Hunks Too Hot To Touch (18 page)

Shauntie was so taken back by Brian’s bluntness that she wasn’t sure how to answer him. Was he questioning her motives? Did he think she was the one up to something?

“I’m not thinking about hurting Nash. The thought never crossed my mind,” she admitted.

“Brian, stop,” Nash jumped in. “I brought Shauntie here to meet you, not to answer all of your questions.

“Sorry man, I apologize,” Brian said, looking at her and then Nash. “I guess I’ve been hanging around Chance too long. The cop side of him is rubbing off on me. I wasn’t trying to make her feel uncomfortable.”

“Alright, just don’t let it happen again,” Nash replied.

“Nash, Brian didn’t mean any harm and you should know that he didn’t,” Chance cut in. “Why are you acting like he was being mean to Shauntie? Don’t we always question each other’s girlfriends when we first meet them? It’s like a ritual with us. Why was it fine for you to do it to us and not vice versa?”

The sudden tension around the table was making Shauntie uncomfortable. She hadn’t been expecting any of this to happen when Nash walked her up to the table. Maybe she should get away for a minute or two while things cooled off. Something more was going on with Nash’s friends then the two of them meeting her for the first time.

“I’m going over to the bar to order something to drink,” Shauntie whispered into Nash’s ear as music boomed loudly around them in the background. She needed time away from the table to get herself back under control.

Shauntie knew she wouldn’t be able do that with Brian and Chance. Right now, they were staring a hole in her like both of them were trying to figure out if she was really good enough for their best friend.

“Baby, we can get a waitress to come over and take your order,” Nash said, looking over at her. She saw the concern in his eyes. Shauntie sensed that Nash saw she was upset, but she wasn’t going to get into it with his friends right in front of them.

“No, that’s okay. I don’t mind going to get it. I need a little air away from the table,” she admitted.

Leaning closer, Nash placed his hand on her thigh. A worried expression was etched across his attractive face. “Shauntie are you okay?” he whispered against the side of her ear. “I know the guys weren’t all that welcoming, but they don’t mean any harm. You’ll like them once you get to know them better.”

Shauntie was touched by the concern in Nash’s voice. It affected her that Nash wanted to fix what was wrong, but he couldn’t right now. She hadn’t meant to fall for him so fast and this hard, but it was too late to turn off her feelings for him now. She was already there when it came to her emotions.

“I’m fine,” Shauntie assured Nash, placing her hand on top of his giving it a light squeeze. “I only want a few minutes to myself. That’s all. It has nothing to do with Chance or Brian. I’ll be right back. I promise.” Shauntie kissed Nash on the mouth and then got up from the table. She felt Brian and Chance staring at her as she left their table, but she didn’t look back.

Working her way through the crowd, Shauntie finally made it to the front of the bar. She leaned over the bar and smiled at the bartender standing there grinning at her.

“What can I get for you, beautiful?” The tall, dirty blond bartender flirted as he moved closer across the bar counter so he could hear her above the noise.

“A ginger ale,” Shauntie replied, noticing how the guy’s hazel eyes glanced down at her breasts then back up into her eyes.

“One ginger ale, coming up,” he replied and then winked at her before walking away.

While she waited for her drink, Shauntie played with the empty nut bowl in front of her. A minute or two later the bartender returned placing her drink down in front of her.

“Here you go. Are you sure there isn’t anything else I can do for you?” he flirted again.

“No, this is it.” Shauntie smiled.

“Alright, but if you change your mind I’m working until twelve o’clock.” He grinned at her then moved away to take an order at the end of the bar.

Taking a sip of her drink, Shauntie glanced around the nightclub trying to shake off the experience of meeting Nash’s friends for the first time. All of their questions had come out of left field; she wasn’t expecting them to literally attack her from both directions.

As she raised the glass back to her mouth for another drink, Shauntie got the eerie feeling someone was watching her. The hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up. She decided maybe it was time for her to head back to her table. Just as Shauntie turned to walk away from the bar hoping the leave the unsettling feeling behind her, a male voice whispered into her right ear.

“Hello beautiful Shauntie. It’s been a while since I laid eyes on you. I’m rather shocked to see the little princess decided to grace the locals with her presence.”

