Ming’s sister was hung up on his brother. And from the way Evan slid his hands around her waist and pulled her against him for a deep, passionate kiss, the feeling was mutual.
It took no more than a couple of seconds for an acid to eat at Jason’s gut. He glanced away from the embracing couple, but anger continued to build.
What the hell did Evan think he was doing? Didn’t he care about Ming’s feelings at all? Didn’t he consider how hurt she’d be if she saw him kissing Lily? Obviously not. Good thing Jason was around to straighten out his brother before the situation spun out of control.
A motor started, drowning out Jason’s heated thoughts. Evan backed out of the driveway. Jason had missed the chance to catch his brother in the act. Cursing, he dialed Evan’s number.
“Jason, hey, what’s up?”
“We need to talk.”
“So talk.” Considering the fact that Evan had just engaged in a long, passionate kiss, he wasn’t sounding particularly chipper.
“In person.” So he could throttle his brother if the urge arose. “O’Malley’s. Ten minutes.”
The tension in Jason’s tone must have clued in his brother to Jason’s determination because Evan agreed without protest. “Sure. Okay.”
Jason ended the call and followed his brother’s car to the neighborhood bar. He chose the parking spot next to Evan’s and was standing at his brother’s door before Evan had even turned off the engine.
“You and Lily are still seeing each other?” Jason demanded, not allowing his brother to slide from behind the wheel.
“I never said I was going to stop.”
“Does Ming know?”
“Not yet.”
“She’ll find out pretty quickly if you keep kissing Lily in full view of Ming’s neighbors.”
“I didn’t think about that.” Evan didn’t ask how Jason knew. “I was sure Ming wouldn’t see us. She’d gone up to her room.”
“So that made it okay?” Fingers curling into fists, Jason stabbed his brother with a fierce glare. “If you intend to flaunt your relationship, you need to tell her what you and Lily are doing.”
“I started to tonight, but Lily interrupted me. She doesn’t want Ming to know.” And Evan didn’t look happy about it. “Can we go inside and discuss this over a beer?”
Considering his mood, Jason wasn’t sure consuming alcohol around his brother was a wise idea, but he stepped back so Evan could get out of the car. With an effort Jason unclenched his fists and concentrated on soothing his bad temper. By the time they were seated near the back, Jason’s fury had become a slow burn.
“Why doesn’t Lily want Ming to know?” Jason sat with his spine pressed against the booth’s polished wood back while Evan leaned his forearms on the table, all earnest and contrite.
“Because I don’t think she intends for it to go anywhere.”
If Evan wasn’t running the risk of hurting Ming all over again, Jason could have sympathized with his brother’s pain. “Then you need to quit seeing her.”
“I can’t.” Despite the throb in his brother’s voice, the corners of his mouth relaxed. “The sex is incredible. I tell myself a hundred times a day that it’s going nowhere and that I should get out before anyone is hurt, but then I hear her voice or see her and I have to…” He grimaced. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”
“So you two are combustible together.” Resentment made Jason cross. He and Ming had great chemistry, too, but instead of exploring some potentially explosive lovemaking, they were at odds over what effect this might have on their friendship.
“It’s amazing.”
“But…?” Jason prompted.
“I don’t know if we can make it work. We have completely different ideas about what we want.” Evan shook his head. “And now she’s moving to Portland.”
Which should put an end to things, but Jason sensed the upcoming separation was causing things to heat up rather than cool down.
“Long-range relationships don’t work,” Jason said.
“Sometimes they do. And I love her.” Something Evan looked damned miserable about.
“Is she in love with you?”
“She claims it’s nothing but casual sex between us. But it sure as hell doesn’t feel casual when we’re at it.”
Love was demonstrating once again that it had no one’s best interests at heart. Evan was in love with Lily, but she obviously didn’t feel the same way, and that made him unhappy. And finding out that her ex-fiancé was in love with her sister was going to cause Ming pain. Nothing good came of falling in love.
