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It wasn’t that he was against newbies, but he’d be able to meet those subs eventually anyway. And he didn’t want to have to deal with the whole, “when to stop doing the Intro Scenes” issue, the way Adam had with Angel.
Looking around at his amazing friends, who had all come together to help him move into his new apartment, he couldn’t help but think about what an incredibly lucky guy he was in so many ways. It was the one thing he was missing that bothered him. Going into the kitchen to grab beers while they waited on the pizza, he glanced out the window. He had a fantastic view of the pool outside from both the kitchen window and his balcony.
There weren’t too many people out there right now, surprisingly. He’d been told it was a pretty quiet neighborhood. A couple of skinny teenage boys, rough-housing in the pool itself, and a curvy brunette sunbathing by herself. Rick took a moment to appreciate the scenery, as she had very nice curves. It wasn’t like he could enjoy any of the very nice curves currently in his apartment, so it was nice to have a bit of eye candy for a moment.
“Rick, are you getting the beer?” Olivia’s voice came closer, as if she was heading for the kitchen, and he turned away from the window.
“Yeah, coming.”
He grabbed the cooler filled with beer and ice that he’d set up earlier. They should be nicely chilled by now.
Putting a smile on his face, he returned to the main room. Everyone was sprawled out on either his couch or the various chairs that had been pulled over from the dining room area, looking sweaty but satisfied. Rick noticed all of the couples—and the trio—had ended up on his sectional so they could sit next to each other. Patrick, Olivia, Jared, and Andrew were all sitting in chairs. Although Lexie was sitting on the ground in front of Patrick, a pretty frequent position for her. He wondered when the big man was going to notice Lexie often set herself up in the position that would normally be reserved for his submissive.
“So... I wanted to thank you all for coming and helping me out today. It means a lot. Pizza is on the way, and here’s the beer.” With a grin, he set the cooler down in the center of the room as everyone cheered. The mood was relaxed and happy, but Rick couldn’t help envying those on the couch as he sat down in one of the chairs.
He hated feeling jealous, but he had to wonder, when would it be his turn?
Taming the Tease
Book 2 of Stronghold Doms
1
At exactly 11:01 pm, Maria made her escape. The engagement party had started at 8 pm, which meant she’d suffered through three hours of ecstatic young ladies squealing, men making ball and chain jokes, and the inevitable flood of well-intentioned but ultimately insufferable remarks directed at her from friends and family members alike. Three hours was enough, even if the party was for her sister.
Making her way past the bright green lettered banner reading Congratulations Lara and Victor, Maria fervently sent up a prayer of thanks that it was summer instead of winter, so she didn’t have a coat to give her away. Even with the AC running full blast, the restaurant’s private dining room was stifling due to the large crowd of people who were all drinking, eating, and expelling excessive amounts of hot air.
That’s if anyone even noticed she was leaving. Pretty much all of the attention was on Lara and Victor, which was as it should be, and Maria wasn’t jealous. Envious yes...
Lucky Lara. The youngest of the Arias sisters and the third one to get engaged. Maria didn’t begrudge her sisters any happiness, but as the oldest sister and the only one with no husband and no husband in her near future, the situation wasn’t exactly comfortable. With all of her sisters doing the whole marriage thing while Maria wasn’t even in a relationship, there were too many people at the party who thought she needed comforting or encouragement, or—worst of all—advice on how to get a man. Most of them were related to her and had the best of intentions, so she couldn’t even be rude to get them to leave her alone.
Maria made a face. She didn’t need advice on how to get a man, she just needed to find the right man for her. And if she was single at her youngest sister’s engagement party, well that didn’t mean anything except she hadn’t found the right man yet. Anyone who thought differently could suck it.
The hot night air hit her like a blast, the humidity making it feel even worse than it was. Gotta love Maryland weather. At least July usually wasn’t quite as bad as August, but it made her curly hair even more unruly than ever. Which was why she had it pulled up in a pretty bun, but she knew the little bits of fluff and frizz would already be lifting. Hairspray? Ha, her hair laughed at hairspray.
“Running away so soon?”
Ugh, great. Just what she needed, another run in with Victor’s best friend Jeremy. Pasting a smile on her face, she ignored the cloud of smoke around him and gave him a little wave, hoping she could flee. Victor was a doll, but his best friend was a complete scrub. She didn’t care that the slang term was over a decade old, it was the best way to describe him.
And she didn’t want no scrub.
“Hi Jeremy, bye Jeremy.”
“Hey, come on Maria, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot...” Jeremy jogged after her, giving her what he obviously thought was a charming smile. He was a decently attractive guy, although not nearly as attractive as he thought he was. “If I’d known you were Lara’s sister, I would have never said what I did.”
Maria walked faster, although in her heels it wasn’t like she could truly outrun him. “So you don’t mind telling complete strangers that you’d totally hit on them if they weighed less, but since I’m Lara’s sister it’s not okay? That’s just charming.”
“I think you’re hot, just bigger than I like ‘em. Doesn’t mean we can’t get along. Let me make it up to you, I’ll take you out to dinner tomorrow.”
Oh hell no. The stupid overconfident smile on his face hadn’t even budged. Like he actually thought she would let him take her to dinner.
“Go away, Jeremy. I have no interest in you and I don’t know why I bothered to try and be friendly and introduce myself in the first place. Oh wait... yes I do. Because I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt after Lara told me what a dog you were. Then it turned out she was right.”
Since she had reached her car, she had the satisfaction of seeing Jeremy wince and look surprisingly sheepish. “I know... I know... but, you didn’t tell her, right? And you won’t? I know she doesn’t like me... but Victor and I have been best friends since we were five. I’m trying to do better around her.”
“You know what might help? If you didn’t completely suck as a person,” Maria snapped, fed up with his selfishness and shallowness. “Don’t try to do better ‘around her,’ try to do better period. If you’re having problems with your friendship with Victor, maybe it’s because he’s finally seeing you for the self-involved jerk you actually are. Change that and maybe both he and Lara will think better of you.”
For a long moment Jeremy just stared at her and Maria pulled her car door open, figuring they were done. Unfortunately, it had just taken that long for his tiny brain to process what she’d said and come up with a response.
