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When someone knocked at my front door, I half expected it to be Deidre. Hoped it would be too. Now I wouldn’t feel quite so guilty about having her under my roof and pretending to like her son. I wasn’t pretending anymore. Or at least, the lie didn’t seem to be quite as big. Plus, I liked her company.
But it wasn’t Deidre.
I opened the door to find Calliope standing there. She was Rowan’s sister and had recently moved to town under… mysterious circumstances. My favorite kind. And I figured we’d be fast friends, but we just hadn’t had the chance to hang out a whole bunch one-on-one.
“Wanna go out and get fucked-up?” she said the second I opened the door.
Yeah, we were gonna be fast friends.
“Come in,” I said, stepping aside. “Got a bottle of wine in the fridge and tequila in the freezer. Take your pick while I get ready.”
“On it,” she said, strutting through the door, her heels clicking as she did.
eight
Nuclear Women
Kip came home justas we’d finished our drinks and were getting ready to leave.
He took one look at Calliope and muttered, “Oh shit.”
“Hello to you, too, Kippers,” Calliope greeted, getting out of her chair to run over to him.
He opened his arms and hugged her easily. Like a brother might.
Yet something burned in my throat ever so slightly. My fingers curled inward, and I had a fleeting vision of raking my nails through the skin of my new friend’s face.
I was not a jealous woman. Never had been. I’d come to learn that if a man gave you a reason to be jealous, then he wasn’t the right kind of man.
But I already knew Kip wasn’t the right kind of man for me.
Kip released Calliope, and his eyes went to me. Followed by his feet. He didn’t hesitate to yank me into his arms and kiss the living fuck out of me.
It wasn’t unlike any other greeting I got these days, but I didn’t normally get it in front of an audience.
Calliope let out a low whistle when we were done, leaning against the counter with her drink, watching us unabashedly with a smirk on her face.
“I really couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes,” she said.
Kip didn’t let me go, though I yanked against his arm gently.
He just turned me so he could regard my outfit.
I’d only dressed to match Calliope. Well, to attempt to measure up to Calliope. Our styles didn’t exactly jive. I liked clothes, but I was pretty casual. I felt most comfortable in jeans, easy dresses—uncomplicated shit. Calliope was not uncomplicated. Even though she’d moved from New York—although she wouldn’t say whether she’d actually moved or was on an extended vacation—to Jupiter, a casual, sleepy, seaside town, she had not abandoned her New York apparel.
She wore a black leather pencil skirt that clung to her like a second skin, showing off her kick-ass curves, then a silk camisole tucked into it, which her impressive tits were on display in. The heels she was wearing would only serve to break my ankle if I attempted to walk two feet in them, and they looked like they cost a thousand bucks. Her angular face was accentuated by the slicked-back bun she’d pulled her dark hair into, her full lips were painted bright red, and her eyeliner was black and sharp as fuck.
So yeah, she was pretty damn impressive.
I didn’t own a leather skirt or anything silk that required being dry-cleaned.
I went with a cotton sundress that dipped way in the front with a long hemline, paired with chunky boots. Then I’d smudged on some black eyeliner and tousled my hair a bit.
I’d decided I was in my ‘Beth Dutton on the ranch’ era. Nora and I were kind of obsessed withYellowstone.
“Where are you two going?” Kip asked me after he’d checked me out enough to make my upper lip sweat.
“Out,” I replied, jutting my chin up, daring him to tell me I couldn’t. I hadn’t been to a bar since the first night we fucked. He had that same possessive, wild glint in his eye now that he had then.
