Secret Words (Secret Dreams Contemporary Romance 1) (22 page)

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Authors: Miranda P. Charles

BOOK: Secret Words (Secret Dreams Contemporary Romance 1)

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"Did you have a good time last night, Dyl?"

Dylan looked at Kane in surprise. His brother was lining up his shot at the pool table but arched an eyebrow at him when he didn't respond straight away.

"Last night was good," he answered.

"Yeah? What did you do?" Kane asked as he hit the cue ball. He sank a solid.

"I was out with Trey and Adam."

"Where did you go?"

"The Establishment. Then Ivy."

"Okay. Anything exciting happened?"

Kane's questioning was too casual, Dylan thought. He positioned himself to take a shot after Kane missed.

"I saw Jasmine's friend Ari at Ivy," he said after sinking a striped ball.

"Oh, right. How was she?"

How was she?
Dylan couldn't help the smile that tugged his lips. "She was great."

He concentrated on his next shot but missed. When he looked up, Kane was staring at him in a funny kind of way. He narrowed his eyes at his brother.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" Kane asked innocently.

"Like you know something."

"Is there something to know?"

Ah. Kane did know something. Had Ari told Jasmine about last night, already?

"Ari and I hooked up," he admitted to Kane.

"You like her?"

"It was just a one-night stand, Kane."

Kane nodded, as if he knew it already.

"Is Jaz cool with it? Are you?" he asked with concern.

"Sure. As long as you two are okay with being in the same room after what happened. With Jaz and I getting married, I'm sure you'll see more of Ari."

"I know that. You know me, Kane. I can be friends with women I've slept with."

"That's not exactly a secret," Kane said dryly. "I don't know how or why you do it."

"Hey, I'm just a friendly kind of guy. I naturally get along well with girls I sleep with, otherwise, they wouldn't have attracted me in the first place. See, the trick is to limit the sex to one night only. Once it gets past a one-night stand, it's damn difficult to manage a friendship. Somehow, women's expectations change when you sleep with them too often. Remember that," he told his brother.

Kane chortled. "Why on earth would I need to remember that? I'm getting married in case you haven't heard the news."

He grinned. "Well, with you out of the market, that means more opportunities for me."

"Oh, Dylan," Kane said resignedly. "I don't know why you won't just find yourself a steady girlfriend instead of drifting from one girl to the next."

He simply shrugged. "I'm still happy with my lifestyle."

"Well, it's your life. As long as you don't make Jaz unhappy by playing games with Ari. But it looks like Ari's fine with it, too, anyway."

"Ari told Jaz?"

"Yes, she rang this morning."

"Okay, good. No one has to make a big deal of it, then."

Dylan watched Kane concentrate on his next shot but his mind had already left the game. All this talk about Ari was disconcerting him.

It was a strange feeling. For the first time in a long, long time, he was missing a woman. He was missing Ari.

Damn, she was hot.

***