Bedding The Best Friend (Bedding the Bachelors, Book 4) (3 page)

“Ready?” Paige asked as she walked up to her, her own white-handled bag in hand.

Annie jerked and blinked rapidly, disoriented by how deeply she’d been daydreaming. Blushing, she flashed Paige a bright smile. “Definitely,” she said, her voice strained.

Paige patted her on the shoulder and laughed. “You did good for your first time. Next time will be easier.”

Next time? Yikes! She still hadn’t recovered from this time.

As they walked outside toward Annie’s car, Paige handed her the bag. “Merry Christmas, Annie! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it when the time is right.”

“Thanks, Paige.” Annie had already given Paige her gift earlier. “And thanks for coming with me today. It was an…experience.”

Paige laughed. “Nothing like what you’re going to experience in Vegas. I want a full report, including how Ryan reacts when he finds out you popped your bad-girl cherry in such a dramatic way.”

“He’s my friend. As long as I’m happy, he’ll be happy.” She tried to inject a note of confidence in her voice she wasn’t feeling.

Paige knew her well enough to know her statement wasn’t completely true. “Oh, is that why you’re not telling him your plans before you go?”

Annie bit her lip. “I just don’t want him to worry.” Or to try to stop her. Which he inevitably would, the way any sane man who thought of her as a little sister would try to stop her. God, if her dropping an extra twenty pounds had him worried, the knowledge of her flying to Sin City to fuck some stranger’s brains out would probably give him a coronary.

“He wouldn’t worry if he was the one you were flexing your bad-girl muscles at instead of a stranger.”

Never going to happen. Ryan had relegated her to the friend zone years ago. She remembered the exact day he’d made it crystal clear he’d never be interested in her as more than a friend. She’d gone over to his house to help him study for finals their junior year. Somehow they’d started talking about how Suzanne Miller and Peter Horace, two former best friends, had hooked up and then broken up, resulting in them hating each other throughout most of high school. Ryan had turned to her, ruffled her hair, and said, “Well, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about sexual chemistry. Let’s promise each other here and now, Annie, that we’ll never hook up and risk our friendship.”

Somehow, despite feeling like he’d ripped her heart right out of her chest, she’d smiled weakly and given him the promise he’d wanted.

One he’d repeated back to her.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Annie?” Paige said, jolting her out of her thoughts. “Maybe you should wait until I can go with you. It’s not the safest thing, a woman going to Vegas by herself.”

“You’ve done it,” she pointed out. “You transformed yourself into a confident woman who
could
do it. And that’s what I’m going to do. I can do this, Paige.”

Paige looked torn for a second before nodding. “I know you can.” Paige blew out a breath and gave Annie a hug. “Tell Ryan I said hi.”

“I will.”

As Annie drove away, she tried not to dwell on how awkward things had been between her and Ryan last week or how guilty she felt that she wasn’t telling him her plans. Instead, she focused on how much she was looking forward to seeing him and how even more awesome things would be after Vegas.

She’d be that much closer to proving she could be the Annie she needed to be.

Confident. Sexy. Independent.

And no longer in love with her best friend.

* * *

At her front door, Annie dropped her groceries and the bag containing her secret present while she fumbled in her purse for her apartment keys. After leaving Paige, she’d headed to the local farmers market and picked up stuff for dinner with Ryan. Cooking for Ryan was easy—he had five main dishes he liked, and she knew how to make each of them. But before she got down to preparing the chicken piccata she planned to serve tonight, she had business to do. Namely, pack for her Vegas trip.

Finally finding her keys, she opened the door to her apartment and stood for a moment in the doorway, taking in the sights of Christmas. In the corner of her living room, she had an artificial Christmas tree, completely decorated with lights, tinsel, and colorful glass ornaments. On the mantel over the fireplace was a beautiful swag of pine boughs with red holly berries. And on the coffee table sat a lovely crèche.

