Ryder was sitting right there. This whole conversation was a bad idea, but he couldn’t help it. Penny had laid it out there, challenged him, and he’d accepted.
She’d said she could be discrete? Well, he wove words and passively argued for a living. Game on.
“Maybe I was faking my enjoyment,” she said, and Bass laughed. Honest to God laughed, which she clearly didn’t appreciate. She straightened and nailed him with glare.
“What’s so funny?” Ryder asked.
“Your sister is,” he said. His face actually hurt from how wide he was smiling. “She couldn’t fake a thing if she tried.” He tilted his chin at her. “Look at those big honest eyes of hers.” Not to mention, he felt her come apart.
Faked it, my ass.
She was just trying to goad him, but he knew better. He’d watched her fall over the edge and milk his fingers. The damn memory kept him up half the night with a hard-on that wouldn’t go away.
Ryder chuckled, and Penny’s cheeks heated. Her temper was rising. She might look sweet, but the petite woman had a flare in her that was sexy as hell. She’d pushed his buttons last night, and now it looked like Miss Diamond was getting a taste of her own medicine.
“He’s right, sis. You wear your emotions like face paint. But why didn’t you stay with the girls in the city?”
“Because,” Bass said, facing his friend. “She had some admirers at the club. I thought it best to get her out of there.”
Ryder nodded. “Good. I’m glad you were there. There’s a lot of assholes in the city.”
“I’m not some child that needs to be whisked away every time a guy hits on me,” she snapped, that temper dialed to ten.
“Who was hitting on you?”
“Some asshole cowboy,” Bass said.
“Will you stop talking about me like I’m not right here?” she said to Sebastian. “You’re as bad as my brother.”
He simply smiled and took a drink of his beer. “Ah, darlin’, that’s where you’re wrong.” He leaned her direction and snared her gaze. “I’m much, much worse.”
…
Penny was going to scream. This kind of secret flirting was making her hot and pissed off all at the same time. She was ready to pull Bass up by the hair and kiss the hell out of him, or maybe just pull his hair.
He made her feel crazed, needy, brassy, and strong. When he dropped her off at the restaurant last night, she went to the backdoor to make the lonely trek up the stairs to her apartment above. An apartment she’d invited him into but he’d declined.
Today was supposed to be her day off, but she had to get her mind off last night, and work was the best distraction. That was why she’d come in. Not to see Bass…
She looked at his thick, dark hair, his strong chiseled jaw that held just a hint of five o’ clock shadow even though it was only noon. The weekends were the best because he was casual, usually in jeans and T-shirts. Not that he didn’t rock a suit, but it was maddening how effortlessly sexy the thin, white cotton crew neck clinging to his chest and abs made him as he sat there.
Yeah, she definitely had not worked on her day off just to gape at him…
She opened her mouth to say something, to beat him at his own game and keep this secret conversation going, but Huck threw open the front door and stomped in.
“Whoa, you look like shit,” Ryder said as Huck plopped down beside him, forcing him to scoot over in the booth.
“Are those the same clothes you had on last night?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes.” The normally laidback play
boy rested his head between his hands and exhaled deeply.
“That good, huh? Hook up with a city girl?” Ryder asked. To which Huck answered with an annoyed growl. “Ah crap, tell me she didn’t slash your truck tires like the last girl?”
“No,” Huck said.
“Then what’s wrong?” Penny asked, rubbing his shoulder.