The oldest sibling in the other family was everything Ian wasn’t. Brash, loud, tattoos on his forearms, and he threw a mean football as quarterback of the Tampa Breakers. Ian, meanwhile, was more of a thinker, president of the Breakers’ rivals, the Miami Thunder, owned by his father’s estranged brother, Ian’s uncle.
Riley jumped up, smoothing her dress and rubbing at her swollen lips, doing nothing to ease the tension emanating from her best friend.
Ian took his time standing.
“I see you met my brother,” Alex said, his tone tight.
Riley swallowed hard. “We were just—”
“Getting better acquainted,” Ian said in a seductive tone meant to taunt Alex and imply just how much better he now knew Riley.
A muscle ticked in the other man’s jaw. “Ready to go back inside?” Alex asked her.
Neither one of them would make a scene at this mockery of a family event.
“Yes.” She didn’t meet Ian’s gaze as she walked around him and came up alongside Alex.
“Good because my dad’s been asking for you. He said it’s been too long since he’s seen you,” Alex said, taunting Ian back with the mention of the one person sure to piss him off.
Despite knowing better, Ian took the bait. “Go on. We were finished anyway,” he said, dismissing Riley as surely as she’d done to him.
Never mind that she was obviously torn between her friend and whatever had just happened between them; she’d chosen Alex. A choice Ian had been through before and come out on the same wrong end.
In what appeared to be a deliberately possessive move, Alex wrapped an arm around her waist and led her back inside. Ian watched, ignoring the twisting pain in his gut at the sight. Which was ridiculous. He didn’t have any emotional investment in Riley Taylor. He didn’t do emotion, period. He viewed relationships through the lens of his father’s adultery, finding it easier to remain on the outside looking in.
Distance was his friend. Sex worked for him. It was love and commitment he distrusted. So no matter how different that brief moment with Riley had been, that was all it was.
A moment.
One that would never happen again.
* * *
Riley followed Alex onto the dance floor in silence. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other since she’d let him lead her away from Ian. She understood his shocked reaction and wanted to soothe his frazzled nerves but didn’t know how. Not when her own nerves were so raw from one simple kiss.
Except nothing about Ian was simple, and that kiss left her reeling. From the minute his lips touched hers, everything else around her had ceased to matter. The tug of arousal hit her in the pit of her stomach, in her scalp as his fingers tugged her hair, in the weight of her breasts, between her thighs and, most telling, in her mind. He was a strong man, the kind who knew what he wanted and who liked to get his way. The type of man she usually avoided and for good reason.
But she’d never experienced chemistry so strong before. His pull was so compelling she’d willingly followed him outside regardless of the fact that she knew without a doubt her closest friend in the world would be hurt if she got close to Ian.
“Are you going to talk to me?” Alex asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“I’m not sure what to say.”
On the one hand, he didn’t have a say in her personal life. She didn’t owe him an apology. On the other, he was her everything. The child she’d grown up next door to and the best friend who’d saved her sanity and given her a safe haven from her abusive father.
She was wrong. She knew exactly what to say. “I’m sorry.”
He touched his forehead to hers. “I don’t know what came over me. I found you two kissing, and I saw red.”
“It was just chemistry.” She let out a shaky laugh, knowing that term was too benign for what had passed between her and Ian.
“I don’t want you to get hurt. The man doesn’t do relationships, Ri. He uses women and moves on.”
“Umm, Pot/Kettle?” she asked him. Alex moved from woman to woman just as he’d accused his half brother of doing.
He’d even kissed her once. Horn dog that he was, he said he’d had to try, but they both agreed there was no spark and their friendship meant way too much to throw away for a quick tumble between the sheets.
Alex frowned. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t change the facts about him. I don’t want you to get hurt.”