The Charmer (Harbor City 2)

It took about fifteen seconds after Sawyer left for Tyler to start in. “Are you two seeing each other?”

Luckily, Hudson had had more than enough experience playing dumb for his response to sound natural. “Who?”

“Felicia,” Tyler said, his attention going right past Hudson to the woman across the room.

He turned his gaze to the balcony. You have enough money for good lawyers, Carlyle. You’d end up with fifteen years. Tops.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to remember the determination and hope in Felicia’s eyes when she’d told him why she’d had a lifelong crush on the idiot in front of him. It was enough—barely—to keep him from pushing the other man toward the balcony.

“Felicia?” he asked, managing not to include the non-verbal fuck you into his tone. “We’re just friends. That’s it.”

Tyler the jackass’s face lit up. “Because I don’t want to elbow in if something’s going on between you two.”

Going on? Just orgasms. And pancakes. And a one-eyed cat. And the biggest secret of his life.

“With Felicia? No way. We’re just working on a project together—something to pass the time.” Don’t kill him. Don’t punch him in the face. Tripping him so he falls into a tray of canapés was acceptable, though. “She’s not really my type.”

He caught the movement of air behind him a second before the scent of fruity shampoo hit. Turning, he looked down at Felicia who gave him a flirty smile.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.”

…

Felicia could do this. She could make it through a simple conversation even if all she could hear was the phrase “not my type” over and over in her head. She wasn’t. She knew that. She’d always known that. And it wasn’t like she wanted Tyler. Wait. She did want Tyler. It was Hudson she didn’t want. She didn’t.

How much longer are you going to lie to yourself? For a smart chick, you sure do act like your head’s full of rocks sometimes.

She looked between the two men and it hit her like every stereotypical a-ha moment she’d ever heard about. While she’d been so focused on what she thought she’d wanted, she’d completely missed the fact that she wanted Hudson not Tyler and had since that first night at the museum fundraiser. Tyler hadn’t been her ideal man, he’d been an idea. But Hudson? He was the flesh and blood man that she couldn’t help but respond to. It had never been transference. It had always been Hudson. She was a total moron for not realizing it until now. It made perfect, frustrating, mind-boggling sense, and she’d just been too stubborn to look away from the goal she’d had for years to understand just why she couldn’t get her “professor” off her mind. The question now was what was she going to do about it?

“Shit.” The word was out before she could stop it.

Both men started.

“Everything okay?” Tyler asked.

“Sorry, just remembered something I needed to do for an article I’m putting together for the Journal of Myrmecology,” she said, almost sounding like she wasn’t lying through her teeth.

Hudson didn’t look like he believed her, but Tyler ate up the bullshit line.

“You look gorgeous tonight,” Tyler said.

“Thank you,” she said, her mind still spinning.

She was saved from having to say anything else by his buzzing phone. “Sorry.” He took it out and gave the text a quick read, his expression growing darker with every second. By the time he shoved his cell back in his inside suit jacket pocket, he was scowling.

“Trouble?” Hudson asked with a little more joy than the situation called for.

Tyler shot him a glare. “Just that annoying upstairs neighbor of mine. She’s called a tenant meeting.”

Oh, that wasn’t good. Even if he did own the building, if the tenants banded together about a quality of life issue within the building, then the Harbor City housing authority could get involved and there’d be nothing he could do about it. For a control freak like Tyler, there really wasn’t a worse possible outcome than having someone else telling him what to do.

Felicia gave his forearm a comforting squeeze. “What did you do now?”

“What makes you think I did anything?” he said, not denying that he had.

Laughter bubbled out. “Because I’ve known you my whole life, Tyler Jacobson.”

“Nothing that should have resulted in that she-devil busting my balls this much,” he grumbled