Secret Moves (Secret Dreams Contemporary Romance 3) (9 page)

"Do you think Sam's home already?" Trey asked Kris as he walked her to her front door.

"Yes, she texted me earlier to say she was."

"She must be wondering where you were."

"Yup. She asked me that point-blank. I told her I was with a man with a box full of condoms."

He laughed out loud. "Are you sure she's not behind this door with a shotgun?"

Kris chuckled. "I know. She's like a mother hen sometimes. But she's probably in bed already."

He tilted her chin with his finger. "So, when can I expect your call?" he asked, swiping a thumb on her lips.

She put on a haughty look. "Well, I do need to consider the fact that you're a very busy man, so I won't bother you during business hours. However, nighttimes and weekends are fair game. Agreed?"

"For two weeks and a bit, your wish is my command, madam," he replied with mock formality.

Kris cupped his face tenderly and tiptoed to place a soft kiss on his lips. "That's good to know," she whispered before releasing him and unlocking the door. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay," he responded, feeling inexplicably happy. He waited until she'd closed the door behind her before walking back to his car.

*******

As Trey drove back home, he felt strange. He didn't want to go home yet. He'd just end up staring at his ceiling or tossing and turning in bed.

He could visit his favourite club down the road from his place and have a drink or two, but he grimaced at the thought. Somehow that didn't seem fitting after the night he'd had.

He activated voice command on his phone and called Adam. It was a little past midnight, but he knew Adam would still be up, and most likely alone.

"Hey, bro," Adam said through the car speakers. "What's up?"

"Hey. Are you home alone?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Good. Can I drop by for a few minutes?"

"Sure. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Just feel the need for a bit of company."

"Okay," Adam answered slowly, his tone expressing concern.

"Everything's cool, dude," he assured Adam. "Just not sleepy yet, that's all. I'll be there in five."

"Five? Are you on your way already?"

"Yup."

"Okay." The worry in Adam's voice was still there.

"Hey, I'm fine," he said with a laugh.

"Cool. When you get here you better tell me why you want to see me past midnight on a weeknight."

"Sure. It's no biggie. See you soon."

*******

"So what's up?"

Trey chuckled as he walked inside Adam's apartment.

"Why do you find it so strange that I'd want your company at this time of the night?"

Adam looked at him with bemusement. "It's the early hours of Thursday morning, Trey, not Friday or Saturday. We have a meeting tomorrow—I mean later today—at ten. Obviously, whatever you want to tell me is so important that it can't wait until then."

Trey went to the sofa and sat down. "I'm just still wide awake, that's all. I figured you'd still be up road-testing our new games app, so I thought I'd join you."

"Want a beer or coffee?"

"Beer, thanks."

Trey stretched his arms and put his hands on the top of his head as he waited for Adam. Why the hell did he feel so bothered? He stared blankly at the wall as he tried to sort through his emotions.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong, I'm going to deck you," Adam said, as he walked back with their drinks.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just…unsettled," he said, clinking his bottle with Adam's before taking a swig.

"Unsettled?"

"Yeah. You know…can't sleep."

"Why?"

Trey shrugged. "I just need to relax. So I thought I'd come here."

"Oh. I would have thought your first choice for relaxation would be to go pick up at the club or call one of your willing fuck buddies."

He frowned. The suggestion didn't hold appeal. In fact, it was unpalatable.

Adam snorted. "Now what was that look about?"

He shook his head to clear his mind and inhaled deeply. "I slept with Kris tonight. I guess it just kind of threw me off a bit."

"Kris? As in Jasmine and Ari's friend Kris?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's not a surprise. You two seemed to hit it off since you met at the wedding," Adam commented before his eyes widened. "Let me guess. She's looking for a boyfriend and now you're scared she's after you?"

Trey snorted. "No. She was looking for a fling partner and I volunteered."

"Oh, right. So what's the problem?"

"I took her to my place."

There was a few seconds of silence before Adam started laughing out loud. "Are you kidding me? You broke your number one rule?"

Trey glared at his friend. "She doesn't exactly have her own place, you know."

