Page 55 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

"Hello?" Jim said after a few rings.

"Hi, Jim, it's Keira."

"Oh, hey. Emily's not home yet. I'll let her know you called."

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you. I was trying to follow your advice. But I'm worried I'm just going to be put in the friend zone."

Jim laughed. "If you're worried about that, then you're doing it all wrong."

I laughed too because I didn't know what else to do. I hoped he'd explain, but he didn't. "So, what do you mean by that?"

"You need to act like all you want is friendship. But at the same time you need to dress sexy and do sexy things."

"So like, hang out with his friends but dress like a whore?"

He laughed again. "Why don't you ask them all out to do something? And find some guy to flirt with all night instead. That kind of thing."

"Okay. I have an idea. There's this really cool music festival going on this weekend.

Maybe I should casually talk about how I want to go all week leading up to this weekend when it starts.

And then at the end of the week, let it drop that I've officially decided to go.

Real casual like. And it won't seem weird because I've mentioned that I wanted to go all week long.

And then ask Rory and his friends if they'd like to come cause I don't want to go alone.

Or maybe say I'm going with some of my friends and ask if they'd like to go with us.

A big group of friends thing? That definitely sounds better.

And then talk to my friends the whole time about hot guys that we see at the festival.

Maybe even talk to a few of them? All the while we'll be completely ignoring Rory and his friends.

Maybe ditch them as soon as we get to the festival! "

"What?" Jim started laughing really loudly. "No. What the heck?" He continued to laugh. "That was completely ridiculous. You're overthinking it. And adding more women to the equation doesn't exactly help your situation."

Geez, I'm a situation. "So something simpler?" I bit my lip. "Oh, what about a bar?"

"Yeah. Much better. And be cool about it, Keira. Don't do that thing you always do."

"What thing?"

"That thing where you don't stop talking. And you keep saying weirder and weirder stuff until someone stops you. Like what you literally just did a second ago with that awful plan."

Right. That thing. Why did everyone always bring that up to me all the time? Was I really that awkward? I rolled my eyes at myself. Of course I am. "I don't do that."

"I'm not even going to try to argue with you about it...because it'll make you do it again."

I laughed. "Fine, maybe I talk too much sometimes."

He laughed. "Only sometimes."

"Thanks for your help, Jim."

"Should I tell Emily you called?"

"Don't bother. Have a good night!"

"You too, Keira."

I hung up the phone. That was what had been bothering me all afternoon.

I was just acting super cool. And wearing sweatpants.

I needed to step it up. I quickly stripped and wrapped a towel around myself.

It was a little shorter than I had expected, but the more skin I showed, the better.

Before I could chicken out, I went out of my room and knocked on Rory's door.

"Hey, Keira," he said and put his hand on the doorframe.

How did he always look so sexy? It took me a second to remember what I wanted to say. "Do you have my stuff from the other night?"

"Your stuff?" He raised his left eyebrow.

"My bra and thong."

"I'm sure I do somewhere."

I followed him into his room and sat down on his bed. The sheets smelled like him. I took a deep breath of the alluring smell.

"Are these yours?" he asked and held up a pair of panties I had never seen in my life.

Asshole. "Nope, try again."

"I'm just messing with you." He grabbed something off the counter. "I was gonna give them back to you, I just wanted to do it when you weren't around." He handed me my underwear.

"Why?"

"It's a little awkward." He sat down next to me on his bed.

"Not really."

He scratched the back of his neck.

"We're both adults, Rory. It was just sex, after all."

"Right. What are you doing tonight?"

I held up the bra. "I'm going out, and I needed this because it's my nicest bra."

He laughed. "It is really nice."

I gulped. He's being flirtatious because that's who he is. He doesn't like you! I let my towel slide down slightly to reveal the top of my breasts. "You can come if you want."

"Where are you going?"

"There's this cool new bar that just opened up. You should invite your friends," I added.

"Okay."

"I'm going to go get ready. Thanks for my bra back. You're the best!" I pulled my towel back up enough to make the bottom of my ass show as I left the room.

Much better. I went back into my room and dropped the towel. Now I just needed to find a newly opened bar.

***

I looked at myself in the mirror. I had bought the leather leggings on a whim a few years ago, but I had never worn them. They looked great with the loose fitting tank top. I just hoped it was sexy enough for Rory. I slid on a pair of red stilettos to match my red lipstick.

