Pushing His Luck - Rhyannon Byrd Page 0,15

amazing new bronze eyeshadow palette on her eyes, while going with a new nude gloss on her lips that Sophie and Natalie had both gushed over.

Her pulse leapt as she did her own visual sweep of his tall body, and she didn’t know how it happened, but the man somehow seemed to get even better looking every goddamn time she saw him. His dark hair was a bit longer these days than he usually wore it, and she could tell there was a bit of curl in the thick locks, which looked great on him. He was dressed in a pair of cargo shorts and a casual white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his masculine forearms, his feet bare and somehow as sexy as the rest of his incredible body. God, how unfair was it that the guy even had great feet?

“I, um, need a refill,” Natalie murmured, just as Paul reached them, and she shot her friend a dirty look for abandoning her to the wolves. Or a lone wolf, in this case. Of course, Nat missed her scowl, since she was already hurrying away, and Karin resisted the urge to call her back, unable to believe the woman would just bail on her like that.

Then again, Natalie had been bitching about James’s behavior only moments before, so maybe she was going to talk to Sean about dealing with him, saving her the hassle. But even if that were the case, Nat was still in the friendship doghouse for leaving her to talk to Paul on her own. She’d told both Natalie and Sophie about the conversation she’d had with him when he’d walked up to her balcony, and the ensuing text messages, and both women were as confused by his behavior as she was. She could tell they were wary of encouraging her to go for it and give him another chance, but could have sworn they were both secretly rooting for a miracle to take place that resulted in her and Paul somehow finding a way to be together.

“So you haven’t taken any of my calls or had the time to return a single one of my texts,” he said in a low voice, as soon as he came to a stop by her feet, a beer in one hand and the other one shoved in his pocket, his expression tight with frustration as he stared down at her, “but you can waste an entire night with the blond jackass?”

Even though he was right, his words still pissed her off. “Are you seriously going to stand there and lecture me about returning texts?”

Disbelief creased his brow. “Are you seriously going to tell me you’re enjoying spending time with that drunken asshole?” he demanded with an irritating snort.

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” she replied, experiencing her own wave of disbelief. “Believe it or not, I have no desire for us to discuss our dating lives with each other.”

His confusion was immediately replaced by an unmistakable look of frustration. “Since you keep refusing to give me a second chance, I don’t have a fucking dating life,” he ground out. “And you know damn well that you could do better than him. That prick is bad news.”

She blinked, unable to believe what she was hearing. “I can’t freaking believe that you of all people are going to stand there and badmouth my date!” she snapped, glaring up at him. “You’re pushing your luck, detective. And don’t forget that I saw what kind of women you’re interested in first-hand, so you don’t have the right to judge anyone. That blonde was practically eating your face off in front of a group of strangers and you had your hand down her pants!”

Color flared across the top of his cheekbones. “On her ass. Not her—”

“Don’t,” she all but growled, cutting him off as she surged to her feet. “I don’t… God, it doesn’t even matter.”

Voice soft, but gruff, he gently grabbed her arm as she tried to storm past him, saying, “I know it looked bad, but I… I didn’t fuck her, Rin.”

Eyes wide with shock, she gave a bitter laugh. “You announced to everyone at the bonfire that night—including me—that you planned on going down on her to make up for the shitty reception you both got.”

To his credit, he looked more than a little disgusted with himself, but he stood his ground. “I didn’t mean it,” he said in a low voice. “And I swear to

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