He grinned. “Are you blowing me off?”
“Blowing you…” Just blowing him. Damn. Okay, she had to stop thinking like that, but it was really hard when his green-as-green eyes drifted down to her mouth.
Reaching up, he touched the pad of his thumb to her bottom lip. She shivered, her eyes sliding shut as all sorts of illicit pictures flitted through her mind.
“No,” she wheezed out, stepping away from his touch. Her eyes darted to the tray of drinks still balanced on his palm. “You’re working,” she said. “You should get back to work.”
He glanced off to the side, then fixed his hot gaze back on her face. “I get a break in about half an hour. Can we talk again?”
She nodded slowly, still confused.
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Running the back of his fingers over her cheekbone, he said, “Thank you. Stay right there. I’ll be done soon.” He scooped up one of the flutes and handed it to her. “Don’t go anywhere, Lia.”
She took the glass and shivered a little, her lower body clenching tight. Mechanically, she sat and downed the champagne in one gulp. She instantly regretted it since she was the designated driver for her sister, and she’d sworn to her fiancé that she’d get her home in one piece. She tried to focus on anything but Brody, but her eyes kept drifting over to where he was now standing, talking and laughing with her sister’s friends. She nearly swallowed her tongue when she saw one of them groping his ass and shoving a wad of bills into his pants.
Unbidden, jealousy scorched her veins, although she couldn’t say why. Brody wasn’t hers. He’d only spoken to her for a moment, so she had no claim. As if he heard her thoughts, Brody looked over at her and winked. Okay, that wink shouldn’t make her heart soar like that. They hadn’t seen each other in five years. There was no connection, but damn it, she wanted there to be one.
3
Brody held back the grimace as yet another woman grabbed his ass and squeezed. He shot a smile over his shoulder, then carefully extricated himself from her rather firm grip. He’d learned to grin and bear the groping, but he was reaching the end of his tether.
“Have you met my sister?” a woman in front of him asked. He turned to the blonde, seeing the pink sash declaring her as the bride-to-be.
“Your sister?” he asked.
The woman gestured over his shoulder. “Over there. At the booth?”
He looked, but he knew exactly who she was talking about. “I offered her
champagne,” he replied, going for neutral territory. He didn’t recognize Lia’s sister, but that wasn’t a surprise. He’d transferred into Clover High in his junior year, so she was already at college.
“You should go and offer her a little more than champagne,” the blonde said, tucking something into the waistband of his pants. He looked down to see at least two Benjamins sticking out of his slacks. “On me,” she finished.
His brows rose and he removed the money, handing it back to her as
discreetly as possible. “I’m not a prostitute,” he said softly, but his anger had sharpened the edges.
Turning away from her, he stalked off to unload the rest of his tray. He pulled up beside Derek.
“Hey, man. These ladies are fucking loving me tonight,” he said.
Brody smiled but it was forced. “I just got money thrown at me to sleep
with someone.”
“Who?” his friend asked.
“The bride.”
“Someone wanted you to sleep with the bride?”
“No,” he exclaimed. “The bride asked me to sleep with her sister.”
“Which one is the sister?” Derek asked, craning his neck. Brody took a
deep breath in and out, locking down his anger.