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My heart thumped. “What’s Liam up to?” I practically growled at her. I was acting like a jealous idiot.
“He’s getting some food together for a picnic by the river at your house. There wasn’t really any picnic food in the kitchen.”
I wished I’d never asked.
“Thalia, you ready?”
She gave Liam a quizzical look. Probably wondering why he was ignoring everyone, me included.
“Ah, I guess.” She stood. “I hope to see you all again.”
“You sure will little darlin’.”
Liam moved in and put his arm around her shoulders. She quickly glanced to me. “I’ll see you later, Jack.”
“Yeah.”
Liam scowled at me then pulled Thalia towards the door, without a backward glance, from Liam that was, Thalia looked back at me from the car.
“That girl wants you. What you going to do about it?” Donovan asked.
“If you knew she wanted me, what was ‘you sure will little darlin’?”
He grinned at me. “Someone’s jealous.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” They knew I was serious. “It doesn’t matter. I need to leave. I’ll meet you both at the river.” I stood and walked out of there, climbed into my car and drove to the river, knowing they’d leave me alone for an hour to get my head together.
I’d known Thalia, not twenty-four hours and already she’d gotten into my head. I couldn’t get her out, and out she needed to be in order for me to carry on with the life everyone had planned out for me. For the first time in twelve months, I’d started to look at my life and I didn’t like what I saw.
I’d stayed true to Mia in the twelve months we’d been together. So, basically I hadn’t been with anyone in that time. Something had died in me, when I was told to marry Mia or lose everything. I wish I’d walked away then, but I hadn’t. Thalia came along, and all my desires had risen – literally.
Chapter 20
Thalia
Before yesterday I’d already been having trouble keeping him out of my head, but after being held tight in his arms, he was even more difficult to get out. I sighed – Jack, the object of my obsession.
Every time I shut my eyes, I saw him. The image I had since yesterday was the one of him watching me leave the café with his brother, to head towards the river. He’d never taken his eyes from me. And yeah, Liam noticed and did nothing but mumble all the way back to his house.
I’d also noticed Liam’s reaction in the café to Jack and his friends. His excuse when I’d asked him about it had been that they were a bad influenc
e on Jack and he wished Jack had never become friends with them. He’d sounded jealous if truth-be-told.
Donovan had been full of life and energy. Everything about him hummed with excitement from the way his blue eyes danced over my features to the broad shoulders that tensed beneath his tight, black t-shirt. His taut abs were perfectly silhouetted by the cool cotton shirt and I wasn’t the only woman in the room stealing glances at him.
He was definitely someone worth getting to know, but it wasn’t just his amazing physique or the way his black hair fell over his eyes casting shadows over his chiseled cheekbones and plush lips; it was the deep voice that sent shivers down my back. He had spent most of the time flirting with everyone: me, the waitress, the cute girl sitting at the table beside them. There was no doubt that Donovan had gathered plenty of admirers and broken a few hearts.
Jack’s other friend, Reece, was as interesting as Donovan, but he looked like a player – a panty wetting bad boy. His crooked grin had spoken volumes as he’d sat back and watched me. I fought the urge to shift as I’d stood there with Reece’s blue gaze smoldering a trail down my body – his smile growing before it became a scowl. A slight movement from Jack made me wonder if he’d kicked Reece.
As Reece took me in, I did the same to him. At first glance, he seemed dangerous, but as I looked closer, there seemed to be a sadness in his eyes. His straight nose was set perfectly over straight white teeth and his high cheekbones would be the envy of anyone. The deep blue bandanna wrapped around this baldhead, was enticing me to stroke his silky smooth skin, but I resisted.
He was also dressed in a tight t-shirt and the dark cotton clung to his sculpted abs and chest. A few tattoos had peeked out of the short sleeves of his shirt, which made me wonder what else covered his body.
They were gorgeous. All three of them looked like they’d stepped out of some woman’s fantasy and by the looks from the women in the cafe, I was positive that I wasn’t the only one who thought so. But it had been Jack who had drawn my gaze back to him again and again. Jack that had my mouth go dry as I tried to ignore the thrum of anticipation. The other two may have been nice eye candy, but it was Jack that I ached to touch.
Needing a distraction, I’d gone along with Liam’s peace offering and let him lead me to the river for the picnic, which we’d planned, but I’d felt like our conversation was strained. In the end I couldn’t wait to get back to the house so I could hide in my room for a while.
I’d lounged on my bed thinking of Jack. To me, Jack seemed like a decent guy, more so than his idiot brother. I was starting to have second thoughts about acting as Liam’s girlfriend.
