Can't Shake You (3 page)

Loosening his grip on Carissa, but still holding her close, he kept his focus trained on Tony. So maybe he felt a little like a dick for how he was handling this. He hadn’t planned on going all friggin’ caveman about the situation, but something ugly and possessive took over the moment he saw Carissa in his friend’s arms and his suspicions were confirmed.

Leaning in and around, he pecked at the corner of Carissa’s mouth. “Nice sweatshirt, babe. You take it from my place last night?”

Panic flashed in her amber eyes and he felt her sharp intake of breath. Surprisingly, she didn’t move.

Tony did however, his hands fisting at his sides. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

To that, Josh gave a cocky chuckle. “Wish I was, man, believe me. Not exactly how I wanted this thing between Carissa and I to come out, but...” He went to tangle his fingers with hers to add effect to the ruse and encountered Tony’s keys tucked in her hand.

“Come on, baby girl, you’re killing me,” he muttered, the words not a part of his act. He gave his head a shake and tossed the keys back to his friend. Catching them against his chest, Tony snarled.

“You could’ve just told me,” his foreman growled at Carissa. “
Christ
.”

“I...I...this isn’t...” she stammered, her shocked paralysis beginning to wear off.

“Save it.” Tony cut her off with a hand in the air. Then he shot a hard glare toward Josh. “You know this is messed up, man. What’s Fletcher think, huh?”

Josh ignored the question, mostly because he didn’t want to think about it. “What’s messed up is you trying to make moves on a new woman when you haven’t taken care of business with the last one.”

Tony’s face turned roughly the same shade crimson as his truck. “Don’t you dare go there.”

“Too late.”

“Screw you.”

“I was just giving him a r-ride home,” Carissa stuttered. “And, Tony, this isn’t what you think. Really.”

“Don’t worry, Car. I’m plenty capable of taking care of myself, regardless of what Hudson here thinks.” His tone was so bitter, he might as well have spat on Josh’s boots. “And whatever the hell is going on with you two? I want no part in it.” With that, he climbed into his truck and tore off, throwing gravel in his wake.

Carissa reacted immediately with a ferocity Josh hadn’t expected. She stomped at his feet, which actually hurt thanks to those spiky shoes she was wearing, and she dug her short, but deadly fingernails into his arm until he had no choice but to let her go.

Even then, she spun and gave him a hard shove. Despite the ten inches and close to a hundred pounds he had on her, she still sent him staggering backward.

“What
the hell
is wrong with you?” she yelled, her eyes flashing unadulterated anger.

“You don’t want to get involved with Tony right now.”

“Like you have a clue what I want?”

Yeah, he had a pretty good idea. “Trust me, Car, it’s for the best. You’ll thank me some day.”

“For making Tony think I slept with you?” Her voice began to rise, but the question ended on a shameful whisper.

He couldn’t help the smirk that played on his lips. “Ah, but you
did
sleep with me, babe.”

She blinked and threw her hands in the air. “Not last night, I didn’t!”

“Last night, three years ago...does it really matter?”

“
What?”

He lifted a shoulder and in a bored, lint-picking tone, replied, "We had sex, Carissa. You’re no longer fair game to my friends. Tony needed to know, simple as that.”

She balled her fists against her thighs and her copper eyes blazed with fiery emotion. For a second, he thought she might charge at him. "So this Neanderthal stunt wasn't about my well-being after all, but rather that stupid man-code bullshit?”

In a roundabout way, yes, though his initial intentions were sincere. His decision to put a stop to Tony’s endeavors was made with both Tony's and Carissa's best interest in mind, but at some point along the way, that goal changed. He suspected it might have been when he spotted Tony moving in for the kill, in a manner far too reminiscent of his own efforts with Carissa when they’d met three years earlier.

Since attempting to explain himself wasn't likely to ease her rage, he shrugged again and let her think what she wanted. Her assumption was, after all, at least partially true and, in the end, all that mattered was the distance his intervention put between her and Tony’s personal drama.

“Unbelievable,” she said, driving both of her hands back into her dark hair. Then she let out a bitter, unexpected grunt. "Where was all this honesty with Reed, huh?”

