The Rules Regarding Gray (17 page)

“Please just enjoy your last couple of days, and call me when you’re back.” She held her breath as she waited for their response.

“Is Ian helping out the way he should?”

“Of course he is.” Lie.

“We want you to call us every day. Do you understand? And if you need anything—”

“I’ll call. I promise.”

“We love you, dear. I’m so sorry this happened, and we can’t wait to see you.”

“I love you too.”

When she finally hung up, she sighed. Two seconds later, there was a knock on her door, and she shrieked.

“
Hello!
” hollered Anna as she pushed the door open.

“I’d get up, but you know,” she hollered back from the living room.

“Brought you some coffee. I had a break in my schedule and thought I’d stop over—see how you’re doing.”

Anna carried two coffees with her, and as she sank into the side chair in the living room, she offered one to Gray. “How’s it going?”

“Well enough.”

“You know, I’m out of town this weekend to Dallas to visit my parents. Say the word, and I’ll cancel.”

“No! Of course don’t cancel. Who knows, I might hop a Sunday morning flight to Boise. My parents are freaking out about this.”

“What did you expect?”

“Yeah,” she muttered.

“How are your boyfriends?” Anna smirked.

Gray laughed, but it was a little bitter. “Jasper and I aren’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. He’s just your sex toy.”

Gray stared at her for a moment, getting annoyed and hurt at the same time. “No,” she said pointedly. “He’s not my boyfriend or my sex toy. He’s my friend. And we’ve decided to stop.”

That shut Anna up for a moment. “Oh.” She sighed and looked away. “I’m sorry. It was rude of me to say. And what about Ian? How is that going?”

“It’s not going. He works all the time. When I see him, he pisses me off. When I don’t see him, I’m relieved.” She shook her head.

“And yet … you’re still with him.”

“I just don’t want to deal with that on top of everything else right now, and seeing as ‘with him’ doesn’t amount to much with his schedule, it’s easy to ignore.” She was still muttering.

Anna studied her for a moment. “What do you think will happen between you and Jasper if you break up with Ian?”

Gray glanced at her lap. “Nothing. Jasper isn’t interested in relationships, and I don’t think I could handle anything casual with him. It would be amazing for two seconds until it sank in that it wasn’t going anywhere. Besides, they’re friends. Things tend to get complicated when you try to remain friends with an ex’s friend. And don’t get me started on the inappropriateness of carrying on a sexual relationship with an ex’s friend. You know?”

Anna nodded slowly, but she didn’t seem convinced. “You know. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I didn’t like him much at first.” That was the understatement of the century.

Gray snorted and laughed out loud. “Uh… You threatened his testicles twice that I’m aware of.”

“Maybe more times than just that when you weren’t around.” She smiled. “But he cares about you.”

Gray bit her lip. “I know. He respects me too. But none of that means…” She shook her head.

“Yeah,” Anna commented gently. She said nothing for a moment as she watched Gray. “You’re not avoiding breaking up with Ian because you’re afraid of losing Jasper are you?”

Gray’s eyes snapped to Anna from the place they’d been focusing on the coffee table. She started gnawing on the inside of her lip, and she shrugged. “I don’t know.” She was nearly whispering when she said it.

Anna smiled reassuringly. “Well … no sense worrying about it. You need time to sort this out in your head. You’re having to deal with a lot right now, and this little … hiatus from life you’re on… Well, maybe you can use that time to work through it.” She nodded once in confirmation of her theory. “It’s not like anyone expects you to be top of your game right now. So just be patient with yourself. Yeah?”

Gray nodded. “Yeah. Don’t have much choice do I?”

Chapter Fifteen

“What the hell are you doing here? It’s only one o’clock?” Jas looked up at Ian as he walked into the bar on Thursday afternoon.

“I’ve been working a lot lately on this SOX audit bullshit, and I decided to take the afternoon off.” Ian sank onto a barstool.

“Presumably so you can spend some time with your girlfriend.” Jasper eyed him.

“Not unless my girlfriend can use one of her crutches as a golf club. No.” Ian chuckled as he glanced away to a woman who’d just walked in and sat down at the bar nearby.

The bar stayed busy enough during the days, thanks to a popular food truck taking up permanent residence next to his property. That did not mean it was ever a full house, and he staffed enough to keep himself free during the day most of the time.

“I just saw her last night. And I have a tee time.”

“So cancel it.”

“Not likely,” Ian said in annoyance. He glanced back to the woman a few seats down, and he pushed his tongue into his cheek. It was his hey-I-don’t-know-you-but-I’m-imagining-myself-fucking-you look.

Jas approached the woman. “What can I get ya?”

“I’ll take a Dewar’s and soda.” She eyed him seductively.

“Got it.” He looked away quickly, grabbing the scotch. He mindlessly made her drink, setting it back onto the bar.

“Heavy drink for the middle of the day,” Ian commented to her.

She looked at him, smiling. Most women smiled at him. He was the pretty type with his perfect hair and his suits that made him look important. He
was
important. He was the CFO of one of the largest computer programming companies in town, and he’d met success early in his career.

“It’s been a shit day,” she responded, still smiling with this flirtatious smirk on her mouth.

“Well, your drink’s on me.” He flashed another smile, tipping his beer at her.

“The drink’s not on him. He’s got a girlfriend.” Jas blew his cover.

Her eyes popped open wide as she laughed, more amused than anything.

“But for the trouble, the drink’s on the house.” Jas commented without looking at her.

Ian glared at him for a moment, but then he turned to her again, smiling. “But Jasper here’s not seeing anyone.”

She cocked her head in curiosity as her attention returned to Jasper.

