Page 29 of About Yesterday (Foothills #5)
“Nah, thanks though,” he answered. “I’d rather see you unleash my favorite laugh, like when your head tips back and your throat bobs and you can’t contain it.
You know, that only happens when you’re completely honest and in the moment.
” He looked around the table, and angled his whisper, quieter, as if ensuring no one could even read his expression.
Cheek to cheek, he away from the others and said, “The sooner I get to know you in the here and now, the sooner I can make a move.”
Trace’s mind slowed, her expression softening and she pulled back just far enough to see his expression.
So close she could kiss him, so close she could see the green accents in his gray eyes, she quickly shifted so she could hide her expression behind him, answering softly, “These are some of the few people on this planet who know me well enough to know that laugh.”
He chuckled softly, his cheek brushed against hers and she could feel his smile. “Yeah? Do they know that you’re wearing that sweatshirt because you didn’t want your parents, nor any coworkers—or really anyone you’ve ever met—to see you in the tight tank top and realize how fucking hot you are?”
“I’m not sure.” She shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t resist, the noise of the tavern, her friends distracted.
Pulse pounding under her skin, she kept up the flirt.
“Is this your professional interrogation strategy, giving me wine and compliments, so I’ll let my guard down and tell you all my secrets? ”
So close his skin warmed hers, the beginning of new growth of beard scratched against her cheek as he spoke. “I don’t need to get you drunk, and I will only ever tell you the truth. When I want to interrogate you, you won’t even realize what’s happening, until I know everything.”
“And if I play the damsel and beg for mercy?”
“If you played the damsel, I’d know you were trying to throw me off.”
“A sweet, dull thing like me?”
“Because I know it’s bullshit. Plus, you have tells. You’re good, but I can see right through the phony smiles and good-girl image.”
Done socializing with the masses, Pippa bubbled back over, entirely sober with her wee pregnant belly starting to protrude, accented by her snug wedding party tank and pleated miniskirt.
As she dropped into her seat at Lincoln’s side, she announced, “I am sad to say, that my co-party planner,” she gestured across the table at Freya, who responded with a simmering eye-roll, “has let me down and did not plan any party games.” Pippa tipped her chin at her cousin with dramatic disappointment.
Freya shouted back, “Hey, I promised Sophie this would be like any normal get together.” Trace had always envied Freya’s ethereal cool, which could have been intimidating, especially with her confidence plus the height and grace to match, but she exuded gentleness.
“Aside from the penis crown, which, by the way, I did not realize still existed.”
“I can’t hear you,” Pippa shouted back. Louder, she garnered a few glances from nearby tables when she asked, “Did you say penis?”
In the middle of the table, Grady rolled a laugh and said, “No more friends. I like all of you—Cole, you can stay—“
“Thanks,” Cole said, raising his glass and seeming to enjoy the honesty in the feigned slight.
“But there are too many of us. We can’t even hear each other across the table anymore.”
“Scoot in everyone. We’re not losing anyone,” Pippa said, the elementary school teacher persona shining through, until she snorted a laugh as they all grumbled, yet started the scooch. “Especially as I suspect I’ll be the first to go.”
Lincoln scooted closer to Pippa so they were shoulder to shoulder. “As soon as the baby gets here, we’ll be too tired to do fun things anyway, so we may as well get used to it.”
Asher reached to pat his sister on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Pip. I’ve tried to ditch you more times than I can count. You’re scrappy.”
Pippa beamed and raised her sparkling water at her brother.
Stools squeaked and the plates on the tables rattled as everyone held their drinks safely up and answered Pippa’s ongoing plea until everyone had scooted so close there wasn’t even elbow room to grab more food.
At the opposite end, Zane took the now extra table and pushed it out of the way, and he and Freya capped the end of the now much smaller table.
Trace edged on her stool closer to Cole. He inched back a margin so she had room to move, and lowered his hand down to rest on the back of her stool, protectively holding her in the tight circle.
No more shouting needed, Cole looked over at Pippa and said, “I know I haven’t exactly been back long, but didn’t we graduate from party games, hell, before I even met you all?”
“I don’t know,” Lincoln said, scrunching his nose and seeming to be the only one interested. “We’ve got quite a bit of new blood since last time we tried I, Never . I can’t imagine a better game to humiliate Asher on his bachelor party than making him confess to all his dirty deeds.”
