Anticipation(34)

Eddie shook his head, not sure he'd heard properly. "Sorry - what did you say?"

"I said Blue's romantic track record is worse." Maggie immediately  looked uncomfortable. "God, I feel like such a crappy friend saying  that, but it's true."

Eddie frowned, trying to think past all the vodka pickling his brain.  He'd never thought about Blue's personal life in that light before, but  Maggie was right - in all the time that he'd known her, Blue had never  had any relationship with the opposite sex that had evolved beyond  fuck-buddy status. Given how awesome Blue was, it suddenly struck him  that there must have been guys who'd wanted more. Lots of them.

And yet Blue had held them all at bay.

"Jesus," he said, feeling a little blown away by the observation. "And I'm supposed to be the messed-up one."

Raf frowned. "I never noticed that about Blue before, either."

"That's because you're men," Maggie said smugly. "Women notice things."

"Women notice too many things sometimes," Raf said dryly.

Maggie gave him a smack on the ass. A hard one, if the echo in the kitchen was anything to go by.

"We hang onto things, too," she said lightly.

Rafel laughed, completely uncowed by her warning.

Eddie was too busy joining lots of other dots to pay any attention - the  way Blue lived, as though she could pack up and leave at any minute;  her discomfort with sustained demonstrations of affection; her fierce  independence in all things.

He'd always known she was a tough cookie, but he'd never realized  exactly how self-protective she was before. How hard she worked to keep  the world - people - at bay, inviting them so close, but not too close.  The few exceptions to the rule were himself and Raf, Maggie and Lena.  And even then, Blue still had her boundaries.

She hadn't had boundaries in his bed, though. She'd been wild. She'd  given him everything, without flinching. For a few hours, they'd been as  close as two people could be.

"Okay, we're ready to roll here," Raf said.

Eddie blinked at his brother, resisting being called back to the here and now.

"Come on, eat something," Raf said, encouraging Eddie to his feet with a hand under his elbow.

Eddie made the short walk to the dining table and sat in the seat his  brother pushed him into. He ate his pasta, then he repossessed the vodka  bottle and proceeded to drink himself into a stupor.

And one point, he found himself listing all of Blue's sterling qualities  to a patiently nodding Maggie as she made up the couch for him to sleep  on.

"I know, she's very special," Maggie said more than once.

Then Eddie was alone, lying on his brother's couch, with nothing to distract him from thoughts of Blue with Reid Thompson.

He'd never thought of himself as a jealous guy before. He'd had  beautiful women in his life, women who other men followed with their  eyes, women who couldn't buy milk and a loaf of bread without getting  hit on, and he'd never so much as gotten sweaty at the prospect that  someone else might make a move on them.

But Blue …  The thought of Blue being with someone else made his chest and  gut ache. And it wasn't just because it was Thompson, he realized  suddenly.

He'd be the same way with any man.         

     



 

He threw an arm over his eyes, hating the ugly thoughts circling his  head. This was so screwed. Completely fucked up. And there was nothing  he could do about it.

Arm locked in place, he finally drifted off to sleep.





Chapter Sixteen

Through drinks and then dinner with Reid, all Blue could think about was  Eddie and the look in his eyes when she'd glanced at him on her way out  the door.

He'd looked stricken. There was no other word for it.

And even though she told herself she owed him nothing, that it was good  for both of them that she was sitting opposite Reid right now, she knew  in her heart that she was wrong.

She should have said no when Reid asked her out. She should have come up  with an excuse to put him off - said she'd call him, whatever - and  just let it go. But Eddie had been standing there, bristling with  possessive alpha-male territoriality, and it had felt important to  signal that she was not his property, that he had no hold over her. No  right to be jealous.

Now, she pushed her plate away, even though she'd barely touched her  meal, and tried to concentrate on what Reid was saying. She'd agreed to  this meal, after all. It felt like the least she could do.

"So then this prick of a site manager calls me over and tries to tell me  how lucky I was to get the job. Like he was doing me a favor, you  know?" Reid tossed back the last of his beer. "I can't frickin' wait  till this build is over."

Blue nodded as though this wasn't the fourth story he'd told tonight  about how he was right and someone else was wrong. She'd never really  noticed before, but Reid was kind of an angry guy. He'd been impatient  with the waitress, too, and the whole time they'd waited for their meal -  and, admittedly, it had been a while because the kitchen had been  dealing with a large table - he'd drummed his fingers on the table and  glanced around as though he was being pushed to the absolute limit.

"So, what have you got lined up next?" she asked, mostly because it was more comfortable than sitting in awkward silence.

Reid was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, sometimes taking on plastering work, other times roofing or tiling.

"A mate's subdividing his block and putting a new house on the back.  Figured I'd help him out with that - but only if he takes my advice  about the drainage … "

Blue listened as he assassinated his friend, almost sighing with relief when she spotted the waitress with the bill.

"This is on me," Reid said, pulling out his wallet.

"Let's go halves," Blue said lightly.

She never let men pay for her meals if she could help it. She wasn't  into feeling obligated, and she didn't need to be wined and dined to  hand over the goods - if she wanted to sleep someone, she slept with  them. End of discussion.

Reid shrugged, and they both watched as the waitress headed to the  register to settle their bill. Blue started a little when Reid reached  across and picked up her hand, curling his own around it.

"So … my place or yours?" He grinned expectantly.

This was the part of the evening Blue hadn't been looking forward to,  because from the moment she'd left Ink with Reid, she'd known what he  wanted at the end of the night, and she'd known she wasn't going to give  it to him.

"Actually, I'm pretty beat," she said. "I might just head home."

His smile faltered. "Seriously?"

"I've got a big day on tomorrow, and I need to start early." She shrugged.

"Right." He sat back, a knowing expression on his face. "This is because I didn't call after the accident, isn't it?"

"What? No. We don't have the kind of relationship."

Although, now she thought about it, he could have sent her a card or a  bunch of flowers. She was pretty sure she would have done something  along those lines if she'd heard he'd been in a major accident. Hell,  she probably would have visited him in hospital.

"That's what I figured," he said. "So, what's going on? Don't tell me  you're not up for it - you're always up for it. It's one of my favorite  things about you."

He grinned again, and she was struck with the sudden realization that she didn't actually like him very much.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not up for it. I'm tired, and I'm  going home. But I appreciate you dropping in to catch up." She twisted  to take her jacket off the back of her chair.

"Come on, Blue, don't leave me hanging here," he said.

She shrugged into her jacket. The blue-balls gambit hadn't worked on her since she'd been sixteen.         

     



 

"It was good to see you, Reid," she said.

She pushed back her chair and he reached out to grab her arm.

"Hold on, you can't just walk off."

"You want to let me go?" She gave him a steady look.

Maybe he'd been able to intimidate other women into having sex with him,  but that shit wasn't going to play with her. If she had to, she'd make a  scene and embarrass him into letting her go.

Reid's face flushed and his hand tightened on her wrist for a second before he let her go.

"Fine. Fuck off, then. Leave me high and dry."

She didn't bother replying. Standing, she pushed her chair in, grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

"See you later, asshole," she muttered to herself as she stepped onto the street.

She was only a couple of blocks from Brothers Ink and her car, and she  wove her way through the busy foot traffic, feeling vaguely ashamed of  the fact that she hadn't realized Reid was such a douche before tonight.  She'd always known he had a temper, and he'd always been a little on  the egotistical side, but she'd never let that bother her because, let's  face it, they hadn't actually done that much talking. And - if she was  being completely honest - Reid having a few personality traits that she  didn't entirely admire made it a lot easier to keep things casual.