Page 6 of Flynn (Foxy’s Rent-A-Date #4)

Dinner was awkward. Kate—her other Bridesmaid—Sophia’s parents and grandparents, along with Ellis’s parents, groomsmen and best man, joined us.

The food was awesome and the atmosphere nice without being stuffy.

I didn’t miss the way Uncle Trevor and Aunt Carol sat between the happy couple and us, or the way they kept conversation on the wedding instead of delving into the past or focusing on me.

Not that I minded all that much. I didn’t particularly want to hear Ellis’s opinion on my life or my choices, and he never was one to remain silent when he had an opinion.

Sofia was beaming, happy to be talking about her future with her fiancé, and I had to admit, the wedding glow looked good on her.

I’d met Sofia the same time I’d met Chiara, and she’d been so sure of herself and what she wanted.

Chiara seemed more than happy to just be with her friend and do whatever she wanted to do, that I’d given Sofia the nickname, Princess.

At first, I’d meant it as a snide insult, and she’d taken it that way.

Our first few weeks had been tense, but back then, I hadn’t wanted to be around people or be forced to make friends.

I was full of pain and loss, and I wanted to lash out, so everyone felt as miserable as I did.

But she’d grown on me. After a while, it was as if a flip had switched in her head, and she’d decided she was going to meet me head on until she came out the victor.

She rose to my sharp remarks and gave back as good as she got until one day we ended up shouting insults at each other that turned so ridiculous that she burst out laughing and I had to duck my head to bite back a grin.

Chiara had of course been there that afternoon and simply sat there shaking her head at the two of us, relieved that we finally found common ground.

She hadn’t bothered to stop either of us, apparently knowing her friend well enough to know it would be useless.

Since then, whenever I called Sophia Princess, it was without the underlying snark, and she’d grown to love it.

The sound of Chiara’s soft laughter drew me back to the present and I turned my head to see her smiling at Aunt Carol.

Her gray eyes flashed with warmth when they flicked to me.

I didn’t miss the way her breath hitched or the way her eyes dropped to my mouth when I smirked.

Foxy didn’t approve of sex on the job, but she wasn’t necessarily against it either.

She just didn’t want to know if it happened.

Knowing this did nothing to help me now, because goddamn …

I didn’t think seeing Chiara after all these years would affect me so strongly, but the woman she’d grown to be was nothing short of fucking stunning.

It wasn’t just her looks—which were incredible to say the least—but who she was.

She was all gentle sunshine still, with a slightly more confident way about her, but she was still all light and purity.

She had a gentleness and a calmness about her that suggested she was untouched by the true evils of the world.

Instead of being resentful of her or disgusted that she could remain so untouched, I was eager to protect that streak of rare innocence.

This was a real headfuck because I also wanted nothing more than to fling her over my shoulder and take her hard and fast in some dark corner of the restaurant and hear her cry my name on a throaty moan.

My appetite in the bedroom leaned toward the darker, domineering side of things, and I had a list of things I wanted to do with her.

I wanted to tarnish her, dirty her. I had this growing need to ruin her for all other men and have her hooked on me.

A million dirty, sinful things I wanted to do to her flooded my mind, and for a moment, I was paralyzed.

Chiara’s pupils expanded and I almost groaned at the way color swept up her cheeks.

Alright, so she’d picked up on what I was thinking, and she didn’t look averse to the idea.

I tucked that knowledge away and instead reached for her hand that rested on her thigh.

The split in her dress meant my fingers skated against bare, heated flesh.

She gasped as my fingers wound with hers, my thumb touching the skin of her thigh.

I didn’t bother to take my eyes off her, happy to drown in the desire I saw swirling there.

I could feed off that look for weeks—months—and still want more.

I slid my thumb back and forth over her skin and refused to look away from her, too ensnared in the way her breathing became uneven and her wide eyes continued to look at me with a combination of desire and uncertainty.

She swallowed, and my attention fell to the movement of her throat, suddenly needing to lean closer and nip at her neck, to drag the scent of her into my lungs and pull her in close.