"Hotel room?" Adam prompted.

He sneered. "We're talking about our best friend's girlfriend's best friend here, not some random chick."

"Right. So does that mean we're not allowed to put her through the ISAG?"

"Don't you even think about it," he growled. There was no way he'd let Adam or Dylan put Kris through the ISAG—the 'Is She A Gold-Digger?' scheme he'd come up with to ensure he didn't make the same mistake twice: the mistake of believing a woman loved him for himself, not for his money. He wouldn't want to insult Kris.

To his bemusement, Adam laughed even harder.

"What?" he asked impatiently.

"I wish Dylan was here to hear this conversation," Adam said, his eyes alive with amusement.

"Hey, unlike you and Dylan, I don't have any ambitions whatsoever to stick with one woman for a lifetime. I'm too cynical of relationships to make it work with anyone, and there's no point using the ISAG for any of my casual affairs. Even though I originally invented it for my sake, nowadays, it's not me who needs it. It's you."

"Who said I intend to stick with one woman?" Adam muttered.

Trey regarded his friend closely. "Have you and Sandy broken up for good?"

Adam sighed. "Not officially. But it looks like that's where we're headed."

"Sorry, bro."

Adam smirked. "Thanks. I'm okay with it. Her attitude is starting to really bug me. Anyway, we're not talking about Sandy and me—that's just the same old story. Let's go back to Kris and your night together. How was it?"

Trey tried to hide his smile, to no avail. "It was incredible. She put on this seductive music and gave me this super-sexy lap dance while she slowly stripped—" He stopped when he saw Adam's eyes grow wide with interest.

"And?" Adam prodded.

Trey bristled internally. He didn't want Adam picturing Kris in all her sexiness. "And then we had sex."

Adam nodded. "I can see how it led to that. So what next? Was it just a one-night stand or what?"

He ran his hand on his cheek. "No. We agreed to have a fling until she goes back to Melbourne."

"I see," Adam commented, pursing his lips. "That'll be one of your longest flings in years, if not
the
longest."

"She's fun," was all he could say.

"So how come you're unsettled?"

He took a deep breath. "Don't know exactly. I feel funny that I asked her to leave."

"You asked her to leave?" Adam asked incredulously.

"I didn't use those words," he said defensively. "I just asked if she wanted to have a shower before I took her home."

"Right. The subtle hint. Did she get upset?"

"No. She was fine."

"But you're not," Adam observed. "Dare I say she's gotten under your skin?"

"No," he scoffed. "You know me. I can get intense when I want a woman. After a few days, I'm over it. It's the thrill of the chase then the rush of the first few romps—nothing more."

Adam sighed. "You're right. So what's got you unsettled?"

"I think it was the fact that I've brought a woman to my apartment. I said I'd never do that."

"Well, you can't undo it now," Adam said. "Besides, it's Kris. Like you said, she's not exactly some random chick."

He nodded, feeling better and validated, especially since he had a feeling he'd be breaking not only Rule Number One but also Rule Number Two for Kris very soon.

*******

"So I heard you helped Kris pick up last night," Dylan said to Trey as they settled for their meeting at Dylan's home office.

Adam snorted. "He certainly did."

Trey sighed and looked around for Ari. "Is Ari here?" he asked Dylan. He didn't want Ari to overhear him talking about Kris.

"No. She's at her place packing. Kris and Sam are helping her today."

"So have you popped the question yet?" he asked Dylan.

"No. If I had I would have told you guys already. I'm still planning something special."

Trey snickered. "You've got it bad."

"Happily so," Dylan agreed. "Anyway, so how did it go last night?"

"Good," Trey answered cryptically.

"Did she go home with a guy?"

"She sure did."

"Someone we know?"

"Yup."

"Really? Who?"

"Me."

"What?!"

"Why are you so surprised, Dyl?" Adam asked. "You said yourself the two of them were like magnets to each other."

"I thought they'd agreed not to sleep together. That's what Ari said," Dylan explained to Adam.

"Well, he's not quite finished telling you everything," Adam said, wagging his eyebrows.

