Page 51 of Mister Curb Appeal
Holy shit.
I bend to kiss her, but she has more in mind than a peck hello. Her kiss is deep, sexy and an open invitation to more bedroom shenanigans at my place tonight.
We’ve been rocking each other’s worlds ever since Lake Haven, and I’m loving every second I spend with her.
However, her urgency now takes me by surprise — not that I don’t like it. I love it when she takes charge, but she never usually kisses me like this in public or with that much vigor.
“Happy to see me?” I muse as I pull back, realizing the brunette is watching us with a wide-eyed stare.
“Oh, very happy,” she says, reaching back up to wipe the stain of her lip gloss from my lips. I couldn’t give a fuck, I’m used to it by now, and it tastes like vanilla. I’m used to it all over my dick, too, when she gets on her knees for me, but I try not to think about that since we’re here in public and it would only cause problems for me to hide.
I order us a drink, not wanting to keep the bartender waiting, because I know exactly what she wants, something sweet and bubbly. I’m surprised yet again when I hear her address the ‘penny for your thoughts’woman, who has made no attempt to move, or stop staring at us.
“Is that really you Julia Macintyre?” Lexi says, the words sounding mechanical and forced, very un-Lexi like.
“In the flesh,” the woman says, as I look quizzically from one to the other.
“You know each other?” I’m about a second away from scratching my head in confusion when I notice Lexi’s body language is also different. As I slide my hand in hers, she curls her fingers around mine and squeezes. Her back is rigid, andshe’s not one bit smiling at the woman. In fact, she looks mad. Her pout and her frown says it all.
“Unfortunately,” Lexi says, glancing up at me, then back to Julia. “Looks like you were just hitting on my boyfriend, wasn’t the first one enough for you?”
Oh, holy shit.My frown becomes even more profound.
“Lex.” I tug her hand. “We can go get?—”
“No,’ Lexi says. “This is something she needs to hear.”
Julia makes the mistake of rolling her eyes to the heavens while taking a longer than necessary gulp of wine. “Here we go,” she mutters.
“Here we go?” Lexi all but cries in bewilderment. “You texted me the other day, harassing me to talk to you, to which I told you to leave me alone. Now suddenly you show up here and you’re hitting on my boyfriend?”
Julia blows out a sigh. “I didn’t know he was your boyfriend! And okay, you got me.” She holds up her palms in some kind of bid of protest. “I followed you here from your work.”
I whip my head up to stare at the stranger who clearly has Lexi riled like I’ve never seen in my life. “You followed her?” I grit out, not liking in the least bit how that sounds.
“What the hell?” Lexi exclaims.
“I wanted to talk to you!” she insists. “But you won’t even let me try to explain.”
Lexi shakes her head and looks up at me. “This is Julia,” she says, “My ex-best friend I found in bed with my ex-boyfriend.”
Any expression on my face drops; like someone told me there was no Santa this year, the fire of her words light a spark in me. Anyone who hurt Lexi can go to Hell as far as I’m concerned.
I shake my head toward Julia. “Are you for real?”
“Just hear me out!” she insists, her face twisting in a bid of emotional replay. The pretty face from moments ago seemsanything but that anymore. “I never got to explain when you tried to claw my eyes out and pulled my hair!”
“What is there to explain?” Lexi grits, the edge to her tone bitter and pained. “And can you really blame me? You did what you did, Julia, and lied about it. There’s no going back from that.”
“The guy was an asshole,” Julia says. “You’re so much better off without him.”
Lexi laughs without humor, her grip on my hand becomes lethal. “So what you’re saying is you did me a favor by sleeping with him?”
“I didn’t mean it like that, it just happened. I wished it hadn’t, but it did.”
“I’ve heard enough.” Lexi holds up her palm in front of the girl, rivaling that of a stop sign. “You need to stop talking and you need to stop following me or I will call the police and have you charged with harassment.”
“But I was only trying to apologize!”
