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That was the problem, though.
He wasn’t sorry, and he didn’t want to stop.Chapter Ten“I thought Adam was your fake boyfriend.”
Jules had known this was coming the second she got out of Adam’s truck. Frankly, she was surprised Aubry had waited until they were alone to pounce. She moved around the now-closed café, wiping down tables. Her cousin Jamie had already closed the till and taken off for some hot date, so it was just Jules and Aubry and the cats left. “We are.”
“So you were having fake sex out in nature like horndog apes?”
She rolled her eyes. “We didn’t have sex.” Because he put on the brakes. She’d been so out of her mind with pleasure, she wasn’t sure she would have been smart enough to call the whole thing off just because there wasn’t a condom handy. And that was downright unforgivable. She wanted to be scandalous—not stupid. And having unprotected sex with a fake boyfriend, no matter how safe Adam made her feel, was stupid beyond belief.
“But you wanted to have sex.”
Yes. She did. A lot. More than a lot. Jules scrubbed at a coffee stain in the center of one table, pausing to nudge Ninja Kitteh out of the way when the striped cat came to snoop. “We’re two consenting adults. I don’t see how it matters.”
“Totally not my point.” Aubry double-checked the lock on the front door and headed for her table.
“Then, pray tell, what is your point?”
Her friend frowned. “I’m not judging—not really. That’s not what we do. I just don’t want to see you get hurt because your heart gets involved. That guy might be cool as hell—and he is—but he’s spent a grand total of like a month in Devil’s Falls in the last however many years. A guy like that doesn’t have roots, and your roots are deeper than deep. You’re not leaving this place and he’s not staying.”
“Don’t project your relationship issues on me.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. “Oh my God, I’m a horrible friend for saying that. I’m sorry. I’m just so on edge with Grant and Adam and…there’s no excuse. Forgive me?”
“Always.” Aubry zipped the laptop case closed. “And you’re right. I’m even more of a hot mess than you are when it comes to men. I’m just a Ford tough mama bear who’s feeling protective. If he breaks your heart, I’m liable to set his truck on fire.”
The scary part was that Jules wasn’t exactly sure if her friend was joking or not. It was a step of crazy that Aubry would never take for herself—if she had, then her asshole ex would definitely have seen the results—but for Jules…yeah, she’d do that and worse. She walked over and hugged her friend. “I love you.”
“I know. I love you, too. Just…be careful.”
“I will. I promise.” Even as she said the words, she knew they weren’t the full truth. When it came to Adam, she was on a roller coaster and the safety brakes were gone. There was only one possible outcome, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. It would be one heck of a ride before she crashed and burned.
“No, you won’t, but that’s okay.” Aubry stepped back. “Do you have a hot date tonight, too, or can we please shoot some people? I have so much pent-up aggression after spending the afternoon trapped on that horrid body of water with the biggest asshat in town.”
Jules laughed. “Grant’s bad, but I don’t know that he’s that bad.”
“One, yes, he is. Two, I wasn’t talking about him.”
Jules turned off the main lights in the café, leaving the one over the counter on. Even though she knew the cats didn’t care, she didn’t like leaving them in complete darkness. She checked the lock on the front door one last time and then followed Aubry through the kitchen and up the back stairs to their apartment. “Quinn isn’t a bad guy. I think he’s funny.”
“Funny for a performing bear.”
There was no arguing with her friend when she got like this. When it came to new people, Aubry was judge, jury, and executioner—nine times out of ten, she hated them on sight. Apparently she’d already passed judgment on Adam and Daniel’s friend. To be fair, he seemed to really like getting a rise out of her. “If you say so.”
“This is why we get along so well. You don’t expect me to like people.”
She unlocked the door at the top of the stairs and held it open. “You like me.”
“You aren’t people. You’re my people. Totally different thing.” Aubry dropped her laptop on the tiny dining room table and plopped down on the overstuffed couch taking up the majority of the equally tiny living room. “Let’s do this.”
“I don’t suppose you want something like food before we start?”