Trey kept an impassive expression.

"What? Tell me," Dylan said.

"I took her to my apartment," Trey answered.

Dylan stared at him in disbelief. "You broke Rule Number One?"

He sighed audibly. "Yes. And we had great fun. And we're having a fling till she goes home. And that's all there is to it."

Dylan raked his fingers through his hair, as if agitated by Trey's news.

"And what's the matter with you?" Trey queried.

"Does Kris know it ends in, what—two and a half weeks?"

"Of course. The fling was her idea. She wanted one and I simply put my hand up for the part."

"Okay. As long as you're clear, Trey." Dylan warned.

"I am. Why do you look worried?"

"Ari and Sam seemed concerned Kris might fall for you. They think she's too attracted for just a fling. They don't want to see her get hurt. You're her first sex partner after she'd broken up with her boyfriend last year."

"Ari told you this?"

"Yes, because she wants me to dissuade you if you ever thought of sleeping with Kris. Now it's too late," Dylan said gravely.

"Come on, it can't be that bad. Kris doesn't seem to have a problem with casual sex," Trey countered.

"Well, apparently Kris is just starting to get back on track emotionally. She was still grieving for her mother, who died two and a half years ago in a car accident, when her ex-boyfriend broke up with her last year to marry one of the dance teachers who worked for them. Kris and her ex ran a dance studio together, you see. She used the pay-out from her mother's life insurance policy to set up that business.

"Then Kris found out her ex had used the business as security for another venture he'd set up, and when that venture went bust, her investment in the business went down the drain with it. She was devastated by that, as you can imagine. She felt she'd let her mother down and squandered the legacy she left her. She had to get an office job, which she was lucky to get because of her dad's connections, and could only manage teaching dance part-time. That depressed her too.

"That's why Sam still worries about her. Kris might look tough and carefree on the outside—that's her personality—but Sam, as well as Ari and Jasmine, kind of feel protective of her because of her recent heartbreaks."

"I didn't know," Trey said softly.

Dylan inhaled deeply. "Well, so now you've slept with her. Like you said, Kris might just be after a good, fun fling while she's here, and the girls might just be worrying over nothing. All I'm saying is, now you know, tread carefully. There will always be complications for you—for us—because of the friendship connection with Ari and Jasmine."

"Yeah. Thanks for letting me know," Trey said, emotions warring within him. A voice inside his head clearly said to back off and stay away. But a weird sensation somewhere within the region of his chest was rebelling against that thought.

"Come on, Kris, spill," Sam urged as they started boxing the contents of Ari's bookshelf. "I'm dying of curiosity here."

"Me, too," Ari said.

Kris laughed. She'd been refusing to tell Sam about last night until they got to Ari's so she wouldn't have to repeat herself. Plus, she really wanted to enjoy her memories of Trey before getting the inevitable caution and concern the girls would soon be spouting.

"Well, last night, I gave the best strip and lap dance of my life and I got the best sex in return," she finally said.

"Oh, my God. Really?" Ari said in amused wonder. "I hope you weren't lap dancing in the club."

"Of course not. It was at the guy's place. He got a private performance."

"Wow. He must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven," Sam said. "So what's he like?"

"A sex god with the yummiest body," Kris said with a yearning sigh.

"Apart from that!"

"Oh, he's nice…funny…considerate…"

"Are you going to see him again?" Ari asked.

Kris couldn't help the telling smile that spread on her face. "Oh, yeah. He's my fling partner for the next couple of weeks. In fact, he's at my beck and call for that period of time."

Sam frowned at her. "Is this just a fling, or are you hoping for something more with this guy?"

Kris stared at her cousin for long seconds before answering. "I'm hoping for something more with this guy."

"Really? What happened to just wanting to get laid?"

She lifted her shoulders. "That's what I thought. But…"

"Wow. This guy must be really something. You better make sure we meet him next time. I'm dead curious now. You've only just met him and now your head is full of…" Sam waived her hands, looking for the right word.

"Fluff," Kris finished for her.

They laughed out loud.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" Kris asked, readying herself for their reaction.