Owen glanced at the girl who was sulking in the booth. Kelly deserved better than her. He deserved the best. Someone more like Caitlyn. Someone he was unlikely to meet in a seedy sex club. The kind of woman Owen had been purposely avoiding because he knew how easily he fell for them. Owen wasn’t sure if he’d gotten lucky tonight or was setting himself up to get hurt again. He’d been avoiding that at all costs for years now. Maybe he was ready to put his heart on the line, but he’d be an idiot to not see how far this thing with Caitlyn might progress. She didn’t seem like the type who’d rip his heart out just because she could.
Kelly headed for the exit, and Owen fell into step beside him.
“So you like this one, do ya?” Kelly asked.
Owen shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Or are you just trying to get me to help you pleasure her?”
Owen stopped midstep. Because, yeah, if Kelly was up for it, Owen would love his assistance.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Kelly said. “You’re so predictable.”
“No, that isn’t it. Or it wasn’t until you mentioned it. Do you want to join us?”
“Not at all.”
Owen didn’t understand the feeling of disappointment in his chest, so he slugged Kelly in the shoulder. “Then don’t bring it up.”
“You’re the one who keeps bringing it up. I think you’re more worried about my love life than your own,” Kelly said.
“That’s because there’s more to worry about when it comes to your love life. Or complete lack of one.”
Kelly chuckled. “You’re as blind as you are predictable, Tags. Do you remember where you put your shoes?”
“In the locker room.”
“And your shirt?”
“Caitlyn’s borrowing it.”
Kelly nodded in the direction of the front door. “I’ll wait for you in the limo.”
“What about your shirt?” Owen glanced pointedly at Kelly’s bare chest.
“I didn’t bring a shirt.”
“You don’t own a shirt.”
“I own a shirt,” Kelly said. “A shirt. One.”
Owen grinned at him. “You’re an odd duck, Cuff.”
“That’s why you get along with me so well.”
A woman Owen didn’t recognize paused beside them, more diamonds on display than a De Beers store.
“I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars if you let me watch you two fuck,” she said.
When Owen and Kelly just gaped at her, she looked from one to the other and said, “Cash.”
“We were just leaving,” Kelly said.
“We’re not a couple,” Owen sputtered. Did they look like a couple? True they were standing rather close and were both shirtless, but…
“Obviously you’re not a couple,” she said, rolling her eyes. She had a thick European accent, but Owen couldn’t identify its origin. French, maybe. “Why would I pay ten thousand dollars to watch a gay couple fuck?” She laughed. “They’d probably let me watch for free.”
“We don’t need your money, lady,” Kelly said and pushed Owen to uproot his bare feet from the floor.
“Do straight guys actually fuck each other for you?” Owen had to ask.
“Depends on how desperate they are for money,” she said. She grinned slyly. “Or how much they’ve secretly wanted to fuck a man, but never had someone else to blame it on.”
“Owen?” Caitlyn said from just behind him.
Heat flooded his face. He cringed and turned to find her dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a white blouse with an out-of-style flop of a bow at the throat, and a tweed blazer his grandmother would be ashamed to own. And why did her conservative attire turn him on as much as that negligée had? He was in trouble.
“Hey, Caitlyn. Are you ready to leave?”
“Are you whoring yourself out?” she asked.
“What? No, of course not.”
“I’m not sure why you’re even having a discussion with this woman,” Kelly said, nodding toward the diamond queen. “As if you’re considering this bullshit or something.”
“I wasn’t considering it. I just wondered if men actually went through with it. That’s a lot of money.”
Caitlyn’s arm circled Owen’s waist, and her hand slid over his bare belly. “You know I get half of every dime you make, baby. How much did she offer you?”
Owen laughed. Kelly gaped at her. Owen slapped Kelly on the chest. “Inside joke. I’ll explain later. Let’s go.”
“How do you have inside jokes with someone you just met?” Kelly said as he started toward the exit again.
“Good luck finding your fantasy,” Owen said to the woman in diamonds. Sex with another man was one of those sex acts he’d never tried. Probably never would. Letting Caitlyn have her way with him was as close as he was going to get to having a homosexual encounter. He didn’t think reciprocal hand jobs counted.
As the three of them stepped onto the walkway outside, the cool cement registered in Owen’s brain. “Shit, I forgot my shoes,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you in the limo.”
“You sure you want to leave me alone with your girl?” Kelly asked.
“I expect you to take good care of her.”
“Oh, I’ll take real good care of her.” He wrapped an arm around Caitlyn and tugged her against his side. Her eyes opened wide. Kelly was only teasing, but Caitlyn had no way of knowing that.
“I’ll hurry,” Owen said. Assuming he didn’t get distracted between here and there by rich women with money to blow and fantasies to fulfill.
Chapter Six
The limo pulled up just as Owen dashed back into the building. Caitlyn didn’t feel right being plastered to Kellen’s side. Not that it was a bad thing. She just felt as if she were cheating. On a guy she’d just met, barely knew, and who had no long-term interest in her. Boy, was she all mixed up inside.
“You’re tense,” Kellen said near her ear. “You don’t have anything to worry about from me. I was just giving Owen a hard time.”
“You don’t find me attractive?”
“You’re gorgeous,” he said. “I just have a certain type.”
“Big blue eyes?” Like Owen’s…
“How’d you guess?”
“You and Owen need to have a talk.”
Kellen’s dark brows drew together. “About what? So Sara had blue eyes, what does that have to do with Owen?”
So maybe there wasn’t any attraction on Kellen’s end at all.
The driver opened the door, and Caitlyn hurried to climb inside. The relationship between Kellen and Owen wasn’t any of her business. She wasn’t sure why she was so fixated on it.
“Owen will be out in a couple minutes,” Kellen said to the driver. “Just wait here.”
“No problem, Mr. Jamison.”
Kellen slipped into the seat beside Caitlyn. She stared at her hands, which were folded in her lap. She probably shouldn’t have said anything to Kellen about Owen. They knew their feelings for each other far better than she did. She wasn’t even sure if they actually had feelings for each other.
“Why do I need to have a talk with Owen? He already knows what type of woman I’m most attracted to. In fact, he said I’d have better luck getting over Sara if I dated someone who doesn’t look anything like her. What do you think?”
“I couldn’t say,” Caitlyn said. “It must be hard to be reminded of someone you lost when you look at some other woman.”