Several nights now, she’d returned from work to find that guy, Adam, sitting out on the bench between their houses, appreciating the view in a way she wasn’t sure anybody else here really did. He usually saw her coming miles away, but every now and then, she managed to sneak up on him. To get a glimpse of him in a tight T-shirt, those big, muscled arms spread out to either side of him, throat exposed and gaze skyward. It made her curse herself again for getting off on the wrong foot with him.
Maybe if she hadn’t messed things up so bad, she could have been getting off with him instead.
Christ, but she really needed Carol to vacate their room at some point so she could unpack that vibrator from her top drawer. The idle fantasies she’d been indulging in of riding those lean hips into the ground—they weren’t smart thoughts, weren’t safe thoughts, especially considering this was the guy who’d triggered her into attacking him by sneaking up on her. By trying to help, like she couldn’t handle her own stupid bags. The guy who’d gotten here because of his connections and who’d tried to play the whole incestuous system off like it was a good thing.
Still, a guy who spent that much time by himself, with just the stars above for company… he might not have been the worst choice.
Cross that. He definitely wouldn’t be the worst choice, because the actual worst choice was sitting in the living room, drinking a beer and trying to make the television work.
“Hello, ladies,” Jared said with a smirk as he looked up. He did a double take when his gaze landed on Jo, a startled blink that turned into a leer about three seconds later, and she rolled her eyes with a huff.
Managing a bare nod and a wave at Anna and the other girl beside her on the couch, Jo headed to the kitchen to make a drink of her own, only to come face to chest with what might as well have been a freaking brick wall.
A deliciously warm, unfairly good-smelling brick wall.
And it was stupid—fuck, it was so stupid—but instead of stepping aside or slugging him in the face or any of a hundred other normal, rational reactions, she brought her hand up and settled it over the ripples of his abdomen. Heat was just pouring off of him, even through the damp fabric of his shirt, the flesh firm and perfect beneath the cotton.
He looked down at her, eyes shockingly blue. Maybe it wasn’t stupid to touch him after all, because he curled his hand around her hip, fingers brushing the skin beside her spine. It sent a shiver to the very center of her, and that wasn’t disgust on his face. It wasn’t confusion. Damn her if it wasn’t a hunger to match her own, and maybe this whole situation between them wasn’t as much of a lost cause as she had imagined.
Or maybe it was. In the blink of an eye, he seemed to realize what he was doing, his whole expression blanking. He yanked his hand away and stepped back so fast he half stumbled in his hurry to get the fuck away from her, and yeah. That was a little closer to what she’d been expecting. The impulse to lash out against rejection rose up in her throat, but he let out an awkward, dry chuckle.
“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what I—”
“Yeah.” Her palm burned with the memory of his warmth, and the front of her body felt cold for more reasons than one. “Sure.”
She felt like such an idiot.
Before she could say something she’d regret, she whipped around. The only relief was that Jared and Carol and the rest of them had stayed put in the living room and hadn’t followed her. Hadn’t had to see that giant pile of awkwardness and weren’t looking at the inferno that was her face right now.
She didn’t acknowledge them as she stalked past them toward her room, where she closed the door and put her back to it, burying her face in her hands. Wishing she’d been smart enough to stay in her lab.
Adam pushed the last bits of his stir-fry around on his plate, scooping it up onto his fork the best he could and shoveling it into his mouth. It was one of the basic meals he’d managed to learn to cook after he’d moved out of the dorms and realized a steady diet of mac and cheese and Burger King wasn’t doing him any favors.
Not for the first time, he snuck a glance over at Jo, perched in the corner eating more greedily than he’d seen since they’d arrived. It was compliment enough, even if she hadn’t given him a verbal one. Which was fine. It hadn’t been much extra work to make up a separate little skillet for the tofu, which hadn’t been half bad, if he said so himself. If you, you know, liked tofu. Which he didn’t particularly, but whatever. Not up to him to judge. Anyway, it had gotten her over here, and that was a first.
Hell, she’d even said two words to him. Exactly two, and they’d both been effectively a dismissal. He’d been such a lug, putting his hands on her when she’d fallen into him. When she’d touched him and sent a heady jolt of arousal surging up his spine. It’d just felt so good to be touched, even if it was only a hand on his stomach as she steadied herself. Even if it wasn’t anything like he might have imagined—even if it hadn’t been heading where his brain had immediately gone.
A place his mind went entirely too often when he looked at her.
But she was all harsh lines and soft curves and he wondered what that piercing through her lip would feel like against his cock…
He shifted his plate to cover his lap and forced himself to look away. People around the room were finishing up, and there was ice cream in the freezer for dessert. Jared and Kim were flirting like they always were, though there was a level of bickering cropping up in their repartee that was new. He wasn’t sure what that said for what was brewing between them behind closed doors.
Carol, who’d already finished, too, rose and started moving around the room, taking plates from anybody who was done. Adam handed his over with a nod of thanks and leaned back in his seat as he reached for his beer. He frowned as he took a sip. Nothing stayed cold for long around here.
On the other couch, across from him, Anna looked at the time and sighed. “Should probably go call my boyfriend.”
Of course, that was a cue for half of the people in the room to look at Adam. Right. Because apparently he and Anna were the only ones here who had any significant attachments to people at home. As Anna picked her way over to the door, Jared raised an eyebrow at Adam. “How about you, lover boy? Time for you to go call the girlfriend, too?”
The clattering sound of a fork hitting a plate too hard pulled Adam’s gaze to the corner of the room. Jo dropped her head the instant he looked at her, stabbing a piece of tofu with way more aggression than was called for.
Not that Adam could blame her. His own store of hostility welled up as he went back to glaring at Jared. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he countered, a little more sulkily than he might have liked. But it had been a week now, and all he’d gotten were a couple of erratic texts. Never enough of them in a row for a real conversation, even. They were all apologetic, but actions spoke louder than silent words on silent screens, and it was like Shannon didn’t care. Like she didn’t miss him.
Sometimes, he wasn’t sure he missed her, either. Other times, he felt so damn lonely, he wanted nothing more than to hear that voice. The one that had been a constant in his ear for years, through the good and the bad and the everything in between. Until now.
“I’m sorry.” Jared’s voice was teasing. “Time to go call Ms. It’s Complicated?”
“No.” And he shouldn’t have added it, but he did. “She probably wouldn’t answer, anyway.”
He’d been good about not calling her recently, too. He’d given in once on that very first day and again a few days later. And once more over the weekend. But the itch had receded to the back of his mind, mostly. An adequate amount of disappointment could train anyone. Even him.
“Has she ever?” Carol asked, and at least she had the grace to sound sympathetic.