Tangling Hearts - Faleena Hopkins Page 0,3

just flattery. I walk to him and stand close, glancing to the shirt. “You want to take this off?” I say, reaching to touch it, a sultry smile on my lips.

His eyes flicker. “I can’t. I have to go.”

“What?”

He looks unhappy as he says, “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

I step away. “Then go.” I walk to the closet and pull out the complimentary white terry-cloth robe. He’s silent as I put it on, but I don’t meet his eyes again until I’m completely covered, my head held high, my emotions cloaked.

His eyes are troubled as he puts on his pants. “I want to stay.”

I shrug, hurt, but refusing to show it. He saw it for a heartbeat. I know he did. But I’ll be damned if I let him see it again. “No. You can leave.”

He walks to me and stops just short of touching me. “I want to stay. I really do. But I can’t.”

I laugh a jaded, pained laugh. “Great. First Brendan leaves me for a girl he just met, and now you.”

Tommy’s eyes register Brendan’s name with a flash of anger, the same look I’ve seen on Brendan’s face about Tommy, many, many times. “Okay. Whatever.” He walks away from me and says over his shoulder, “But he didn’t just meet her. He’s known her since college.”

Confused, I blink, taking this in this odd piece of information. “She said they just met on the night of the robbery. He said it, too.”

Tommy shakes his head, pouring a glass of wine and taking a sip without offering me any. “Well, then they’re lying to you. She went to State with us. She was a fucking freak, one of those Goth weirdos. But she was at a bunch of parties with us. Believe me, he knows her. Just now, he knows her a little better.”

I step away, my mind working fast. Pulling the belt tighter on the robe, I whisper, “Do you think she remembers him?”

Tommy laughs. “Are you kidding me? The way she stared at him whenever he was around, I’d say she’s been in love with him since all the way back then. There was this one time, we were at a party with Sara – his girlfriend – and she and Sara ended up talking by accident, waiting in line for the bathroom. I looked over and there was such a look of envy on her face, I laughed out loud. It was pathetic.”

I turn around and hold out my hand. He steps forward and gives me his glass. “So, it’s him who doesn’t remember.”

Tommy watches my face and thinks about it, not sure what I’m gaming at. “Probably doesn’t. A lot of girls have come and gone. And she looks nothing like she used to. I just have a thing with faces. And her eyes. She’s got…”

He stops talking at my look. “Well, I wish them well,” I smile, holding up my glass and covering up the elation whipping through my veins. “I’m sorry you have to go. But it was fun.”

He blinks. “I don’t want to go.”

I step forward and give him my best act, appealing to his ego that I wish he didn’t have to go, and I’ll miss him, etc. We kiss for the first time, the taste of toothpaste on his tongue – thankfully – and he pulls me in close with only his right arm, angling to keep his left shoulder away from me. I want to say something about how Brendan’s hurt on his right side, and with the two of them, they’d make one whole man – the perfect man for me – but I keep these thoughts to myself.

“I want to see you again,” he whispers against my lips.

“I’d love that,” I say, not sure if it’s a lie.

“Yeah?” He searches my eyes, wanting to believe me.

I nod and press my lips to his. “You know what I’d love? I’d love to come back here for a weekend with just you and me. When you don’t have to rush off. Let’s plan it.”

Hook line and sinker, he believes me. “Done. And maybe I can come visit you in Arizona.”

My smile spreads into a sexy, happy grin. “Really? You’d like to?”

“Fuck yes.”

He kisses me, our tongues dance around, but I feel nothing because my mind is on telling Brendan the truth about little miss bright-eyes.

He puts on his shoes and gathers his things. “I’ll call you over the next couple of days and we’ll set it up.”

“Thank you so much