Twisted Love (Modern Romance #3) - Piper Lawson Page 0,1
my phone and their eyes widen as they take in the picture I’ve stared at a thousand times—the two of us wearing matching camp T-shirts, shorts, and smiles in eighth grade.
“Wow. You must’ve been close.” Kendall shifts closer, engrossed.
“Until college.” My chest squeezes, the familiar swirls of regret and betrayal blending into a cocktail more complex than the one I was drinking. I finger the rose gold bangle on my wrist that I’ve worn for a decade.
The bartender sets the bill in front of us and I swipe it before either of them can think about it.
“Hi, Daisy.” A smooth voice has me turning my head to see a familiar man in a pressed suit. He's medium height and attractive, a few years older than me, with a confident smile and trim build.
“Marc. Nice to see you. We met at a charity event a couple of months ago," I explain to my friends.
"And she promised to go out with me, but I never got her number." His eyes sparkle. “A few of my friends are going for drinks. If you ladies are done here…”
Rena and Kendall look between us, anticipation on their faces. They’re both going home to their guys, but I can see their wheels turning.
“I have plans tonight,” I answer, and three faces fall.
But Marc doesn’t let that stop him. “If you finish early, stop by.”
I give him my number this time and send him off with a promise to call.
Rena nudges me as he leaves. “Are your plans hotter than that? Because you’ve had a long week and you deserve to recuperate.”
I shoulder my bag and head for the door as my phone buzzes with a text.
“Oh, I get it,” Rena declares after noticing who it’s from. “You don’t need a man because you have the hottest venture capitalist in New York sending you dick pics.”
I send her an arch look without checking the message, though every part of me itches to look. “Benji and I are friends.”
“And if anyone else called him Benji, he’d shoot them a charming grin and flash those beautiful brown eyes and then buy their grandfather’s company and sell it off for parts.”
“That’s only business.” I start back toward the subway, and they fall into step next to me.
“It’s not business. It’s a god complex. Besides, the guy could have any woman in New York and he knows it."
“Ben doesn’t date.”
“He conquers?”
I shake my head, swallowing the laugh. “His schedule is worse than mine. Plus, he’s very particular about his life.”
Rena makes a sound of agreement as we start down the steps. “Still, I bet you've stared at him shirtless. Given some romantic name to how he smells.”
I swipe my card and pass through the turnstiles, then turn toward my line, which is different from the one that takes Rena back to her place and Kendall to hers.
“Having a Friday night friend who’s not giving it to you is not pulling his weight,” Rena calls. “How many Marcs are you going to turn down before you either say yes or break down and fuck your best friend like a normal adult?”
Bless New Yorkers. No one even turns to look.
I take the subway to my stop, turning over Rena’s words.
It’s not that Ben isn’t attractive. He is—every inch of him is designed for the urban jungle, from the strong body that looks even better in weekend denim than designer suits, to a carved jaw that intimidates in the boardroom and makes a woman’s fingers itch, to a firm mouth that’s as tempting pursed as it is in a cocky “I just made a deal that will blow your mind” grin.
His brilliant engineer’s brain and dry sense of humor don’t hurt either.
It’s impossible not to look at a man that confident, that self-possessed, that successful, and not experience some primal desire to align yourself with him.
But I’m not the woman men like Ben stop to look at. Even back in college, I wasn’t the girl with the perfect hair and makeup and clothes, and I wasn’t the party girl. I was the one people liked to have in their group because I’d get shit done while they were off chasing the party girl.
When I emerge from the subway and head back to street level, I check my phone.
The picture message from Ben is a ceramic dog on a flat white surface, the blue sky and clouds over a shiny reflection that could be water in the background.