Southern Attraction (Southern Heart 3)

Just as I’m zipping up my shorts and she’s sliding her tank over her head, there’s a knock at the door. “Uh, Mike.” My bartender, Joe’s, voice is hesitant.

“Yeah,” I call out.

“Your friends are here asking for you. I told them you were busy, but they insisted I get you.”

Jamie laughs. Not just a little chuckle either—she throws her head back for a deep belly laugh. I forget about everything but her as I stand there and take in her beauty.

“Mike,” Joe calls again.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” I turn to her. “What’s so funny?”

It takes her a minute to get herself under control before she answers. “This, us.” She laughs again. “This is the riskiest, hottest thing I’ve ever done with a roomful of people just outside that door and down the hall, and now we can add our friends to that list.”

I love how she says “our” friends. With each passing day, we’re becoming more and more engrained in each other’s lives. I wouldn’t have it any other way. “You good?” I ask, raking my eyes over her. There’s no hiding what we just did; she’s glowing from the aftereffects of her orgasm.

“I’m good. No point in trying to hide it.”

I pull her into me and kiss her hard, one more time, before I have to share her.

“They’re waiting,” she mumbles against my lips.

“Fine,” I concede. “But I want to go on record stating the only reason I’m letting you out of this office is because I know you’re coming home with me and will be in my bed in a few hours.”

She nods, smiling, and I twist the lock on the door and lead her with my hand on the small of her back to the table filled with our friends. Aaron, Whitney, David, Olivia, and even Evan and McKinley are here.

“Please tell me that you were not using my desk.” Olivia grins into her drink. She’s trying to sound horrified, but her smile gives her away.

“You mean the way we didn’t use his the other night,” David whispers a little too loud, and her face heats.

I close my eyes and try not to think about my friend and my sister in that… position. It’s been years now that they’ve been dating, but that’s still not something I like to think about. Ewww.

We spend the next couple of hours laughing and cutting up. Evan and Kinley tell us how Lex is having a hard time with the wedding. She’s excited that Whit is going to be her aunt, but she’s afraid Uncle Aaron won’t have time for her. I look over at Aaron and see determination in his eyes. He loves that little girl. Whit fills us in on wedding planning and Aaron just smiles that goofy, “I’ll give her anything she wants” smile. It wasn’t until I met Jamie and fell hard that I finally understood that look.

“So what about you two?” Kinley asks Olivia. “Are you and David next?” She grins.

Liv looks up at David, and he leans in and kisses her. “One day I’ll convince her,” he says, never taking his eyes off my sister.

Hmm, interesting. I make a mental note to ask Olivia about that later. The girls smile at his response and the guys, including me, smirk. We know he’ll eventually wear her down.

I hold Jamie a little tighter. I can only hope that we’re able to come to an agreement on what we are, and where we live.

“Ja

mie, Whit says you’re here until after the wedding,” Kinley says.

“Yes.” She goes on to give the condensed version of her current job predicament and how she ended up here a week early.

“We’ll have to have a girls’ day.”

“You have a spa day scheduled before the wedding,” Aaron says.

“Yeah, but we very rarely have this much time together. We need to take full advantage,” Whit chimes in.

“I’ll call you next week and we’ll plan something. Olivia?” Kinley asks.

“Count me in.” She points at me. “If this slave driver lets me take a day off.”

I just shake my head and laugh at her antics.