“You have to tell him.” Tasha had her experienced BDSM-switch face on. “He can’t know what’s going on in your head if you don’t calmly and clearly communicate what it is you want.”
“The problem is I’m not sure. Not specifically. But I want to experiment. To find out what we both like. To try new things. I don’t want us to be comfortable with each other by the time we get married, you know? I want to be irresistible to him.”
Jen couldn’t help but think about yesterday. Declan. There was nothing comfortable about that. She’d nearly screamed in frustration when he sent her away. She was going to go crazy waiting on these men to stop circling and make up their damn minds.
“You’re the one sitting on that mountain of diamonds, honey. If you want something different, you have all the control. Just let him know.”
Jen laughed at Tasha. “Is that how you’ve turned my brother into your love slave?” She looked at Alicia conspiratorially. “You should see him at the family dinners. The way he can’t stop touching her? I think her diamonds must be magical.”
Tasha’s smile was satisfied. “If it’s magic, we’re equally under that spell. I could tell you things about Stephen’s stamina that—”
“No!” Both Alicia and Jen said at the same time, making Tasha laugh.
Tasha’s phone buzzed and Jen’s beeped at the same time. She looked down at her texts and sighed. “Wow.”
“I know,” Tasha sighed. “Owen is going to drive Jeremy around the bend before we ever get to the wedding.”
Alicia covered a gasp with her hand. “He didn’t change the date again, did he?”
“No, thank goodness. But he does keep changing his mind about the details, and Jeremy keeps scrambling to change them. I swear he’s doing it on purpose.”
Jennifer shook her head. “He knows exactly what he’s doing. Owen was a brat when he was sixteen and he’s a brat now.”
She lifted her fist instinctively for Tasha’s bump of agreement. “You don’t have to tell me about your brother. I’m just glad Jeremy has so much patience. On the other hand, he was the one to propose. And that speech earned him a hell of a lot of brownie points.”
“Points he’s almost used up with his bridezilla impersonation.”
The three women chuckled before Tasha turned her attention to Jen. “Tell me your news, Little Finn.”
“My news?” Did her voice just go up an octave? Shit. Tasha was great at reading body language. “Other than classes and homework and some more classes, there’s nothing new with me.”
Such a liar. And she knows it.
“Mmmhmm. So I shouldn’t tell you I’m wondering whether to go to my husband with certain information Brady decided to share with me? I think he thought I already knew.”
“What?” The giant jerk. She knew he was worried about Trick hanging around her. He’d told her. He didn’t need to tell everyone else. He definitely didn’t need to tell Stephen. Not yet. She’d never get what she wanted once the Finn men got involved.
Alicia smiled curiously. “I’m missing something.”
Tasha tilted her head, sending her brown curls tumbling. “I think we all are, aren’t we, LF? I was under the impression you’d swung your pendulum back to being the good and dutiful Finn princess again, impervious to my bad influence.”
Please don’t say it.
“But now I know that it was all a distraction so you could play with blond, inked and wicked.”
“Who?” Alicia asked.
Shit.
“The tousled detective, Trick Dunham.”
“Her bodyguard?” Alicia sounded so surprised, and why shouldn’t she be? Jen hadn’t told anyone. Specifically Alicia. “That can’t be true. Ever since Jen moved in and her first semester started, she’s home in her own bed every night. Alone. I’m the one who sets the apartment alarms, so I know.”
Jen’s pale skin gave her away, turning bright red as the two women stared at her. “We might need better alarms, Alicia.”
Alicia made a high-pitched sound of surprise and Tasha laughed so hard she had to hold her rounded belly. “Oh boy. That woke them up. From what Stephen’s told me, a better alarm wouldn’t matter. Trick is… well, he’s tricky. And not someone I would have guessed was your type. I was so mad at your brother when he first told me about him watching you at the club, but he is cute, isn’t he? In a wrong side of town kind of way.”
“You’re sleeping with him and you didn’t tell me.” Alicia grabbed a lemon tart and took a large bite, obviously shocked and hurt. “Isn’t he forty or something?”
“He’s thirty-eight. And we’re not having sex. He just stops by.” And makes me come until I cry while you’re sleeping.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry.” Jen was a jerk. “It’s complicated. I was embarrassed. Not by him, but by the way I was behaving. And the longer it went on, the harder it got to let you know. Please don’t be mad.”