When I walked out of my room, I was surprised to see Rory sitting at the kitchen counter staring at his phone. I had heard him talking earlier and assumed Connor and Jackson were already hanging out with him.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"They couldn't make it." He looked up and his eyes traveled down my legs.

That's right, son. I got legs for DAYS. "Oh. Do you want to just go a different night?"

"Nah, let's just go together."

Together. The sound of my heels clicking on the wooden floor helped to block out the sound of my heart beating so quickly . Is this a date? "Oh, fun! I can be your wingman!"

He stood up. He was wearing a pair of suit pants and a button up shirt. The top few buttons were undone. I had never seen him look sexier. Except for when he was fucking me. I bit my lip.

"Sure, sounds good," he said.

"Okay, let's go!" I almost screamed. Calm down. I walked past him and opened up the door. We made our way outside and started walking side by side down the street.

"So, what about you, Keira?"

"What about me?"

"Why aren't you dating anyone?"

"I think I kind of suck at dating." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

Rory laughed. "And why do you think that?"

The sound of him laughing was so sexy.

"Keira?"

"What? Sorry, I got distracted. I don't know, I've had three boyfriends and all three of them dumped me. They all said it was them and not me. But I'm pretty sure that means it's something I did, since they all said the same thing."

"I doubt it was your fault."

"Actually, it probably was my fault. I tend to overthink things."

"Hmm. You gotta learn to live in the moment, Keira."

"I think I did a pretty good job of that the other night." I smiled at him.

Rory put his hands in his pockets and looked away from me.

I hadn't meant to make our conversation awkward. I wanted to know more about him. "Did you grow up in Philly?" I asked.

"No, Bryn Mawr. It's like 20 minutes from here. But I've always preferred Philly."

"I know what you mean. I grew up in Wilmington. And after moving away for college, I couldn't picture myself going back to such a small town. So, I moved here."

He smiled at me. "Do you have any siblings?"

"A younger brother. That's actually why I'm so good at Nerf battles."

"I hate to break it to you, Keira, but you weren't all that great. I had you pinned down in less than a minute."

"Well, my brother and I didn't play that way." I lightly pushed his shoulder.

He looked away from me again. "So where is this new bar?"

"You know what, it's a little farther than I realized. Why don't we just go to Heritage?"

"Okay, cool, I've never been there anyway."

Thank God. For a second I thought he was going to question me. I hadn't been able to find any new bars nearby. And I had never been to Heritage either, but I had read that it was awesome. Maybe I was better at playing it cool than I realized. "What about you, Rory? Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I'm an only child."

"Are you close with your parents?"

"As close as any normal 26 year old, yes." He smiled at me.

"So, not close at all?'

He laughed. "I love my parents. But I don't really think they'd be thrilled with my lifestyle choices."

"Mhm." I tried to raise my eyebrow at him, but I couldn't. My face didn't work that way.

He laughed again. "Are you trying to give me a stern look? That's very cute."

Cute. I didn't want him to think I was cute. I tried to think of something provocative to say, but we had just arrived at the restaurant.

Rory opened up the door for me. Such a gentleman.

When we walked into the restaurant, there were tons of people already dancing.

A jazz musician was playing in the corner.

I didn't know anything about jazz, but everyone seemed to be enjoying it.

We went over to the bar and Rory ordered us each a beer.

I liked talking to him. I wish we could just sit down at one of the tables and talk all night.

But that wasn't why he had agreed to come out with me.

I had to stick to the plan. "So, who do you think is sexy?

" I asked. This is so awkward. I so badly wanted him to look at me and say I was the only girl he noticed.

But I knew I was far away from that happening.

"Well." Rory took a sip of his beer and looked toward the dance floor. "The blonde to the left."

My eyes wandered the dance floor until I found who he was talking about.

There was a tall blonde with huge breasts.

She was super tan and super fake looking.

There was no way she was a real blonde. And she couldn't have looked more different than me.

Is that really the kind of girl he's attracted to? "The one dancing with her friends?"

"Yeah."

"It's a good sign that she's not dancing with a guy. It probably means she's single. So what's the game plan?"

"I don't know, you're the wingman."