Christmas in June.

She’d had the decorations up all week, and tonight, with Ryan, would be the final celebration.

Most people thought she was nuts, but this was her one way of connecting with her mother. Losing her when Annie was in high school had been devastating, but Annie had refused then, and still refused, to let the grief overwhelm her and dictate her life. Instead, she chose to celebrate her mother’s joy and verve for life on a daily basis. Christmas had been her mother’s favorite holiday, and when they’d realized her mother wouldn’t make it to the Fourth of July, they had decided to celebrate in June. Annie had continued the tradition.

God, she missed her mom. Annie suspected her mom wouldn’t have been too happy about Annie’s naughty list, but eventually she’d have told Annie she trusted her and to do what she needed to do. That’s what she’d told Annie when she’d given her “the talk” before she died. She’d also told Annie, “A girl who knows her own heart is a girl who’ll grow to be a happy woman.” For too long, she’d focused on her one-sided feelings for Ryan, so it was no wonder she’d never had a successful long-term relationship with another man. It was time for her to listen to what her heart was telling her right now—it was time to move on.

She quickly put the groceries away in the kitchen, then dashed into her bedroom where she packed for Vegas. Not knowing what she would need when she arrived in Sin City, she threw everything she could think of into a large rolling case and a smaller carry-on. Excited, she tossed in some new naughty lingerie she’d bought online. A bustier, a few teddies, and a bunch of G-strings with matching lace bras that looked as if they would rip the minute a man laid his hands on them were reverentially placed in the larger suitcase. If all went according to plan, some man would be enjoying stripping her down to her skin.

She went to her closet to grab more clothes only to trip over one of the many cardboard boxes stuffed inside the closet. Boxes that contained memorabilia and pictures from her younger years. This was a fresh start for her, and she didn’t want to be constantly reminded of the chubby unhappy woman she’d been—the kind of woman who pined away for a man she could never have.

After heading back into the living room, she dug around in the hall closet for wrapping paper, scissors, and tape. Scooting the crèche off to the side of the coffee table, she took out her vibrator and proceeded to wrap it up in Christmas paper and put a big bow on it. "To Annie, from Annie," she wrote on a gift tag and taped it on, then stuck the present under the tree. Granted, she was going to open it up tonight, after Ryan left, but since it symbolized the gift she was giving herself, the gift of a new start, it seemed only right that she give its christening more grandeur than simply removing the package from the bag it had come in.

Although she had to start making dinner soon, she took a moment to stare at the Christmas tree. Sitting back on her heels, she pressed her palms together and breathed out deeply. Anxiety filled her body, but determination pushed its way through.

“Vegas, baby,” she murmured to herself. Yeah, her plan was a little crazy, especially for a nice girl like her, but she needed to do this.

It was time to move on to a bolder, more satisfying life, and Vegas was her key.

Chapter Two

Ryan Hennessey knocked on Annie’s door. When she didn’t answer right away, he used his key and stepped inside. He immediately felt transported to another place—Annie’s place—where most days it smelled fresh and lemony, but right now it smelled like cinnamon and pine. Christmas music played softly, and lights twinkled on the Christmas tree.

It wasn’t Christmas.

It wouldn’t be Christmas for another six months.

But ever since he’d known her, Annie celebrated Christmas in June. While
Jean Marie Christmas
—so named after Annie’s mother—could have been bittersweet, it was almost always a time of joy, and Annie’s family and closest friends got into the spirit with her. Only he, however, had ever been granted the privilege of spending the final evening with her.

“Babe, are you here?” he called out, just as he registered the sound of running water.

“I’m…shower…come on in!”

As always, the sound of her voice made him smile. Hell, just walking into her place eased the pressure in his chest and relaxed his tight muscles. No matter how stressful a day he had, he could always count on his best friend to make him feel better.