The need to mark her in some way grew, my mind running over scenarios to get her alone for a few minutes and exactly how much of her I could explore.

I didn’t realize until she let my name out on an unsteady whisper that I’d leaned in closer to her to do just that.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, but there wasn’t a single ounce of protest in her voice.

I drew in a shaky breath. “Getting closer,” I murmured.

“Closer?” Her voice was quiet, almost non-existent.

“When I’m with a woman, Ara, I don’t shy away from physical affection,” I answered, my voice rough with restraint.

My eyes met hers once more, and the war in her gaze faded as desire took hold.

She didn’t move back, she didn’t ask me to stop, and I leaned closer.

The memory of her lips when we were upstairs only fueled this crazy need for her.

It hadn’t even been a kiss, just a mere brush of lips, but I wanted more.

I needed more. I couldn’t remember a time when I wanted to touch someone as badly as I ached to touch her.

I wanted to see if we still had the same powerful chemistry we’d had years ago.

“Flynn?” The sound of my name from down the table pulled me up just millimeters from her mouth, and we both stilled.

Chiara’s eyes widened and more heat flooded her cheeks, this time out of embarrassment of being caught than a want of me.

“Wanna stop making out with my best friend for a sec and join the conversation?” Sofia asked, laughter in her voice.

Chiara’s eyes widened further. I smirked and leaned forward to press a quick kiss to her lips before pulling away, a self-satisfied grin on my face.

From their point of view, it must have looked like we were kissing and not almost kissing.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” I replied, leaning back in my chair and snagging my beer before downing several large mouthfuls.

Chiara gently tried to tug her hand from mine, but I refused to let go and instead placed our joined hands on the tabletop in full view.

“Okay, I need to know…when and how did this happen?” Kate asked.

She seemed to follow in Sofia’s footsteps with whatever she did in life.

She was a good person, but a little wilder than her other friends.

I took my time putting my beer bottle down and looked at Ara with a small smile.

We’d studied up for this moment. Now was the time to put it all out there and make it believable.

“Ara and I started talking a little when I opened Rangers Ridge ,” I began as we’d planned.

“She saw an advertisement for it which included a picture of me, and she reached out to congratulate me and see how things were going.” Chiara cleared her throat and sat up, and I was oddly relieved when she didn’t try and take her hand back.

“Everything just kind of… snowballed from there. Eventually, we decided to catch up for dinner and drinks. After that first dinner, we realized our friendship had the potential for more, but we didn’t want to ruin what we had or make things complicated, so we kind of…

let things be for a long time,” she continued.

“I knew she knew I wanted more with her, and I was pretty sure she wanted me too, but we were aware of how our relationship might complicate certain factors of our lives, so we didn’t pursue anything for a long time.

We still talked all the time and met up whenever we could,” I continued, keeping the details vague but still believable.

“Neither of you said how you felt?” Uncle Trevor asked.

I shrugged. “I started to, but she told me to stop, that once I said the words, I wouldn’t be able to take them back and we’d be forced to make a decision.

And she wasn’t ready for anything to change yet.

So, I said nothing.” “So… what changed?” Aunt Carol asked.

I grinned down at Ara, and she squirmed for a moment, looking uncomfortable but also as if she were fighting back a laugh.

She had protested this part of the story, but I’d refused to let it go.

It added a level of humor to our story that hopefully the others would cling to without focusing on other details.

“Come on, Angel, tell them,” I encouraged.

Chiara rolled her eyes, but her smile ruined any attempt at annoyance.

“He found a way to tell me without actually saying the words out loud. He Love Actually ’d me.

” “He what?” came from several people at the table.

“You know that scene in Love Actually with the guy doing the big cards for Keira Knightly as he explains that he loves her but knows they can never be?” she continued.

Sofia sucked in a large breath, and Kate did a little dance in her seat, eyes alight with amazement.

“You seriously did that?” Kate asked. I grinned knowingly.

“And then what happened?” Sofia asked, totally engrossed in our story.

Ara sighed, and she deserved an Oscar for the note of wistfulness she managed to add to it.

