No Turning Back (Man-Maid 1)
His brother shrugged. “No friggin’ idea, but I’m ready to try just about anything. I’m not getting any younger, and I’m ready for a change.”
Jensen walked over to a chair and sat. “You know, I thought I’d be satisfied as a financial analyst. It pays well and the job su
its me. That’s enough to make a lot of people pretty happy. Somewhere along the line, it became mundane as shit, though.” He sighed. “I feel like Dad,” Jensen grumbled, “bitching about the job and looking forward to the day I can retire.” Jensen frowned at Jason. “When did that happen?”
“Hell if I know.” Jason crossed the room and sat in the recliner next to him. “My job isn’t boring. I don’t hate it. Not really.” He shrugged. “I guess I should be content.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
Jason shook his head. “Because the powers that be hired a new director. My new boss is a damn pinhead who couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag. I swear to Christ, Jensen, this asshole must have gotten his college diploma from a box of Cracker Jack. The one they had before him wasn’t much better. Truth is, I’m fed up with taking orders from these people.”
“Okay, let’s think about this a second. If we’re truly serious about this—and I’m pretty sure we are—then we need to put our heads together. We have skills. What sort of business could we successfully own and operate?”
They both went silent as they thought it over. Jensen started to get jazzed as he imagined going into business with his brother. Jason had always been a hard worker. There wasn’t a man alive who had more drive than his brother. He mentally came up with several ideas, but none of them felt right. A knock on the front door tore both of them out of their brainstorming session.
Jason moved to answer it when the door swung open. “Hey, am I interrupting anything?” The soft, feminine voice of their friend AJ had them both smiling. She wore a pair of black capri running pants and a workout bra. Her short brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and it appeared as if she’d just come from a workout.
“Honey, you’re always a welcome sight,” Jensen said as he greeted her. He and Jason had been friends with AJ since grade school.
“Would it matter if you were?” Jason teased as he went to the fridge to get another cold one. He handed it to her and winked. “Where are your sidekicks?”
These days, their short, quirky friend was never without her two running buddies, Seth Berringer and Ames Dair. From the moment AJ had met the two men a couple of years back, the trio seemed to go everywhere together. Jensen wondered if AJ would ever realize that Seth and Ames had a serious craving for her. The way the pair looked at her, it was a wonder she hadn’t figured it out already. Then again, AJ had never really been aware of her own appeal. She’d once told him that she was the ugly duckling who’d never gotten to be a swan. Unfortunately, nothing Jensen said to the contrary had managed to penetrate AJ’s thick skull.
AJ sprawled out on the couch as if exhausted. “They’re on their way,” she replied as she swiped a hand over her forehead. “We just finished at the gym, but Ames wanted to go home and shower, and Seth had a few errands to run.”
Jason chuckled. “You three work out more than anyone I know.”
AJ took a sip of her beer, then put it on the coffee table in front of her. “It’s fun.” She nudged him with her foot. “You should give it a try. Might do you some good.”
“Hey, I work out plenty, little girl. I just don’t see the need to kill myself like you do.”
AJ held out her arm and pumped her small bicep. “You’re just jealous of my guns,” she said as she wagged her eyebrows.
“Guns?” Jason laughed and squeezed AJ’s upper arm. “More like mosquito bites.”
She stuck her tongue out. “Buffoon.”
Jason pushed up his shirt sleeve and showed off his own muscular arm. “Now that’s a gun.”
She arched a brow and propped her foot on the coffee table. “How is it possible that you have muscles on top of muscles when you don’t even work out? It’s not fair.”
“I work out,” he replied as he knocked her foot off the table. “Just not with you three musketeers.”
“You ask me, it’s just good genes.” She pointed to Jensen. “You and your brother both.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Jason replied. He got up and tossed his empty bottle in the trash before he took his cell phone off the counter and waved it in the air. “Who wants pizza?”
“I do!” AJ shouted. “And Ames and Seth might too. They’ll be here any minute, if you can wait.”
As if on cue, the pair walked through the door. “Knock, knock,” Ames said. They strode over to the couch and sat on either side of AJ. “How long you been here?”
“Just got here a few minutes ago.” She took in Ames’s appearance and frowned. “You showered that fast?”
“Yep. I’m squeaky clean,” Ames said as he slung an arm around the back of the couch and started playing with AJ’s ponytail.
Jensen noticed that instead of Ames’s usual workout shorts and cutoff shirt, he wore a pair of black slacks and a fitted white T-shirt. Even his unruly black hair was combed into submission. The short sleeves on the shirt caught Jensen’s attention. They were tight around his upper arms, and Jensen knew that the view was for AJ’s benefit alone. He had to bite back a smile at how completely oblivious AJ was to Ames’s efforts to show off for her.
AJ’s focus shifted to Seth. “And how’d you get done with your errands so fast, Mister Speedy?”