If We Were Perfect - Ana Huang Page 0,36

but he wasn’t interested—in either female.

“Ladies.” His chuckle belied his nervousness. “I’m flattered, but I’m sure there are other men here who’d appreciate your charms. Trey, for example.”

Trey would fuck anyone willing and interested, and Sammy saw him making out with Cherie in the pool earlier.

Cherie sniffed. “Forget him. He told me I’d look better as a brunette.” Judging by her tone, that amounted to a crime against humanity. “Plus, he’s busy.” She angled her head to her right.

Sammy followed her gaze, and his muscles snapped into a rigid line that sent a jolt of tension reverberating through his body.

Trey was busy, all right. Busy putting his hands all over Olivia. Smiling at her, twirling her around, bringing her in close like they were slow dancing under a star-strewn island sky instead of bumping it out to Drake at a barbecue in the San Francisco suburbs.

The worst part was, Olivia wasn’t pulling away. She was smiling back at him like she enjoyed being that close to him.

If she only knew, Sammy thought savagely. If she only knew what a player Trey was, she wouldn’t loop her arms around him like that. If she only knew Trey was a mechanic and not a fancy yuppie, she’d walk away without a second thought.

There was nothing wrong with being a mechanic, but Sammy doubted it would pass muster with the status-conscious Tang family.

“Excuse me.” Sammy extricated himself from Cherie’s arms and stepped out of Aaron’s aunt’s grip. “I’ll be right back.”

Cherie pouted, but Gail/Gwen’s eyes twinkled with a message that might’ve been Go get your girl—which would be ridiculous, because Olivia wasn’t his girl.

She was, however, his roommate, and her room was right next to his, which meant Sammy owed it to his personal sanity and quality of life to ensure he wouldn’t have to hear her and Trey having sex. Or see her crying when things with his manwhore friend eventually went south—and they always went south. Trey was a great friend, but when it came to women, he had the attention span of a goldfish.

A muscle twitched beneath Sammy’s eye as he closed in on the laughing, dancing twosome. They were so wrapped up in each other they hadn’t noticed him yet, even though he was only a few feet away.

“Did you know you could kayak under the Golden Gate Bridge?” he heard Trey say. “It’s very romantic.” His voice dripped with insinuation.

Olivia’s laugh danced in the air, and when she replied, her words carried a teasing lilt Sammy remembered all too well. “I’m sure it is.”

Sammy’s molars ground against each other so hard his entire face hurt. Kayaking under the Golden Gate Bridge? Give me a break.

Olivia wasn’t a kayaking type of person. She was a wine-tasting, weird-but-delicious-as-fuck-conceptual-dinner kind of person.

“Hey, man.” Sammy clamped a hand on Trey’s shoulder and bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “Aaron’s looking for you.”

“Really?” Trey glanced around. “He looks busy to me.”

Dammit. Aaron was indeed busy whispering sweet nothings in Melissa’s ear by the pool.

“He got bored waiting for you,” Sammy lied. “I’d check in with him now. It seemed pretty urgent.”

Trey’s gaze flitted between Sammy and Olivia. A slow smirk took over his face. “Sure, dude.” He kissed Olivia on the cheek and whispered something that caused her to laugh again before he sauntered off, whistling a jaunty tune.

“What’s so funny?” Sammy demanded, inexplicably irritated.

“Nothing.” Olivia squashed her smile. “You better have a good reason for chasing away my dance partner. We both know Aaron wasn’t looking for him.”

“I know no such thing, and is that what you call what you two were doing? Dancing? Looked more like groping to me.”

She lifted a perfect dark brow. “Jealous?”

“Not even in your dreams.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you have no place in my dreams.”

“You sure about that?” Sammy stepped closer, challenge glinting in his eyes.

Olivia’s chin lifted. “One hundred percent.”

“You’re lying.” Sammy encircled her waist with one arm and brought her close until their bodies pressed flush against each other. He hadn’t drunk much today, but he’d had enough. His thoughts were muddled, and instead of taking a rational course of action—like staying the fuck away from the one woman with the power to undo him—here he was, holding her close and breathing in her fresh, intoxicating scent.

The music and chatter faded away until all he could hear was the thud-thud-thud of his heart beating a rhythm as wild and unpredictable as the charged molecules in the air.

Olivia’s face