That’s why spending two months away from her while he’d fought forest fires in the Northern California redwoods had been a mixed blessing. He’d loved the work, especially the four weeks he’d spent working with smoke jumpers. He’d never felt his adrenalin pump so hard. Had loved the thrill of flying into a desolate wilderness area, jumping out of a plane, picking up an ax, and conducting the initial mode of attack. It was brutal and exhilarating and oddly comforting, because it also gave him a break from the personal tragedies he often witnessed when fighting urban fires.

All that had been tainted because he’d missed Annie.

The muscles that had relaxed upon walking into her apartment tightened again, and his stomach twisted into knots. He pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped on the text he’d received hours earlier. Before he’d gotten it, he would have sworn he’d never leave San Francisco, mainly because Annie was here. But now Ryan was being offered a spot as a smoke jumper on the very team he’d trained with. The team leader would be in San Fran on other business next week and wanted to meet with Ryan to talk about it. Just a formality, he said, because given what he’d seen when Ryan worked with him, the job was Ryan’s if he wanted it.

He did want it.

In order to have it, however, he’d have to give up things that mattered to him. Including living close to Annie and seeing her whenever he wanted.

Cursing softly, he walked over to the cheerfully decorated Christmas tree in the corner of her living room. He tucked his gift beneath it, right next to the one labeled “To Annie, From Annie.” He needed to get a few more things for her. Maybe a pretty sweater with a lower collar than she normally wore, one that would show off the necklace he’d already gotten her.

“Hey, Annie, mind if I grab a beer?” he called, even though she probably wouldn’t be able to hear him with the water still going. But it wasn’t like he actually needed her permission. They were comfortable in each other’s homes. She was the first person he’d wanted to talk to after getting the text offering him the smoke-jumper job. He knew she’d want the best for him and that she’d reassure him nothing would change between them, but he wanted to be looking into her eyes when she did.

As he walked into the kitchen, he could smell dinner warming in the oven. Opening the refrigerator, he pulled out one of the bottles of beer she always kept on hand for when he came over. He popped off the cap and took a long swig. Then he stared at the front of the fridge, frowning.

It used to be covered with pictures of the two of them, including one of his favorites taken while they’d been hiking in Yosemite last year. The photo was gone. There were still photos of Annie’s family and other friends, but the only picture that had Annie or Ryan in it was the one of them dancing at what should have been his friend Eric’s wedding last week. Even with Eric a no show, his fiancée Brianne had gone forward with the reception. In the picture, Annie was in Ryan’s arms but he could see how awkward things had been between them that day.

Why had she taken the other photos of him down? Why was the only photo she’d left of herself one that showed her after she’d lost weight? He still wasn’t used to seeing his Annie so skinny. As gorgeous as Annie looked in the photo, she didn’t look like herself. He was actually bracing himself for how he’d feel when she walked in the room.

And he couldn’t help feeling that anxiety in his chest again that his best girl was slipping away from him. If he took the smoke jumper job, they’d be even farther apart.

He traced his finger across her face in the photo and managed to knock it to the floor along with several others. Cursing, he placed his beer on the counter then crouched down. He picked up the photos and began sticking them back where they belonged. Only, he’d managed to knock over more than just photos…

He stared at an airline boarding pass, frowning when he saw the departure date. Tomorrow, at 10:30 a.m. He frowned even harder when he saw the destination.

Las Vegas.

Annie was flying to Vegas? Since when? And why hadn’t she told him?

He’d been in Vegas a week ago for Eric’s bachelor party, just before he’d picked up Annie at the airport for Eric’s wedding. The bachelor party had been a wild nightclub scene, and she’d never be comfortable clubbing. Her friend Paige, sure, but not Annie. She was probably going to catch a show or scrapbook convention. Play the slots. Of course, she’d be going with one of her girlfriends. Unless...

Unless she’d met a guy while he was away.

If so, why not tell him she was dating? Even if she wasn’t, why hadn’t she mentioned her Vegas trip?