Three Sweet Nothings (Blindfold Club 5)

Poor Grant. He stared at me like I’d just confessed I was an alien. “What’s this?”

I rolled down the sides of my piping bag and picked up the bowl, spooning the batter inside the bag, mostly so I didn’t have to watch his face as I dropped the bombshell.

“I slept with him last night.”

All I got from Grant was silence.

I twisted the bag closed, went to my baking trays already lined with the silicone template sheets, and began to pipe the circles.

“And also on New Year’s Eve,” I added. The quiet was unnerving. “It’s just sex.”

“Just sex.” His tone was dubious.

“Yeah. We’ve come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

Grant gave a humorless laugh. “Oh? What’s that about?”

I squeezed the bag with too much force and the blob of batter overran the template. “Shit,” I muttered. “We’re, like, fuck buddies. Whenever one of us wants to bang, we bang.”

I risked a glance at him. His expression was unease. “So, he wants to come over and bang.”

“Yeah.” I felt his judgement and frowned. “I’m a big girl.”

“Hey, sure. I’m not telling you what to do, or how I think it’s a bloody awful idea. It isn’t my place, is it?”

I pressed my lips into a thin line. “Nope.”

“Though I’m remembering what you were like when we met, Rube. Right after he’d left you.” Grant was the only one who used the nickname, and I liked it, but his words now cut through all my bullshit.

He was right. I’d been a mess. It was a miracle I’d made it through my first semester my final year of law school, with all the drinking and stupid partying I’d done. Grant had even helped my sister scrape me off the bathroom floor the night I’d been with Whiskey Dick. The first guy I’d brought home, some random from the bars I was going to use, determined to fuck Kyle out of my thoughts.

It hadn’t worked, but it did take me on the express elevator down to rock bottom, and from that moment on, things improved. I also went celibate for the next two years, choosing to focus on my career.

“Like I said,” I aimed for a firm tone and failed, “it’s just sex. I’m not going to get attached.” I couldn’t have sounded less convincing if I’d tried. One night with Kyle and I was already in serious trouble.

My phone chimed again.

I swallowed hard. What would happen when he got here and discovered I had company? Male company? I lied to myself that I was curious to see how Kyle would react, but deep down the truth was there. I was desperate to see him again.

Chapter

TWENTY-FOUR

KYLE

I knocked on Ruby’s door, and as I waited for her to answer, I shifted the messenger bag on my shoulder. The door swung open, and the funny feeling in my chest was back as I set my gaze on her.

Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. She looked casual in jeans and a deep orange cable-knit sweater, and beautiful as hell. A slight smile bowed on her lips as she let me inside her apartment, where it was excessively warm.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi. What’s with the bag?”

I unslung it from my shoulder and handed it to her to hold while I took off my coat. “Don’t worry about it, it’s for later.”

Her eyes narrowed playfully like I was a shady character, but she didn’t peek inside. Her gaze swept over my dark jeans and the oatmeal colored sweater I wore over a blue button-down, the shirttails hanging out beneath.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I had plans,” she announced. I hung my coat in her closet and s