Man of Honor (Battle Scars #3) - Diana Gardin Page 0,54

on?”

Her normally large eyes narrow. “I looked for you this afternoon. I didn’t want you to be bored or lonely, but you weren’t in your room when I checked. Where were you?”

Olive’s gaze shifts from Berkeley to me with interest, and Greta’s elbow lands in my ribs.

“You’re holding out on us? Were you with a certain hulk of a mechanic, oiling his engine?” She bites the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, but a giggle escapes anyway.

“Greta…please don’t ever, ever make an analogy again. Ever!” She blushes at my playful scolding but holds her ground. She and Berkeley are a united front on this one, and I can’t escape the limo.

I huff out an impatient breath. “We’re all adults here, right? What happens in Savannah stays in Savannah.”

“Mea! You know that if it were either one of us you’d need all the details. I demand to know what’s going on with you and Drake. Is it just sex? Or do you like him?”

Her question firmly plants a picture of what Drake did to me earlier in his bed at the front of my mind. Thoughts of my fingers twisting in his hair, tugging on the strands until his urgent groan met my ears. Thoughts of the way his glistening skin felt sliding against mine in the most intimate possible way. Thoughts of the feelings he evoked in my body when his hands and his tongue and his cock brought me to the brink of pleasure more than once.

I use a hand to fan myself, and Berkeley zeroes in on the motion, a blond poodle with a bone she can’t put down.

“I knew it! You are definitely screwing him!” Her triumphant voice fills the limo and the other girls’ heads snap to attention. “But…you have rules. You never sleep with the same guy twice. And you never spend time with the guy. Because we’re all friends, Drake is automatically different, right?”

I tilt my head to the side, considering. Is that the only reason things are so much more with Drake? Because we have the same circle of friends and we’re familiar with each other? The way Drake makes me feel: safe, surrounded by warmth, keyed up with sexual energy…those aren’t familiar emotions for me. He’s the only one who has ever inspired them. And I know, deep down inside my soul, that it’s not just because we’ve known each other for a few years now.

It’s more than that.

Greta’s searching my expression, and sees something in it that makes her reach out to squeeze my shoulder from her place across from me. “How do you feel about him, Mea?”

Shaking my head slowly, I gaze at her in utter disbelief. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I tried as hard as I could to prevent it, to stay mad at him for something that wasn’t even his fault. But he got to me…somehow.”

Berkeley’s voice has gentled, and she grasps my hand in hers with fierce friendship shining in her eyes. “And?”

I have to admit it. For myself as much as for my friends. “And I think I’m falling for him.”

17

Drake

It’s my turn to buy Dare’s drink, so I grab his order request and head for the bartender in the back of the old, classically “haunted” Savannah dive. I had my doubts when Mea first suggested this idea, but I have to admit it’s turning out to be a great night. We let the girls leave first in a limo, and then we followed in a stretch Hummer to the opposite end of the riverfront.

Knowing that in a little under an hour I’m going to see Mea’s gorgeous face lighting up everything around her again is enough to have me sweating in anticipation. After our afternoon together, my body is spent in the best possible way, and my brain? Filled with memories of how amazing she looked while she fell into pieces in my arms.

I know how lucky I am. I know that although Mea might not be a stranger to sexual partners, the fact that I got to see her all vulnerable and free the way she was today is something that I should cherish. I’m always going to remember the way she looked. Always going to want to replicate the way I made her moan.

And the way she made me feel? It’s unmatched by anyone who’s ever come before her. I know for a fact that no matter where I go or whom I’m with, I’ll never have another