He grimaced. “It was kinda hard to give Fletcher a head's up about me and you when I was halfway around the world.”

“And when you came home?”

He cocked his head to the side and shot her a half-lidded glare, because...
really
? No thanks to her, Reed had gone all gaga and googly-eyed by the time his double deployment ended. Though it hadn't sat well in Josh's gut—and still didn't, for that matter—he’d elected to keep the solitary night he’d spent with Carissa to himself. It had gone against every ounce of his better judgment—and a vow he’d made to Fletcher more than a decade before.

But he hadn’t been entirely alone in that decision. He and Carissa decided
together
, for the sake of all involved, that their indiscretion should be kept just that—discreet. In fact, he seemed to recall a moonlit conversation much like this, when she’d damn near begged him to keep his mouth shut, for fear the dirty truth would jeopardize her relationship with his best friend.

“Let's not forget your part in that decision, sweetheart,” he reminded her, and even in the shadows, he saw her cheeks flush a darker, raspberry pink.

“You wanted to humiliate me. To make me out as a flagrant whore.”

Josh gave a humorless laugh. Did she really believe that? “That’s not true and you know it.”

“Oh, so I must have imagined that part of our conversation. When you accused me of hopping from your bed to Reed’s.”

He counted to ten and did his damnedest to keep calm, but a guy could only withstand so many allegations before he broke.

“Do you think,” he began, his jaw set and his voice low and deliberate, “it was easy for me to come home and see my best friend all over the last woman I’d been with?”

She narrowed her eyes, her spite egging him on.

“Or better yet, to shake his hand and pretend I didn’t know how fucking beautiful his new girlfriend looked when she came?”

She gasped as he expected she would and took an unsteady step backward. He followed, because she wasn’t going to bait him and think she could slink away like some innocent little kitten.

“You weren’t the only one who risked repercussion for what we did, Carissa. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t make a habit of lying to anyone, especially my friends.” He’d been there, done that and almost lost his best friend in the process.

“Then why didn't you just come clean?” she countered. “If you're such a noble, upstanding guy, why didn’t you just say 'screw her' and have it out with Reed like a man?”

Sweet Jesus, this woman was going to be the death of him.

“
Because
I'm a man, I chose to respect
you
over my own integrity and a friendship I've had since fucking kindergarten!” Didn’t she get it? Didn’t she know what he stood to lose?

Surprise and maybe a bit of humility flashed across her face. Her nostrils continued to flare though, and he was pretty sure if her eyes had been nail guns, he would have resembled a pin cushion stuck to the side of the vehicle behind him.

“Whether you believe it or not, I did what I did tonight with
you
in mind
once again
. Go ahead and judge my decisions, but don't you
dare
accuse me of thinking only of myself.”

She made a partly disgruntled, partly uncertain sound and, propping her hands on her curvy hips, she shifted her weight to one long, slender leg. The motion caused the short hem of her gauzy dress to ride up, exposing an almost indecent amount of shapely, bare thigh.

His cock twitched and he mentally scolded himself for being such a goddamn slave to his libido. Here was a woman who was severely pissed at him—and him her, more and more with every passing moment—and yet there he stood, considering what it might be like to walk over and run his hand up the inside of that creamy leg and make her come for him one more time.

Masochistically, his let his gaze slide to her waist and then upward still, to where her breasts jutted forward in all her pissed off glory. Even the bulky sweatshirt couldn’t disguise the full swell of that luscious flesh.

He craned his head from side to side until his neck gave way to a gratifying snap, and then slowly he made his way to her face, reveling, in spite of himself, in the delicate line of her jaw and the way her pouty, pink lips parted under his watch.

When their eyes finally met, she sucked in and held her breath. He did too.

Was it possible she felt the same, lingering pull of desire and crazy sexual chemistry he did?

For several long beats, they simply stared at each other. He waited for another sign, but she allowed him nothing.

Which was just as well, because he’d be a damn fool to consider going down that road with her again.

