You've Got Fail(57)

21





Scarlet





As the elevator rose to Jason’s penthouse, a steady thump of base grew louder. I should have declined the invite, should have stayed at home with Hannah for the night. But I didn’t. The promise of seeing Willis was too much, even though I knew in the end, I’d wind up hurting him beyond repair. Because that was who I was. He was the good guy. I was the villain in disguise.

The elevator opened, and I walked into Jason’s small foyer. Men’s voices rose from the living room with the obscenely large TV, and the delicious scent of hot wings filled the air. I followed the noise and the smells to find several men lounging on Jason’s sofa, talking and watching athletes compete in the combine.

Willis rose from a chair near the floor-to-ceiling windows. “Hi.” He walked over to me, meeting me at the island in the kitchen that was filled with all the staple foods of the finest frat houses—wings, ranch and blue cheese sauce, chips, dips, pretzels, and beer.

I grabbed a paper plate and looked up at Willis. It slipped from my fingers.

“What the hell happened to you?”

He knelt and grabbed my plate. “Allergic reaction.”

“You look like you somehow found a stash of poison ivy in this concrete jungle and rolled around in it.”

He ran his fingers along his neck. “Yeah.”

Jason strode up. “I see you’ve touched base with our disfigured friend here.”

“It’s not that bad.” Willis shook his head.

“Yeah.” Jason snorted. “I mean, lots of women are into handsome faces and Freddy Krueger necks.”

“Whoa.” I laughed. “Shots fired.”

Willis shrugged. “All I heard was that Jason thinks I’m handsome.”

“Yeah man.” Jason nodded. “If I swung that way, you’d def be my power bottom this evening.”

Willis scoffed. “Bottom?”

“Yeah. I’m obviously the top.” Jason popped a pretzel into his mouth, crunching with a smile.

Willis crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m the top.”

“I don’t think so. I mean, I feel like you’d want to be the top, sure. But then you’d see that I was the better top.”

“No way. I would top the hell out of you.”

“That would never happen. I don’t have a submissive bone in my body.”

“If I were the top, you’d have a dominant bone in your body. Heh.” Jason elbowed Willis. “But don’t worry, I’d do a solid reach-around for you.”

“No you wouldn’t, because I’m the top.”

I’d been listening, my eyes traveling from one man to the next as if I were watching a tennis match. “I can’t believe you two are arguing about a hypothetical gay relationship and who would be the hypothetical top.”

“He started it.” Willis shrugged.

“But I’d finish it.” Jason leaned closer to me, his eyes mischievous. “In his butt, because I’d be the top.”

“This is likely the most bizarre conversation between two straight men I’ve ever witnessed.” I loaded my plate with wings and blue cheese dip.

“Hey, I’m secure in my straightness.” Jason grabbed another pretzel.

“Me too.” Willis took a chicken wing, stuck the whole thing in his mouth, and pulled it out clean. “My masculinity is intact.”

“I can see that.” I grabbed a chicken wing and did the same thing, only the bones remaining once I pulled it from my lips.

“Damn, now that’s a real woman.” Jason grinned and clapped Willis on the back before returning to the guys in the living area.

I had to admit, the idea of the two of them together was enough to light any woman’s panties on fire.

A toilet flushed in the small hall behind the kitchen. Water ran, and then Elias strode out.

His eyes lit up when he saw me. “Hey, Scarlet. Is Hannah here?”

“Sorry, she stayed in tonight.” I demolished another hot wing as Willis stared. When he licked his lips, I dipped my finger in the blue cheese and sucked it off my fingertip.

He turned his hips toward the island cabinets, hiding what I knew was a thick erection with a perfect head.

“Oh, well.” Elias’s disappointment verged on cute.

A guy like him would be perfect for Hannah, but she wasn’t ready for a relationship. Not until Pauly was paid, and by that time, neither Willis nor Elias would want anything to do with us.

The thought put a damper on my mood. I told myself for the hundredth time that I was doing the right thing, that saving Hannah was more important than anything else. But as I looked in Willis’s guileless eyes, I began to question myself. I grabbed a bright red wing from the spiciest batch and ate it, the burn a painful reminder that the stakes were high, far higher than even Hannah knew. A little pain—okay, a lot of pain—would be required to save us from Pauly.

Elias wandered off toward the big screen as I hopped onto one of the stools at the counter, staking my claim on the food. Willis sat next to me and double-dipped chips into the dip on my plate.

“But really”—I said around a mouthful of chips—“what did you do to your neck?”