Page 59 of All for Love

KODY

As I slid my jacket on, I looked at myself in the reflection of the mirror in front of me. “What do you think? Good enough for the party?”

Marissa walked up behind me, her hair and makeup done but still wearing ratty sweats and a threadbare T-shirt before she started getting ready herself. She grinned as she pretended to brush something off my shoulders and then squeezed them.

“Ravishing as ever, Kody Wagner. You’re perfect.”

I returned her grin with one of my own and then turned to face my old friend. “Thanks for coming with me tonight. I know the Wagner Christmas party isn’t really your style, but I promise that the food will be good and the drinks will be worth it.”

She laughed, backing away toward my bed and tilting her head. She sat down and crossed her legs on the mattress, completely comfortable in my bedroom and in her own skin. “You never told me why you needed a date to this shindig.”

I shrugged, heading over to my dresser to pick out a pair of cufflinks rather than to keep looking at her. Marissa and I had known each other for a long time. She was one of the few female friends I’d ever really had, and although we didn’t see each other that often anymore, she’d spot a lie from a mile away if I looked at her while I told her.

“My dad insisted I bring a date. I figured it’d appease him if I showed up with you. He’s always liked you and he’s never believed that there’s nothing going on between us.”

When I glanced at her over my shoulder, Marissa was clearly contemplating what I’d said, her expression thoughtful and her eyes narrow before she arched a steep eyebrow at me. “Are you sure that’s all this is about? Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see your dad again and everyone else too, for that matter, but I’m getting the feeling that there’s more to it than that.”

“What are you, a detective?” I teased.

Marissa waggled her brows at me. “That’s the goal, but not yet.”

“You’ll get there.” I chose a pair of golden cufflinks and turned to her again as I slid them into place. “How’s that treating you, by the way?”

“The force?” she asked, and when I nodded, she grinned. “It’s great. I freaking love being a police officer, especially now that I’m done working only nights and I can finally start climbing the ranks. Also, thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don’t need it. I know I’m going to make detective and I’m aiming to do it soon.”

“Of course, you are.” I leaned back against my dresser, eyeing the beautiful woman on my bed and wondering how I’d managed to only ever feel platonic toward her when I couldn’t seem to do the same with my stepsister.

Marissa used to work for my father, and he helped her organize her schedule when she started going to school for a degree in criminology. Somehow, between the two of them, they’d managed to pull it off. She’d remained in his employ while at the same time getting her degree, and once she’d graduated, he’d let her go with a healthy bonus and no hard feelings.

She’d joined the police department, paid her dues, and had kept in touch with him all along. I had always found her interesting, but there had never been a romantic relationship between us or even a semblance of physical attraction.

Marissa and I had hit it off right off the bat, but in a different way than I’d experienced with a woman before. As far as I was concerned, she may as well have been a guy and I was pretty sure she hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t a chick.

She hopped off the bed and came over to help me with my tie. “Okay, so you don’t want to talk about the real reason you invited me, that’s fine. Hopefully, you’ll start feeling better once we get some whiskey into you. For now, thanks again for my slinky new Christmas dress. It’s been a while since I’ve dressed up.”

I glanced at the garment bag hanging against my closet. I’d bought her a sparkly black little number that fit her like a glove. Our friendship might’ve been strictly platonic, but I wanted to make sure I walked into the party with a beautiful woman on my arm, and Marissa fit the bill.

Blonde-haired and blue-eyed with the height of a supermodel and the smile of a beauty queen, she was gorgeous. Confident. With a sense of humor and a very feminine look about her, but she was also fit from all her police training.

On the other hand, she had lean, toned muscles and an attitude that said she could take down a grown man with one arm tied behind her back. Marissa was everything I could’ve asked for in a woman, and in another life, we might have had chemistry but she’d always felt more like a sibling to me—like how I was supposed to feel about Mercedes.

I really couldn’t figure out why I felt like this about Marissa—who was beautiful, single, and not my fucking stepsister—but I wanted Mercedes instead. Maybe Kaden really was onto something with his forbidden fruit argument.

Either way, I was actively working on moving on.

Marissa stepped away from me once my tie was on. She peeled off the band tee she’d worn while having her hair and makeup done, revealing a plain cotton bra underneath and stomach as flat as a washboard. Even so, she had that narrow waist and wider hips that made up the perfect fucking hourglass figure and I willed my cock to react to the half-naked, delectable woman in front of me, but it did nothing.

Marissa shimmied out of her sweats next, then turned her back on me as she strode over to the garment bag and lifted it off the side of the closet. She carried it to the bed, unzipped it to take out the dress, then unhooked her bra and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor.

Since she still had her back to me, I couldn’t see her tits, but her ass was firm and surprisingly tanned in a pair of lacy, boy-cut panties that she kept on as she stepped into the dress. For the rest of the night, I was going to know exactly what she was wearing underneath the expensive fabric, and yet, I still didn’t feel the slightest hum of desire.

Running my gaze up and down the length of her shapely figure as she covered up, I wondered if there was something wrong with my dick. It should’ve been reacting at least a little bit to see her like this, but there was still just nothing.

Once she had the dress in place, she glanced at me over her shoulder. “Are you going to stand there staring or are you going to help me with the zipper?”

“I’ll do both,” I decided out loud, striding across the room. She moved her hair out of the way as I pinched the metal tab between my fingers.

This close, I could smell the powdery scent of the makeup and the tang of the hairspray the team I’d arranged had used on her. I felt her heat radiating into me and the firm strength of her body as I zipped her up, but none of that affected me at all.