“Look, Carissa, I’m sorry—”

“You know where you can stick your fucking apology.”

He opened his mouth to rebuff her interruption, but she held up a warning finger and took two steps forward, putting them so close, he could feel her hot breath seeping through his shirt and searing his skin.

“Let’s be clear about something, shall we?” She stared at his chest, her expression tight, her words measured. “Two years ago, I asked you for a favor and, whatever your reasons, you obliged. Obviously you feel as though that choice has cost you, and I certainly don’t want to be responsible for any damage to your moral fiber.” She paused to tip her head back and finally look him square in the eye. “So do us both a favor from here on out—stop whatever it is you think you’ve been doing for me. I’m a grown woman and I am quite capable of dealing with my own mistakes.”

One and then two beats passed, as emotion continued to flare in her eyes. Granted, her anger seemed to tamp down a few degrees, but now she looked fiercely determined. And beautiful. So goddamn beautiful.

“You think what happened between us was a mistake?” he dared to ask, which was utterly friggin’ pathetic, because, at this point, it really shouldn’t matter.

Hell, it
didn’t
matter, but it sure stung like a son of a bitch when her only answer was the flutter of her lashes and a stellar view of her backside as she turned and walked away.

T
hree years earlier, 11:55 p.m.

“That was Dan. He’s taking Maddie home. Says she’s not feeling well.” Carissa dropped her cell phone into her purse and frowned.

The man sitting across the table arched a dark eyebrow over the most intoxicating, most indigo blue eyes she’d ever seen. The wry smile that slid across his strong, stubble shadowed jaw hit her like a double shot of tequila on an empty stomach. Made her a little breathless. Did things to her nerves. Definitely made her think about losing her clothes.

And she’d only met the guy four hours ago.

“You don’t believe that, do you? They were all over each other before Maddie suddenly
needed some air
.” Josh rocked back on his stool, an arm draped across the back of the chair next to him. The dark flames and barbs of his forearm tattoo licked at his skin and Carissa forced herself to look away and focus on the words coming from his mouth before she started panting over his sexy body.

“They were, weren’t they?
God
. I’m supposed to sleep on their couch tonight.” Not to mention they’d abandoned her. In a town she’d never been in before. At a bar that had ‘back room action’ written all over it. With a man who oozed trouble and sex.

“You mean you’re not into eavesdropping?”

Carissa’s cheeks warmed. “We’re talking about my best friend and your brother here.”

“So? She’s probably gonna tell you all about it in the morning.”

“No way. Some women may be into sharing those details, but I’m not one of them.”

Josh’s grin twisted to the side. He almost looked pleased to hear it. “Why’s that?”

Wowzers, it was hot in there. Carissa shifted in her seat and blew out a breath. “Sex is just...private. No one else’s business.”

“Yeah? Or does it make you uncomfortable? Hearing about someone else’s pleasure?”

The heat burning in her cheeks spread like wildfire down her neck and her breasts grew heavy with arousal.

This guy was dangerous. And she was so very, very out of her league.

Still, she pulled her shoulders back and met his gaze with the confidence of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. He might have a million times more experience with the game they were playing, but she was far from a naïve virgin.

The dim lights of the pub reflected in his dark blue eyes and there was no denying the desire that shined in them. Not only
could
she do this—she was totally going to.

“Not at all,” she finally said, stirring the straw through her drink. “Sex is just hotter when it’s kept under wraps, don’t you think?”

His eyes fell to her mouth, as she ran her tongue along the seam of her lips. A blatant attempt to gauge the extent of his interest. Just how far was he willing to take this? How far was she?

When he glanced up at her again, lust glowing like fireworks in those smoky eyes, she knew she had him.

“Yes. Yes, it is.” His husky tone was so full of promise, she shivered. “I think we can also agree that you’re in need of a ride home.”

“It would appear that way, yes.”

“I happen to have a truck.”

“Do you now?”

“Yep. I have a couch too.”

“Really? Like one of those dorm-room futons or a real, honest-to-goodness couch?”

He laughed softly. “If you’re looking for comfort, the bed’s probably your best bet.”