“I’m … unavailable.” He returned to Ian, and the pretty woman moved to a nearby table, still chuckling quietly to herself.

“You’re acting single,” Jasper muttered to Ian.

“And
you’re
acting
not
single.” His eyes glanced to the woman again for a moment as he commented, “Which is weird considering you’re
always
single.”

When Ian finally looked back at Jasper, he smirked. Jas shook his head for a moment as he leaned against the back counter.

“What am I supposed to do?” Ian muttered in frustration. “I’m not getting laid—”

“Your girlfriend is injured—”

“That’s not it.” He was still muttering.

Jasper decided to keep his mouth shut on this one. He wasn’t sure this was a conversation he wanted to have with Ian, but at the same time, he was itching to hear this.

“We hung out last night. And when I touched her, she said she was having her period.”

Jasper laughed then. “Umm… So maybe she’s having her—”

“She’s not.” Ian cut him off quickly.

Jasper was still laughing. “How the hell would you know? Did you pull her pants down and check?”

Ian glanced away again. “She was lying. She takes birth control pills without the placebo week to intentionally stop her period. Apparently, it’s more … convenient when you dance. And apparently she failed to remember she’d told me that. Besides, I could tell she was lying. She’s a shit liar.”

Jasper’s jaw clenched tight. It was satisfaction. It was immature, prickish satisfaction that he felt, and he wanted more than anything to smirk. So, he held his jaw tight to keep that smirk from making an appearance.

Ian downed the last of his beer. “I’ve gotta go.” He tossed money on the bar, and as he passed the table with the woman who was studying her cell phone and sipping her drink, he winked at her as she looked up.

Seth walked in a few minutes later. “Hey, boss.”

“Hey. Are we covered for the day if I take off?”

“Yep.”

“Okay. Call me if you need anything.” He pulled his car keys from his pocket and rounded the bar. He passed by the same woman on his way to the back door.

“So, you’re sure you’re not single?”

Her words stopped him in his tracks as he passed by, and he looked down at her, saying nothing.

“Seemed like your friend thought you were available. That’s all,” she commented casually as she smiled seductively.

“I assure you, I’m not.”

She shrugged in that confident way that suggested everything, including his rebuff, just rolled off her like water.

Jasper kept walking.

He pulled up in front of Gray’s building ten minutes later. He’d not been able to stop by to see her the day before thanks to a shipment being delivered at the bar later than he’d expected. That didn’t mean he hadn’t ended up on the phone with her for fifteen minutes as he lay on the bed in his apartment waiting for the delivery to arrive. Things were awkward between them for sure, but he still wanted to talk to her, and given she seemed more than happy to talk to him as well, he was guessing she felt the same way.

He’d spent that entire time with his hand on his dick, silently stroking his erection and listening to her voice. She’d spoken to her parents, or so he’d partially gathered. He was near orgasm at that point, but he was pretty sure she’d said she’d convinced them to stay in Italy for the remainder of their vacation. The second they’d disconnected he’d come all over his stomach, panting and gasping. Ian wasn’t the only sexually frustrated man in Austin.

“Gray,” he hollered as he entered her loft. It was empty as he looked around. “Gray, where are you?” he hollered louder than the first time.

A sudden crash came from her bathroom, and then a loud squeal. He ran toward the room, bursting through the door in a blind panic. She was sprawled awkwardly out on the floor, propped up on her elbows with her legs splayed wide open. Were that all, he could likely have handled himself better, but in addition to the lewd pose, she was completely and utterly naked, soaking wet, and her hair lathered in a large mess of bubbles.

His eyes zoned in on that place between her legs he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about, and he gaped.

“Uh… Hi. I’m up here. And I could use some help.” She was panting.

He finally pulled his focus from her pussy, and he chuckled as he approached her. Until he saw the blood on her forehead. “Jesus, Gray. What happened?” He knelt beside her, grabbing a hand towel from the counter next to them.

He held the towel to her head, and when he pulled it away, he saw the small scrape. It wasn’t bad. Her bubbles smelled like lavender, and as he looked down at her, he started chuckling. “Okay. You can explain all this while I help you get this soap out of your hair. Is your ankle okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I managed to keep myself from putting my foot down, which is odd seeing as everything else hit the ground.” She winced as she sat up.

Her ankle was unwrapped and laying limply on the tile floor. She couldn’t use it yet, but she was able to take the splint and wrap off to bathe. But, for some unknown reason, that had somehow ended badly on this day. He lifted her, getting his clothes soaked as he did, and then he gently laid her down in the bathtub. It was filled with only six inches of water, and she draped her bad ankle over the side.

He turned the water back on, adjusting the temperature and trying to keep his eyes off the parts of her body that were most distracting to him. Sadly, he loved her eyes, he loved her tits, he loved her waist, he loved her hips, he loved her pussy, and he even loved her knees. Every inch of her was unsafe. Except perhaps her feet.

He focused on them as she held her head under the faucet, but she moaned quietly as she rinsed, and his attention snapped to her mouth. Yeah, he loved her mouth too. Once her hair was clean, she leaned against the back of tub, holding a wet washrag up to her forehead.

“Now, explain.”

She looked at him, smiling sheepishly, covering her breasts with her arm. They were no longer fucking around after all, and as she demurely tried to cover up, he took a deep breath.

“Well, I was washing my hair. My phone rang, and so, I thought I should see who it was. I grabbed one of my crutches, and I thought I could just … you know … hop over to the counter to check my phone, but then…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Something happened, and I slipped, and I hit my head on one of my crutches.”

He looked down as he started to silently laugh. When he looked back up, she shrugged as though she couldn’t quite figure out where in her brilliant plan things had gone wrong.