Closing her eyes, Shauntie counted to ten as J.T.’s familiar voice filled her ears. Out of all the people she expected to run into tonight and never wanted to see again, her no good lying ex-boyfriend had to top both of those lists.

Why her
?
Why now
?

Shauntie took a deep breath, he promised herself not to lose her cool as she slowly turned around and faced her past. She wasn’t going to allow him to get underneath her skin. She had grown since she fell for his convincing lies.

“J.T., what do you want?” Shauntie hated the fact that J.T. looked the same. He was a good looking guy when he dated her and his looks hadn’t suffered at all. He didn’t seem like he ever spent a day regretting the way he manipulated her to get what he wanted.

“Oh, Shauntie,” J.T. grinned. “Is that any way to greet me?” He reached out to touch her on the arm, but she knocked his hand away.

The mere thought of his hands anywhere on her body now made Shauntie’s skin crawl. “Don’t you dare touch me,” she hissed taking a step back.

“Really...you didn’t use to feel that way about me, darling,” J.T. said as his eyes roamed over her body stripping away her shirt and skirt. “If I remember correctly, you couldn’t get enough of me when were dating. Remember the time we almost made love on your kitchen table? You were so hot! I still think about it sometimes.”

Shauntie swallowed down her nausea at the unwanted memory. “I recall how I was intelligent enough to never sleep with you. It would have been the biggest mistake of my life.”

J.T.’s eyes narrowed as his hand shot out and wrapped around her upper arm. His fingers dug into her skin as he gave her a little shake. “You bitch! You always did have a mouth on you and not the kind I’m fond of either.”

“Let go of me,” Shauntie snapped, jerking on her arm, but J.T. only tightened his grip.

“No, I think I’ll keep a hold of you a little while longer. My old lady left me again. How about we hook up? I bet I can give it to you better than any guy you have in your life. What do you say?”

“J.T. Let go of Shauntie before I make you do it,” a voice threatened behind her.

Looking over her shoulder, Shauntie breathed a sigh of relief when she found Nash standing behind her with a hard gleam in his green eyes. He looked like he was boiling for a fight and he would find one if J.T. didn’t release her.

Dropping his hand, J.T. took a step back from Nash. “Hey Nash, how’s it going old buddy.” He looked at her and then at Nash. A half smile tilted the corner of his mouth. “Don’t tell me you’re hooking up with my ex-girlfriend. I always knew you had a thing for her back when we were roommates. I saw how you would drool over her anytime she came to see me at the construction site. I guess you’re finally getting a piece of her.”

“Shut up J.T.,” Nash yelled.

Shauntie cringed as heaviness settled in the bottom of her stomach. She couldn’t be hearing what she thought she was. No. It wasn’t possible. This couldn’t happen to her twice in her life. No one in the world was this unlucky.

She pushed J.T. out of her mind as she turned around and glanced up at Nash. “You’re friends with J.T. You knew who I was before I hired you for the roofing job at my house?” Shauntie could barely control her reaction as thought after thought raced through her head as J.T.’s words started to settle in.

“Of course, good old Nash Wentworth knew who you were. How could he have not known?” J.T. taunted in her ear, but she didn’t even bother to acknowledge him. “He never took his eyes off you anytime you were within touching distance of him.”

The only man Shauntie wanted to hear from was Nash. He had some questions to answer and she better get the answers she wanted from him. “Shut up J.T. I don’t need you buzzing around my ear. This is between me and Nash, not you. Go away!”

Groaning, Nash ran the palm of his hand down the front of his face like he was trying to figure out what in the hell he was going to confess to her. God...he was thinking of a lie to tell her. Shauntie couldn’t believe it. She felt the lie as it formed inside of his head.

She was tired of being deceived and it would end tonight. Nash wouldn’t pull a stunt like J.T. had on her. She wouldn’t allow it.

“Answer me!” The words seemed like they were being ripped from her throat.

“Shauntie, yes, I knew who you were after you took off your sunglasses that first day at your house,” Nash admitted. “I was attracted to you when you dated J.T. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone as gorgeous as you picked such an asshole to be with. I thought I got blessed when I saw it was you standing in front of me.”