“His cards went on to explain that he had felt our connection since we were kids, but that he’d always known he wasn’t going to hang around in town after graduation, so he never pressed it because what would be the point?

But he’d never forgotten me. And now we were here years later, and that connection strengthened ten-fold, and he wasn’t going to let this go again.

He said that if I didn’t feel the same, or didn’t think he was worth the risk, then to tell him now and we could pretend this never happened because he’d been so careful not to say the words.

But if I wanted to give it a shot and be happy, then I needed to speak up.

” I glanced around the table and noted the wistful looks on many of the women’s faces and knew I’d nailed the story.

“And...you spoke up?” Sofia asked dreamily.

Ara ducked her head but nodded. “I did.” Kate gave a squeal of delight and Chiara laughed and flicked me a shy glance.

“So… why keep it a secret then?” Sofia asked.

Ara hesitated in answering, so I took over.

“For obvious reasons, Sophe. I knew Ara and Ellis had a past, and I didn’t want to create waves in the family.

Chiara was worried about hurting him and disappointing Carol and Trevor, and neither of us wanted to bring our relationship to light until we felt a lot more confident that it was real and for the long haul.

” Sophe looked between us with wide eyes.

“And you think that it is? That you’re both in it for good?

” Chiara’s fingers tightened around mine and I looked down at her, seeing the shadows of doubt creep in.

“I know a good thing when I have it, Sofia,” I said, raising our joined hands to brush a kiss over the back of Ara’s hand.

Her eyes met mine again, bright and tinged with nerves.

“I won’t let her slip from my grip again without a fight.

” There were murmurs of approval around the table, but my eyes were all for Ara.

Something in my chest tightened as those words slipped past my lips, and I worried that I meant them.

That wasn’t what this was supposed to be, though.

I cared for her. I wanted her in more ways than one, but neither of us were in the right place for a relationship, and I wasn’t meant to get all involved.

You’re not good for her. And yet… “You keep eluding to this connection between the two of you,” Ellis said, his voice cutting through the atmosphere of romance and warmth like a dull knife.

I turned back to look at him and found his hard eyes on me.

“But I don’t remember you guys speaking all that much growing up.

Whenever you lost your shit or were in one of your moods, she was good at calming you down.

She was like that with everyone, but I don’t think there was ever such thing as a real connection between you guys.

You never hung out unless we were all together or you were being aggressive.

” “Ellis,” Trevor said in a low warning.

“I’m not trying to start anything,” Ellis said, holding up his hands in defense, but it was obvious as shit that he was trying to poke holes and get me to fire up at him.

“Just saying I don’t believe this whole story about an unbreakable connection that lasted over a decade without them even talking.

” I’d practiced a lot of self-control where Ellis was concerned growing up.

It was probably the only reason he hadn’t needed cosmetic surgery at and I hadn’t landed in jail for assault.

After not seeing him for so long, however, I was out of practice, and my initial reaction to hearing him with that smarmy voice of his was to put my fist through his face.

As if she knew my thoughts, Ara’s grip on me tightened, and I forced myself to take a breath.

There was no love lost between Ellis and me.

He’d hated me from the first moment I’d come to live with them, and even before then, we’d hardly even spoken.

When we had, it was out of familial obligation, but we never got along or had common interests.

“I remember seeing their connection,” Uncle Trevor answered softly, winking at Ara before turning back to his son.

“It was always there, but you only had eyes for Chiara back then, so it’s understandable that you missed it.

” “Yeah, I just don’t see it,” Ellis doubled down before lifting his drink to his lips.

I shrugged. “Being her first kiss seems like a big enough connection if you ask me.” Ara stiffened beside me and the table fell silent.

Trevor looked between the two of us seriously before weighing eyes rested on me.

But I wasn’t paying him all that much attention.

My eyes were on Ellis and the muscle ticking in his jaw.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he gritted out.

Sofia’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Is Flynn the guy you kissed that night at the party?” Ara’s fingers clenched around mine, but I was still looking at Ellis’s outraged face, unable to smother the smirk tugging at my lips.