She pressed her thighs together. She shouldn’t have been watching, but she hadn’t been able to look away. Nothing at the club, on the free online sites she would secretly visit when she was supposed to be studying on her laptop, no fantasy plucked from her mind or the pages of a steamy romance novel—none of it had prepared her for the raw, animalistic sexuality that both men had exuded as they came together.
It was clearly an erotic battle Declan was used to winning. She’d envied Trick in that moment. She’d wanted to move closer so she could see everything, but she hadn’t dared—something she was glad of when he confronted Trick mid-act about his plans for them.
Not with her.
Why not? What was wrong with her? Was she not curvy enough? Did he think she was too inexperienced? She could have rocked those glasses off his smug, sexy face if she’d wanted to. If he’d been wearing them. The point is he would have loved it.
Not with her.
Trick turned the car’s engine off and Jen looked around in surprise. They were at her apartment. That was that then. They’d literally given it the old college try and failed. At least Trick had gotten laid. Someone deserved to be happy about the evening.
She reached for the door but his hand stopped her. “Jen, wait.”
Pulling away from his hand, she glared at him, her anger flaring up to protect her from another rejection. She couldn’t take one from him too. Not tonight. “I don’t think we need a play-by-play. It didn’t work out. Maybe you should let him pick out your third next time. That way everyone will be happy.” She shook her head and sighed, hating how mean-girl that sounded. “I’m sorry. This is my fault. I think I forgot why I’d sworn off men the first night you came into my room. It took a few months, but I remember now.”
She launched out of the car and did her best to storm off with dignity in her Star Wars slave-girl dress, working off some frustration by stomping up the stairs to her building and mumbling to herself. She was suffering the sting of Declan Kelley’s rejection, horny and jealous that they’d both had sex and she hadn’t, and she was one hundred percent certain Leroy was going to notice the lube spot on his carpet.
Ice cream. She needed ice cream.
Her keys jangled in her trembling hands, but she managed to unlock the door and slip inside. She was just about to give the door a satisfying slam when Trick grabbed it and forced it open.
Suddenly breathless, Jen darted back and held up her hand in warning. “Stop right there. I mean it, Trick. I’ve let you get away with a lot of breaking and entering because I’m a masochistic jerk magnet in dire need of therapy, but it ends now. Your foreplay fetish is not worth what happened, and you could have prevented that if you’d bothered to ask what other people wanted. I swear I’ll call my cousins to arrest you if you don’t turn your ass around and go.”
“Solomon and James?” Trick kicked the door closed behind him and started stalking her, a hard smile on his lips. “Call them.”
“I will this time,” she declared. “This isn’t fun anymore.”
He winced at her words but didn’t retreat. “We both know exactly what will happen.”
“You’ll get thrown in jail.”
He nodded. “Maybe. Or maybe they’ll just call your brothers.”
Shit. They would. That’s exactly what they’d do.
“You’d hate what would happen afterward, Jen. The same thing that happened right after your fiancé got run out of town.”
She remembered too well. The looks they’d given her. The concern and pity. The disappointment after her arrest.
“You’re a grown woman,” Trick continued. “You don’t need them interfering with your personal life again.”
“Don’t try to manage me. Brady’s not a cop anymore,” she blustered. “I could get him over here right now and he wouldn’t tell a soul. He doesn’t like you.”
“Your cousin loves me, he just won’t admit it.” Trick’s lashes lowered over brilliant, knowing green. “I’m a handy guy to have around. But you don’t get to bother him. He and Tanaka are elbow deep in serious shit—that is, when they aren’t balls deep in each other. What they’re involved in isn’t allowed to touch you, so that option’s off the table. Come on, Little Finn. Don’t you think you’re tough enough to handle me without backup? Talk to me. Yell at me. Hit me. I can take it.”
“I don’t want to handle you. Not right now.” She sighed and shook her head. He was so frustrating. “You should have talked to him before this happened.”
He ran his hands through his hair, making the short ends stand up. “Yeah, I didn’t think everything through. But you don’t know him like I do. You don’t know how much he wan—”