Cool.
Whatever it took to thaw everything, to get Laura to believe that they wanted her, that they wanted a we that no one else really understood. Hell, they didn’t even understand it. Who could blame Laura for feeling conflicted and fearful and—
Oof. This Josie chick just whomped him in his very real balls with those very fake balls.
“Hey! You paying attention there, Thor’s sidekick?”
Thor’s what? “My name is Dylan. Who is Thor?”
She laughed, rubbing the plastic testicles against her cheek, like stroking a kitten. “Like I don’t know your name. You and Mike are all Laura talks about.”
“Really?” So they call Mike ‘Thor’?
She shot him a look. “Really? Like you don’t know. You aren’t exactly conventional. I haven’t seen Laura eat that much food in one sitting since Ryan left her. Some wicked show you two got going on.”
Show? “We didn’t mean to—”
Placing one long finger with an even longer fingernail against his lips she shook her head slowly. The rest of her fingernails looked like peacock tails. “You don’t get to speak right now. In fact, I hope Mike there doesn’t try to talk too much.”
Dylan snorted. “No worries,” he said. Except it sounded like “mo uhwees” with her finger pressing against his mouth. “He’s a quiet giant.”
She made a face like she was impressed. “Then you might have a shot. Too bad you guys set her up. The last thing Laura needs is to feel manipulated.” She glowered. “Why am I telling you this?”
Whack. She smacked him with the rubber balls. “Ow!”
“You deserved it.” She was right; he did. They did. His stomach rumbled and he checked the wall clock. Pushing 5 a.m. Shit—he started a new shift in two hours. Whatever they needed to do to get Laura to believe that they wanted her—wanted more—and that this wasn’t some pervy plot, they needed to do it fast.#p#分页标题#e#
Turning on the charm, he shot Josie a warm grin, his arm going up around the back edge of the booth, the gesture intimate and inviting. “You’re her best friend. What would you tell some amazing guy—”
“Guys.” She turned it into two syllables. Geye —ZUH. Which made it all sound rather pervy.
He kept going. “Guys. OK. What would you tell us to do to get her to explore this with us?”
“Explore? That sounds so...eww. Would you say that to someone if you were just in a one-on-one relationship? ‘I want to explore this. Explore you. Explore your hoo-haw’ —”
“Hoo what?”
Just then, Mike approached. Thank God, Dylan thought. He was starting to feel a little too...something. Flinching, he pulled back from Josie and shot Mike a pleading look. Rescue me?
“Hi,” Mike said to Josie, extending his hand to shake. She grasped it and Dylan got a good, long look at those weird, long nails. Yep. Peacock tails. Golden, glittering streaks interspersed with some weird, glittery green and a bunch of colors you’d only see in nature.
She smiled real wide at Mike, clearly drinking him in. Some part of Dylan’s ego felt chipped away, irked that she didn’t look at him like that. What the hell was he thinking? Whether Laura’s best friend found him attractive or not wasn’t exactly top on his list of issues right now. Besides, Josie had asked him earlier if he and Mike had ever been in a foursome. Her intent was hard to read; sarcasm? Or—worse—an actual offer?
Mike’s return grin was polite. Hesitant. He gave nothing. Atta boy, Dylan thought. Josie’s face went a bit tentative, the first sign of any social filter in the woman. Mike could do that to people. He was so centered—not self-centered, but grounded—that his openness unnerved people. It was yet another aspect of him that drew Dylan, and probably Jill and Laura, to the giant—
Ah. Thor. Studying Mike’s features, Dylan suddenly got it, chuckling at the women. Taller than most men, Nordic features, the dark blonde hair and those glittery eyes. Legs like tree trunks and a cobra chest and back. Thor.
Did that make him Loki? He shuddered at the thought, his chuckle fading fast. He was waay more built than that guy. More Captain America than—
“Earth to Dylan.” Mike was waving a hand the size of a catcher’s mitt in his face. “Josie was just telling us some important information about Laura.” Mike widened his eyes and his look said Hey, dumbass, show some respect.
“Yeah. Sure.” Movement at the other booth caught his eye as Laura stretched her neck from one side to the other, then slid to the right, out of the booth and walked unsteadily to the bathroom. Her gait caught him unaware, and—yep, he was hard. That fine, round, soft ass sashayed away from him, her hips encased in some loose yoga pant fabric that clung to her curves, disappearing around the corner as she opened the door. It was unsettling when what he really wanted was that ass on him, in his lap, or in front of him, hands feeling every—