Cole stiffened at Trace’s side and stole a wary look at Asher.
Seeming to catch on, the groom-to-be shifted his arm around Sophie and cleared his throat. “No. Just… no. Let’s not. Ever again.” He and Cole shared a grin that Trace recalled had gotten them both into trouble many, many times. “Unless we play the version where purity loses.”
Zane cleared his throat. “I know I’m just meeting Cole, but I’m not sure a mercenary is going to be honest, anyway.”
Cole sat up a little straighter. “Yeah. I’m going to decline engaging in any game that is based on sharing secrets.”
“I don’t know,” Pippa said, smiling hopefully at Trace. “Grady and I would love to have another angel—“
“To go down in flames with?” Grady said, laughing with a humiliated eye-roll. “Never will I ever again.”
Cole leaned to whisper in Trace’s ear. “Bet you wouldn’t do as well as they think.”
Pulling back enough to see his expression, she realized he wasn’t kidding. “Pretty sure I made it clear that I am incredibly boring.”
“You’re not as boring as you think.” Her skin tingling as his skin warmed hers, his words isolated for her alone. “You never had a guy tell you that he’s spent the last decade fantasizing about all the ways he could get you off?”
Her breath caught in her throat as it sank in how truly X-rated his fantasies had been. The tone in his voice, calm and seductive, he didn’t seem heartbroken, but she needed to see, to know. Brushing her cheek against his, she turned to see his expression.
Before she could see his eyes, he leaned close and whispered harder, “You don’t ever get yourself so aroused thinking about black lace and trailing your tongue over the length of a certain cock that you can’t sleep?”
Now he must be joking. She feigned a huff of a laugh, waiting for him to laugh, too.
Breath hot against her ear, he asked, “You haven’t had a guy rip your panties, so desperate to take you, against the wall, or even in the middle of a tavern, because he couldn’t wait another second?”
“No,” she answered honestly, heat pumped over her skin as she pictured it.
“You’ve never had someone fuck your clit so desperately with his mouth that you forgot your own name?”
“Not that I recall,” she whispered, breathless as her imagination grew more vivid, feverish heat between her legs.
“Not yet…”
Trace’s mind spun and her body burned with at the image, at the very idea of everything he was saying, she pasted on her cheeriest party smile and stood from the table.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, sauntering around the table and pushing through the crowd toward the bathroom.
She glanced back, checking that her friends weren’t looking, and slipped outside instead.
C ole ought to be used to fucking up with Trace by now.
One minute everything seemed so right, smooth and sexy and irresistible.
Watching over the rim of his glass as she walked away, he drained the last of his beer.
That happy face always worked, everyone seeming to think she was fine.
But at the last second, she changed trajectory from the bathroom toward the exit.
“Excuse me,” he said to no one in particular as he stood from the table.
Haley grabbed his arm on the way by. She motioned him close and whispered, “Everything okay with Trace? She seemed upset.”
Surprised that Haley had caught on, as so few did, he swallowed the lump that swelled in his throat and nodded. “Just me shoving my foot in my mouth again.”
Finn turned around and fired him a murderous glare, one he’d never seen from his friend. Voice low, he growled, “Trace is about the most even-tempered person I know. And you pissed her off twice in one night?”
“I know,” he hissed, chewing his cheek and keeping an eye on the door. “Which is why I need to go apologize.”
Finn grabbed him before he could keep moving.
Cole resisted the urge to rip his arm away, but he could feel his calm persona dissolving and gritted his teeth so hard he heard a crunch. “Let. Go.”
Finn seemed to see his control slipping and eased his grip to a request. “Just, hang on. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, and it’s none of my damn business, but—“
“But what? Make sure I calm her down enough that she’ll make that phony smile again and pretend that everything’s okay as usual?” Cole heard his voice growing louder, the others at the table pretending they weren’t paying attention.
“What?” Finn asked, his brow lowering.
Haley’s eyes were swimming with worry as she looked up at Cole, as he backed away another step.
He lowered his voice again and backed out of reach. “Nothing. Just, nothing.” Cole turned on his heel and stalked through the crowd and out the front door.