Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“What happened?”
Good question. What had happened on Saturday night? One moment he’d been trying to assess if she had any lingering feelings for Jack, not sure he could survive it if she did. The next moment his mouth had been on hers, his body above hers . . .
“I don’t know,” Kennedy said in response to Ian’s question, leaning forward so both elbows were on his knees, trying to gather his thoughts. “She was at my parents’ anniversary party this weekend.”
“As your date?”
Kennedy looked up. “As Jack’s date.”
“Damn,” Matt breathed.
“They were there just as friends. They’d broken up earlier that week, but it was still . . .” He stared at his hands. “Not well done of me.”
“The hookup or you cuckolding your brother?”
“I didn’t . . .” Kennedy shook his head. “Jack was fine with it.”
It was true. Even if Fitz hadn’t lorded over the situation like some sort of nun, escorting Kate home so that Kennedy could “come clean” to Jack, he would have told his brother what happened.
Not only had Jack not been upset, he hadn’t even seemed surprised.
“He was fine with it,” Kennedy repeated before looking at his friends. “And I need to know if you guys are as well.”
“Why? We’ve never dated Kate.”
“I know. But the pact . . .”
“Fuck that weird pact,” Matt said. “I mean, whatever, I never minded it, but that was your deal from the very beginning.”
Ian looked smugly at Kennedy. “Told you.”
“Yeah, you did. Still, we made a deal, and I broke it. That’s not right.”
“I don’t even know if I want to know this,” Matt said. “But did you break it all of the way? Or just . . . bend it? Actually, no. Don’t tell me.”
“Yeah, don’t,” Ian agreed. “Though, I’ve got to ask . . . What’s the plan here?”
“I don’t have a plan.”
Ian frowned. “You always have a plan.”
“Yeah, well, not with her,” Kennedy said, sitting back in frustration. “It just happened.”
“Do you want it to happen again?”
Yes. Again and again, this time not on a hard, cramped couch on a boat. This time without his youngest brother’s interruption. When it happened again, she wouldn’t be his brother’s date, and he wouldn’t stop until he found out if the skin of her thighs was as sweet as the taste of her shoulders, if she made those little noises when he—
Kennedy shifted in his chair, and Ian made a knowing face. “Oh God. I regret asking.”
“Wait, are you guys dating now?” Matt asked.
“No. We’re . . . I don’t know,” he said irritably. “I kissed her, Fitz interrupted us, and then she went home so I could talk with Jack. But she didn’t return my texts or calls yesterday.”
“Shit,” Ian muttered. “And now she’s a no-show this morning. Maybe you were right to set up that damn pact. But this doesn’t seem like her.”
“Agreed,” Matt said. “Kate’s hardly one to run from something. Unless you were weird,” he said, glancing at Kennedy.
“I wasn’t weird,” he snapped. “We were two consenting adults who . . . consented. I don’t regret what happened, only that I didn’t tell you guys first. A pact’s a pact, even if I was the only one who ever intended to honor it.”
“No,” Ian corrected. “You’re the only one who needed it. It’s like I told you the other day, she’s like a sister to me. I didn’t need some weird bro agreement not to touch her.”
“Same,” Matt said. “I always just figured you were a rules guy, and without setting up that rule for yourself, you’d have been all over our assistant, thus risking . . . Well, hell. Risking her not showing up to work.”
Ian reached for his cell. “That’s it. I’m calling her.”
“Already on it,” Matt said, his cell phone to his ear.
“Put it on speakerphone,” Kennedy demanded.
Matt ignored him, then slapped at Kennedy’s hand when he tried to take the phone. “Knock it off. Maybe she doesn’t want to hear from you.”
Matt said it jokingly, but the words clawed at Kennedy all the same. Was his friend right? Was Kate avoiding him?
The other guys were right. It didn’t seem like her. He could see her taking yesterday to think things over. Hell, he’d needed a beat to sort things through himself, and he still wasn’t completely there. He had no idea what was next for them or how to make any of this work. He didn’t know how to reconcile that they wanted different things out of a relationship—that he would never be the wild, passionate lover she wanted, and she would never be the uncomplicated woman he wanted.
And yet, he did want her. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything.
“Voice mail,” Matt said with a frown.
“That’s it,” Kennedy said decisively, standing.
“That’s it?” Ian repeated. “What is this, a Nicolas Cage movie? What are you going to do, go scale her building? Sit down, Dawson. Let’s make a plan.”