A Little Bit Dirty - Jenika Snow Page 0,6

in the same room. The way they had stopped seeing each other still played through her head like a broken record.

“So, what’s new with you two?” Beats asked as he twirled a drumstick between his fingers.

Tanner glanced at Zoe, who sat beside him, and saw her friend’s face redden. Yeah, the poor girl still had it bad for the drummer, but he seemed oblivious to that fact, like he always had. Five—it felt so weird calling him that—was sitting in the chair he had been in before, and that nearly nude blonde was right back on his lap. It took a lot to make Tanner uncomfortable, especially in the sexual sense, but seeing Five slip his hand between the blonde’s legs, and move his other hand to cover one of her breasts, made Tanner feel really out of place.

She cleared her throat and looked back at the other three guys. Jacks had since grabbed his guitar and was picking out a soft tune, but his gaze was trained on Tanner. She shifted in her seat and looked at Matty, who was talking to some redhead that she hadn’t even seen enter the lounge.

“Not much new, well,” she cleared her throat, “aside from the fact that I’ve moved back to town because I can’t find a job with my degree.”

“You go to school working on that computer stuff?” Five asked, but his voice was muffled since he had it practically buried in the blonde’s cleavage.

“Dude, how about ditching the chick and spending some time with the girls?” Beats said, but there was a sharpness to his words. Beats looked at her and shrugged. “He’s a horny fucker. And I swear his dick is out of his pants more times than not.”

“Beats, you’re being just as much of a douche as Five,” Jacks said.

The other guys started laughing, and when Beats looked over at Zoe and nudged her in the shoulder she gave this nervous laugh. That had Tanner smiling, yet feeling bad for her friend. Of course they had all been open and outgoing back in the day, but everything just seemed weird now, different, and she hated that.

She noticed—and felt—Jacks staring at her, but she willed herself not to shift and not to seem uncomfortable. But of course she knew she looked just that, because she felt her hands slightly shake, and felt the trickle of beads of perspiration form between her breasts again. Now more than ever Jacks’ stare made her feel so hyperaware.

“Your hair is shorter.” He continued to strum on his guitar, but once again kept his piercing stare trained on her. “I thought you said you were never going to cut your hair short?” Jacks said without really showing any emotion in his voice.

She realized, when her heart slowed from its crazy thundering rhythm, and when she forced herself to stop fidgeting with the edge of her shirt, that the song he was strumming was “In My Life” by The Beatles. It had been the last song Jacks had played for her, the one right before they had gone in his room and into his bed, where he had taken her virginity.

She might have lost her virginity that night, but it had been hard, fast, all-consuming, and exactly the way she had envisioned being with a guy like Jacks. Shifting on her seat again, but this time not from feeling out of place, but because she was wet between her thighs thinking about that night again, she licked her lips.

“Long hair is a lot to manage.” She lifted her hand and ran a lock of her dark brown now shoulder length hair between her fingers. She also had bangs now, ones that kind of did a swoop thing along her forehead, but bangs nonetheless. “I actually just cut it, like a week ago.”

Jacks didn’t say anything for several moments, and she hated that she worried if he liked this new cut or not. She remembered all those years ago when he used to reach out and take a piece of her waist length hair between his fingers. He’d rub the locks back and forth while staring into her eyes. Those were the little memories she thought of a lot, and ones he probably didn’t even think about, or remember.

“I liked your long hair.” He was silent for a moment after he spoke, but still picked out the song. “But I like the short hair better. You look like a grown-up.” Jacks smiled, and everyone around them