand slid out of his and reached for that vodka like it was a lifeline.
“But I’m sure you don’t want to talk about that. Let’s talk about you.” She laughed. He would adore that throaty sound if he thought it was really directed at him. But he could see it for what it was, an act meant to bring about a reaction in him. “Is it just the two of us then? I guess I scared the Ape Man away.”
“My name is Cade, Gemma. And I try not to leave Jesse alone. He tends to get into trouble.” Cade slid into the seat beside Gemma.
Thank god. He’d worried Cade would stay away, but he’d pulled his sneaky moves and crowded her from the other side.
And Gemma was right back to looking a little like a deer in the headlights.
“How about an iced tea for me?” Cade told Zane.
Gemma took a long breath and seemed to gather her wits about her. “I would have thought you were a beer guy, Cade.”
He turned to her, smiling slightly. “I like a beer from time to time, but I think I need all my faculties to deal with you, baby.”
She knocked back a third of her drink, giving Cade a jaunty smile. “Well, I think I can handle you with one hand tied behind my back.”
Cade whistled. “I would watch it, baby. You start talking about rope and Jesse over there is likely to give you a demonstration. It won’t be just one hand, though. I assure you, he’ll have you trussed up and unable to move so fast it will make your head spin.”
Jesse couldn’t miss the way Zane Hollister started watching those two like they were the nightly entertainment. The bar owner’s hand went out, grabbing the phone and dialing a number—most likely his wife’s. Callie Hollister-Wright was a sweetheart of a woman, and she was also the filter through which all of Bliss’s gossip flowed.