Page 9 of An Inconvenient Plan
He crossed his arms, his black T-shirt pulling tight across wide shoulders and muscular biceps. “Nope.”
“Definitely.” She tore her gaze away from his bicep, forced her mind from his hot edginess. Would he be aggressive in the bedroom like her favorite erotic romance series, the Fierce trilogy? She’d yet to experience that.Listen to what he’s saying, an extremely unromantic thing. Stop fooling yourself.She was a warm-and-fuzzy romantic (usually), and he was a cold realist.They weren’t compatible, just like she’d thought before.
He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug that indicated he didn’t agree that everyone wanted great sex and the forever love, which was a completelyguyway of saying he only wanted the sex.
She tensed, irritated beyond reason with his careless shrug. Romance was important. It was the basis of her career, her lifestyle, and all of her friends’ happy endings. Maybe he should take note that all of his brothers, his sister, and even his dad had found their loves! Maybe if he wasn’t so down on romance, he would find love too. Of course, there was Clarissa. He must’ve done something right for the woman to stick around for two months.
Take a breath.Josh always seemed to push her buttons. She never even knew she had buttons until he started poking at her.
He placed his palms on the bar and leaned into her personal space, his voice dropping to a husky whisper, “Some people might just want the sex.”
A hot throb between her legs alarmed her. It was exactly what she’d suspected he’d say, but the way he saidsexsounded so…well, it sounded like a hard fuck. The kind she fantasized about. She met his dark heated eyes and swallowed hard. Her voice came out in a croak. “Like you.”
He straightened. “Jury’s still out on that one.”
She stared at him, wanting to know what he meant by that, but knowing if she asked, he’d say something teasing that set her off. She’d come here to thank him not engage in another fighting match. She had to stop getting sucked in. “Anyway, thanks for saying such nice things in that article. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be meeting with a prince on Friday to maybe plan a wedding for his sister.”
“A prince?”
She let out a happy laugh. “Yes. A real prince. Phillip is from Villroy Island, and he’s handsome and funny. It’s, like, every woman’s dream to meet him.”
Josh’s lip curled. “Well, have fun with your prince. If he really is one. Maybe it’s a scam. Who ever heard of Villroy Island?”
“It’s real. Look it up. Bye. Thanks again!” She picked up Rose and sailed out, floating once more with dreams of her royal wedding planning future. Not even Josh’s muttered, “Princess meets the prince, fucking perfect,” could ruin her lovely royal fantasy.
4
As soon as Hailey left, Josh pulled out his phone and looked up the prince online. A ton of results popped up, mostly calling Prince Phillip the Royal Hottie. He scrolled through the pictures. Great. The guy looked like a movie star, all tousled dark hair, gleaming white teeth, probably had a personal trainer for that build. In half the pictures he was shirtless on a beach with a supermodel. Yup. Total playboy. And it seemed he exclusively dated models. Unfortunately, Hailey could hold her own with any model, which made her a prime target. Hadn’t he seen that up close and personal at his place seven long weeks ago? She haunted his erotic dreams. He’d even started daydreaming about her.Fuck me.Why her?
He and Hailey were wrong for each other for reasons he frequently reminded himself of—they fought constantly, their parents, his aversion to beauty queens. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t look out for her. As a friend.
He kept searching the internet, looking for damning evidence against the playboy prince. Oh, great, he was wealthy and heavily involved in charity work providing clean water to impoverished countries.He is the worst.Josh’s gut did a slow roll, which he ignored as he looked up Villroy Island. Sickeningly gorgeous. An island surrounded by deep blue sea with quaint cottages and a fishing port. The royal palace with towers and turrets perched on a hill in the center of it all looked like something out of a damn fairy tale.
The prince would turn Hailey’s head, showing off his glamorous lifestyle straight out of one of those romance novels Hailey loved. Hadn’t she started a book club based on that kind of fairy-tale life? The woman lived for romantic fantasies, but this one could end very badly for her. It would be so easy for the prince to take advantage and then just throw her away when he was done with her. Hailey deserved better than that.
He closed his eyes, his gut tight, and blew out a breath. Was he actually jealous of a man he’d never met? Or was he doing his usual protective big-brother thing?
He jammed a hand in his hair. What the hell was wrong with him? Ever since that night, that fucking night he couldnotstop thinking about, he’d been on edge. He was losing his mind, all for a woman he didn’t want to want.
Off-limits. Forget it!He shoved his phone in his pocket and went back to work.
Josh prowled behind the bar on Thursday night, waiting impatiently for Hailey and her friends to arrive. The Happy Endings Book Club met across the street at Something’s Brewing Café every other Thursday and always stopped by Garner’s afterwards for drinks. He could count on it. Tonight he was really counting on it. He needed to warn Hailey about this prince she was meeting with tomorrow.
He’d spent way too much time this week figuring out the best way to warn her off the playboy prince without risking her ire and decided after drinks with her friends would be the best time. She’d be in a good mood and mellow. Maybe he’d work on getting her to forgive him for his rejection too. They should be friends. He’d invite her to his place and offer her a drink or something, they’d talk things out, and he’d send her home with the shoebox of money that had brought him nothing but trouble. That was the only way they’d ever get a clean slate and end the bad blood between them.
He stilled as she walked in, her hand on Mad’s arm, confiding something to his little sister. His chest warmed at the sight. Mad was the youngest and only girl in their family, with five older brothers and a single cop dad. She’d never had women friends before Hailey took her under her wing. Now Mad had a whole posse of women friends and seemed to have come into her own as the confident woman he always knew she could be.
Four years ago, he’d seen the rut Mad was in, working at a bar in a seedy section of the city, living in a crap apartment that was frequently broken into. His sister was smart but lost. He’d helped her move back home, got her a part-time job at Garner’s, and helped her get the paperwork and funds together for community college. Later she’d transferred to the University of Connecticut. She’d paid what she could in tuition and he’d paid the rest. He’d paid her last tuition bill in January and had been saving to buy Garner’s ever since. He’d tried once before to buy Garner’s, but his offer hadn’t been high enough to entice the owner Clive Garner to retire. He was hoping to make another offer soon and really hoping Clive was ready to hand over the reins. It wasn’t like Clive and his wife, Heather, were involved in the day to day. They trusted him to handle things.
Once Garner’s was all his, he planned on building an addition to the back of it with a dance floor, an old-fashioned jukebox, pool tables, and darts. He wanted it to be a nighttime destination, not just a place you got a beer and split. He figured it was easier to renovate this place than to build new. He’d seen enough of the world in the army and after—good and bad—and was happy to set down roots in the sleepy town of Clover Park. Everything he needed was right here.
Mad reached the bar first and took a seat. He was so damn proud of his baby sister graduating college soon. He’d dropped out of college, bored and restless, and had joined the army. Her hair looked ridiculous, nearly to her shoulders, dark brown to the tops of her ears, dyed red the rest of the way down. She was growing it out, back to her natural brunette for her wedding in June. He’d offered to chop off the red with some handy kitchen scissors, but she’d declined.
Mad lifted a hand in greeting. “Hey, Josh. Can I get a beer?”
“Shouldn’t you be studying for finals?”
She rolled her eyes. “They’re four weeks away. I’m still learning new stuff.”
