Page 13 of Resisting Fate
Chapter Four
“Ben Wright, this must be fate!” the woman who haunted his erotic dreams declared. “You flat on your ass in the very same foyer of a party I’m attending.”
“You again,” Ben grumbled. “That’s what I get for trying to help. Knocked on my ass and mocked by a pseudo-brunette.”
Missy pursed her luscious lips. “It’s not polite to mention a woman’s dye job.”
He shrugged. “It’s not polite to mention a man’s flat on his ass.”
She bit back a smile, clearly enjoying his unheroic fall.
Logan stopped by his side. They were as close as brothers, having grown up together, and were now business partners at Checkin, an online service that did background checks on personal caregivers and short-term contractors. Logan looked like a younger, wiry version of Josh, if Josh had light brown hair and a beard. His eyes held a hint of amusement. “I told ya not to approach him from behind. You know he’s got hair-trigger reflexes, wired for battle.”
Ben blew out a breath. “I know. I wasn’t thinking. I pulled back at the last minute and just put my hand on his shoulder instead of grabbing him and hauling him off.”
“You would’ve been hurting if you’d grabbed him.” Logan turned to Missy. “You see the whole thing? What the hell set him off?”
Missy grimaced. “Hailey was about to go upstairs with Blake Grenier.”
Logan shook his head. “Josh has a great girlfriend. So what if Hailey’s with Blake?”
“Grass is always greener,” Ben put in.
“Or maybe he has unresolved feelings for Hailey,” Missy said in a patient tone. Like she had to explain the intricacies of male-female relationships to the men. Raised by a single mom and then his grandmother, Ben was clued in to the subtle undercurrents women put out.
Logan threw his hands up. “You can’t talk to him about it. I’ve tried. He doesn’t want to want Hailey, and he’ll take your head off for even mentioning he should just get her out of his system.”
“Why doesn’t he want to want her?” Missy asked.
Logan got quiet before saying, “You should ask him about it.” Logan took the two of them in. “It’s kinda sad, isn’t it?”
“Bah.” Ben socked Logan’s arm in a reassuring gesture. “He’ll be fine.”
“I’m going in,” Logan said, inclining his head toward the party noise.
“I’ll catch up,” Ben said.
Logan lifted a brow, a smile playing over his lips. “Is that so?”
“Get out of here.” Ben shoved his shoulder, and Logan walked off with a laugh. Ben turned to Missy, taking in her tight black dress with cleavage on full display. His mouth went dry. Her waist was small, her hips curvy, toned legs, and black high heels. He forced his gaze back to her beautiful face, his voice rough. “So here we are again.”
“I told you we’d keep running into each other. The web is too thick to escape.”
He blinked. “The web?”
She waved airily. “Your friends, my friends, all the vows of forever.”
He rolled on the balls of his feet. “Yeah, that seems to be going around.”
A butler guy appeared out of nowhere. “May I take your coat, sir?”
“Sure.” He handed it over, and the guy disappeared to wherever he came from. There were probably secret tunnels in an old palace like this.
Missy cocked her head. “You don’t buy into it?”
He did a quick rewind. Oh, yeah. The guys getting shackled. “Do you?”
“No.”