“All the more reason you should quit seeing Lily before Ming finds out.”
“That’s not what I want.”
“What you want?”
Jason contemplated the passion that tormented his brother. The entire time Evan and Ming were dating, not once had Evan displayed the despair that afflicted him now.
“How about what’s good for Ming?” Jason continued. “Don’t you think you did enough damage to her when you broke off your engagement two weeks before the wedding?”
“Yeah, well, that was bad timing on my part.” Evan paused for a beat. “We weren’t meant to be together.”
“You and Lily aren’t meant to be together, either.”
“I don’t agree.” Evan sounded grim. “And I want a chance to prove it. Can I count on you to keep quiet?”
“No.” Seeing his brother’s expression, Jason relented. “I’m not going to run over there tonight and tell her. Talk to Lily. Figure this out. You can have until noon tomorrow.”
As his anger over Evan’s choice of romantic partner faded, Jason noticed the hollow feeling in his chest was back. He sipped the beer the waitress had set before him and wondered why Ming had chosen to pick a fight with him in California instead of surrendering to the heat between them.
Was she really afraid their relationship would be changed by sex? How could it when they’d been best friends for over twenty years? Sure, there’d been sparks the night of senior prom, but they’d discussed the situation and decided their friendship was more important than trying to date only to have it end badly.
And what they were about to do wasn’t dating. It was sex, pure and simple. A way for Ming to get pregnant. For Jason to purge her from his system.
For him to satisfy his curiosity?
Maybe her accusation hadn’t been completely off the mark. He wouldn’t be a guy if he hadn’t looked at Ming in a bathing suit and recognized she was breathtaking. From prom night his fingers knew the shape of her breasts, his tongue the texture of her nipples. The soft heat of her mouth against his. That wasn’t something he could experience and then never think about again.
But he wasn’t in love with her. He’d never let that happen. Their friendship was too important to mess up with romance. Love had almost killed his father. And Evan wasn’t doing too well, either.
Nope. Better to keep things casual. Uncomplicated.
Which didn’t explain why he’d offered to help Ming get pregnant and why he’d suggested they do it the natural way. And Jason had no easy answer.
Six
By Sunday afternoon Ming still hadn’t heard from Jason, and his lack of response to her phone calls and texts struck her as odd. She’d apologized a dozen times. Why was he avoiding her? After brunch with Lily, she drove to Jason’s house in the hope of cornering him and getting answers. Relief swept her as she spied him by the ’Cuda he’d won off Max a few months ago. She parked her car at the bottom of the driveway and stared at him for a long moment.
Bare except for a pair of cargo shorts that rode low on his hips, he was preoccupied with eliminating every bit of dust from the car’s yellow paint. His bronzed skin glistened with a fine mist of water from the hole in the nearby garden hose. The muscles across his back rippled as he plunged the sponge into the bucket of soapy water near his bare feet.
Ming imagined gliding her hands over those male contours, digging her nails into his flesh as he devoured her. The fantasy inspired a series of hot flashes. She slid from behind the wheel and headed toward him.
“I think you missed a spot,” she called, stopping a couple feet away from the back bumper. Hearing the odd note in her own voice brought about by her earlier musing, she winced. When he frowned at her, she pointed to a nonexistent smudge on the car’s trunk.
Since waking at six that morning, she’d been debating what tack to take with Jason. Did she scold him for not calling her back? Did she pretend that she wasn’t hurt and worried that he’d ignored her apologies? Or did she just leave her emotional baggage at the door and talk to him straight like a friend?
Jason dropped the sponge on the car’s roof and set his hands on his hips. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t.”
She eyed the car. “I’m pretty sure you did.” When he didn’t respond, she stepped closer to the car and pointed. “Right here.”
“If you think you can do better…” He lobbed the dripping sponge onto the trunk. It landed with a splat, showering her with soapy water. “Go ahead.”