Overheard (Unspoken #2)(8)

She looked dumbly at him. “You want us to go out? As in a real date? I mean because we usually hook up on the weekends anyway.”

He dropped the napkin and leaned forward impatiently. “I mean you and me on a date. No Jeremy, Michelle or Wes. Friday night.”

She blinked in surprise. A peculiar sensation ran circles in her belly. She felt nervous. For God’s sake. This was Luke.

A real date. She sank back in her chair, still staring at him like he’d lost his mind.

“Well?”

“Uh…okay. I mean if you really want to. Friday night is okay.”

He smiled then, relaxing back into his seat. His blue eyes held a warm glow, a triumphant warm glow.

“All right then. I’ll pick you up around five. We’ll go into Beaumont to eat.”

She nodded, suddenly unable to taste the food she’d stuffed into her mouth. A date. With Luke Forsythe. Her best friend Luke Forsythe. Holy hell. Michelle was going to shit a brick when she heard this.

A mental groan echoed in her head. They’d never hear the end of it from Wes and Jeremy.

* * *

“He did what?”

Gracie winced as Michelle nearly shrieked her ear off.

“Holy cow, Gracie, you and Luke?”

“Yeah, I know,” Gracie mumbled as she put the phone back to her ear. Hopefully Michelle’s scream fest was over. “Do me a favor. Don’t tell Jeremy about this. Or Wes.”

“Well, of course I’m going to tell Jeremy. I tell him everything.”

I tell him everything, Gracie silently mimicked. Hell.

“And then Jeremy will tell Wes, because he tells Wes everything. And then Wes will tell everyone because that’s what he does,” Gracie gritted out.

“Gracie, hon, I hate to tell you this, but within five minutes of you and Luke being seen out on a Friday night when everyone and their mama knows you both always come over here, everyone’s going to know anyway.”

“Fuck me,” Gracie muttered. “I don’t know why the hell I agreed to this. He’s got to be out of his damn mind.”

“Why, because he asked you out? I’d say that’s the first smart thing he’s done in a long time,” Michelle said loyally.

“I just hope it doesn’t screw things up for everyone,” Gracie hedged. “We’ve got a good thing. No need for Luke and me to f**k it up.”

“Oh, please. We’re big kids, Gracie. We can handle a little tension without freaking out and going our separate ways. Stop looking for reasons not to go out with him and just do it. You’ve got to admit he is one sexy beast.”

“You are so not helping here,” Gracie grumbled.

Michelle laughed. “Go. Enjoy yourself. You said yourself, you were tired of being with men who can’t satisfy you. I can’t imagine Luke disappointing a woman in bed. Not with his considerable equipment.”

“Michelle!” Grace’s admonishment nearly strangled her. “What the hell do you know about his equipment?”

“Oh, you are one lying bitch if you tell me you weren’t looking every bit as hard as I was when the men went skinny dipping two summers ago. That was before Jeremy and I got married, and I was staring every chance I got.”

There was a long silence then Michelle burst into laughter. “You were watching. Admit it, Gracie.”

“All right, all right, so I was watching. Hard not to when they were flopping around in the buff.”

“Uh huh. Now tell me you didn’t get an eyeful of his equipment.”

Gracie felt heat rush to her cheeks. She hadn’t thought about that time in a long while. But yeah, she remembered. She’d stared in pure feminine appreciation at the hard bodies and the gorgeous cocks. Watched while they got out and as the water ran down their bodies. Oh yeah, she’d looked. And looked. And lamented that she’d never had one that nice.

A ripple of awareness skittered over her body. Her ni**les hardened, and the rings twitched in response.

“Yeah, I got an eyeful.”

There was a long pause before Michelle said, “This is a good thing, Gracie. Maybe…maybe Luke is exactly what you need.”

Gracie licked her lips and felt nervous jitters tickle her stomach. Maybe Michelle was right. After all, no man in her past could ever stack up next to Luke. Luke, well, he was in a class all by himself. So why wasn’t she looking forward to their date?

“Yeah, maybe,” Gracie mumbled. “Look, Chelle, I gotta run. It’s getting late, and I’ve got a ton of shit to do at the office tomorrow.”

They rang off, and Gracie sat there for a long time, thinking about her lunch with Luke. She felt edgy, unsatisfied. Horny as hell. Had Luke done that to her? Had the idea of going out with him in the capacity of something other than a buddy got her all hot and bothered?

She felt a date with BOB coming on. And later, as she relaxed after a BOB-induced orgasm, she was irritated to note that she’d fantasized about Luke the entire time she’d gotten herself off. And his damn equipment.

Chapter Five

Gracie waited nervously for Luke to arrive at her house. She’d dressed meticulously, changing her mind a thousand times, and it pissed her off to no end. She, who never spent more than five minutes on dress, hair and makeup, had spent well over an hour angsting over every aspect.If that didn’t make her pathetic, she didn’t know what else would.