Page 16 of Enemies with Benefits

"Fuck you."

"Jace the Grace with the witty, and if I dare say it,gracefulretort, as always."

"Jace with the mace more like it," he growled, hand going to his pocket.

The guy beside him let out a sigh. “Too soon, man, too soon."

"Not now, Kay," Jace snapped at the man.

"Aww, that your boyfriend?" I asked, a little surprised by how quickly I was reverting to my teenage self, and yet still amused tosee how quickly he puffed up at the accusation—just like he had years and years ago. It never failed to get a reaction out of him.

And just like teenage Jace, fully grown Jace swelled and spat out, “He's not my boyfriend. But where's yours?"

I grinned, knowing full well what kind of reaction I was about to get. "Haven't had one for...a year now? Year and a half? Turns out club business and a recovering addict don't mix, who would have thought?"

As expected, Jace's expression flickered from anger to surprise. “What?"

"It's not the 2000s anymore, Jacey, my boy," I said, taking a sip from my beer. "I took a long, hard look in the mirror after high school and realized that a long, hard dick was something I enjoyed."

The guy next to him let out a strangled laugh and shrugged when Jace turned his furious gaze on him. “What? I don't know what your beef with this guy is, but he's fuckin' funny."

"Oh? A man of good taste?" I wondered, looking him up and down and finding that even if Jace couldn't see it, the guy was cute. "Just how good a taste?"

"Oh, no, no," he said with an easy laugh and then, to my delight, a wink. "You're handsome, but not my type."

"And what is your type?"

"Two X chromosomes."

I laughed. “Well, it would be a little hypocritical of me to say you have bad taste for liking women."

"Oh? Ohhhhh, wow, bi huh? Greedy."

"A common misconception about bi folks. But in my case, it's true."

"God, it's a shame Jace hates you, you seem like fun."

"Shutup,Kayden," Jace snarled and then jammed a finger at me. "Quit hitting on him!"

"He seems to like it," I said with a shrug.

"Because he's an attention whore," Jace snapped.

"Hey!" Kayden protested. "Just because it's true doesn't mean it needs to be said!"

"Wow," I said in surprise. "Jacey, you managed to make friends with someone I could actually like instead of finding annoying? I guess you have grown up a little...well, actually it looks like you grew a couple of inches...and out a few more than that. Compensating for something?"

Jace's eyes flashed. “I swear to?—"

"Oh myGod, enough!" Moira barked, turning to smack me upside the head. She whirled around to glare at Jace. “And if you don't shut your mouth, you're getting it too. This is a bar in my family's hotel. If you can't stop arguing like petulant children, then so help me, I'm going to drag you both out by your ears and knock your heads together. For God's sake, this feud between you two should have died at graduation. You swore it was done and over with, Jace."

It wasn't often Moira surprised me, but there I was, my brow shooting up as I turned to stare at my sister in surprise. “Excuse me? When the hell did the two talk to one another about that?"

Jace cleared his throat and took half a step back. “Sorry, Moira. Didn't mean to bring this up around you."

"That is not the point," she said, ignoring me, which she knew full well was telling. "You swore you were going to let that sh…nonsensego. Apparently, that was a lie then and still is now. So if you don't stop right now, I'm kicking you out of this hotel."

I spared a moment, surprised at how quickly Jace quailed under the force of my sister's angry and pointed words. The Jace I'd known and had butted heads with repeatedly would have sooner headbutted a belt sander than let anyone talk to him with such command and anger. Then again, the only one capable of giving a ‘mom scolding’ better than my mother was, in fact, my sister. So perhaps there really were mommy issues locked up inthat man's head that still hadn't been resolved because he was starting to look like a little boy who’d just been caught in some wrongdoing.