What a load of crap. Did Nash really think she would believe any of the words coming out of his mouth? Shauntie shook her head. She promised herself she wouldn’t ever go down this road again.

Emerald and Sapphire wondered why she kept her heart so heavily guarded. Well this was the major reason why. She couldn’t pick a good decent man to save her soul. She would have better luck at winning a million dollars at the lottery.

It had taken her a while not to think Nash would hurt her like J.T. She didn’t want to cut him out of the same cloth as a man he’d never met, but she was so wrong there. Nash and J.T. knew each other. No...it was so much worst. They’d been roommates at one time. She hadn’t wanted to be judgmental and look where it had gotten her.

“Nash, I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. “I can’t believe this happened to me again.” Brushing past Nash, Shauntie headed for the exit sign; she couldn’t lose her cool inside of a nightclub full of people. She had to think about her career since it was the only thing she had left now to care about.

“Baby, wait,” Nash implored, wrapping his fingers around her wrist. “Don’t go. Let me explain. I was going to tell you about knowing J.T. Sweetheart, please don’t push me away because of this guy. We aren’t anything alike. I won’t hurt you like he did.”

Shauntie glanced down at Nash’s tanned fingers on her skin. Her eyes shot back up to his pleading ones and she almost softened at the look until she heard J.T. snickering in the background and the sound sobered her up instantly.

“Nash, you shoved me away by not telling me the truth. None of this is my fault,” Shauntie told him as her heart broke into a tiny million pieces like fine china. “Let go of me. I’m not going to ask you twice.”

Nash didn’t do it. Instead, he pulled her back against his hard, warm chest. “I’ll drop it for now, but this conversation is far from over. You will listen to me. I won’t let J.T.’s stupidity ruin what we have built with each other.”

The second Nash released her wrist. Shauntie made a mad dash for the door and went out without looking back

Chapter Twenty-Three

Standing by the bar, Nash watched in pure agony as Shauntie ran from him like he was the worst person she had ever encountered in her life. Why had he allowed her to go over to the bar in the first place? He’d had a bad feeling about it. The entire night had gone wrong.

Brian and Chance grilled his woman like she wasn’t good enough for him making her run away from him, placing her right in the path of J.T. and all of the destruction he usually got pleasure causing in other people’s lives.

Why hadn’t he told her before about his relationship with J.T.? Everything was going so perfect between them. Last night and this morning were better than anything he had experienced with a woman in a very long time.

Now, everything he ever wanted just stormed out the door away from him and if he didn’t make amends soon, Shauntie might not ever take him back.

“Aren’t you going after her?” J.T. questioned behind him. “Shauntie always did have a way of overreacting about stuff. However, I found ways to overlook it because she was one fine ass woman. I’m a little sad I let all of that get away before I got a piece of it in the bedroom. She looks like the type who would want it hard and fast in the morning. Does she like it like that?”

“You son of a bitch!” Nash spun back around to punch J.T., but he was grabbed from behind by a pair of arms.

“Nash, stop!” Brian hollered at him. “This jackass isn’t worth a night in jail.”

“You’re wrong,” Nash corrected. “I would get a lot of pleasure watching his smug ass hit the floor.”

“You would never be able to get Shauntie back if you ended up in jail because of him,” Chance said, standing between him and the guy who deserved to meet the end of his fist.

The adrenaline rushing through his system still was driving him to shove Chance out of the way and finish what he was dying to do, but his buddies were right. He had too much going on with his life to have it ruined by J.T.

“Brian, I’m calm. You can let go of me. I won’t hit J.T. He isn’t worth me spending the night in jail on assault charges. I need to see Shauntie and explain all of this. She needs to know the complete truth about J .T.”

“She’s done with you,” J.T. taunted, “but if she isn’t I bet she will be when you tell her about us being cousins. Are you going to tell your precious Shauntie that I’m the black sheep of the family everyone hates talking about?”

“J.T. is related to you?” Brian said shocked, moving from his back to his side. “You never told me this.”

“Would you admit to it if he was a part of your family? Why do you think I had him move in with us? My dad made me feel guilty enough to take him in and it turned out to be a huge mistake on my part. J.T. has been a problem in our family since he turned sixteen years old and it hasn’t stopped.”