Play It Safe(85)

A very good night.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

No Stone Unturned

Lash Caldiwell

After breakfast with Cody and Ivey, Lash and Freddie were coming back from the gym after working and they both saw them. Fifteen feet ahead standing at the glass doors that led to the attractively landscaped pool.

And they both stopped.

Ivey was wearing a slightly see-through silk robe Lash bought her, its glimmer was bronze. Under it, a gold bikini.

Cody wearing his jeans, boots and gray t-shirt from yesterday.

He had his hand light on her hip, his other hand was bunching her hair at the back of her neck, his neck was bent, his lips on hers.

She was leaned partially into him, up on her toes in her muted bronze, slim strapped Havianna flip-flips, the swirly pattern visible on the soles. Her hand was to his abs, her other hand curled around the side of his neck.

Something happened and the kiss changed. Cody touched his tongue to her lips or Ivey hers to his or just the fact hit them that they were together, close, reunited after seven years of heartbreak.

So they forgot where they were.

Cody’s hand slid from her hip back and down to cup her ass. Ivey’s hand slid from his neck up and into his hair. Her body pressed close, she got up on the tips of her toes and her hand at his abs became an arm tight around his back. Both their heads slid into deeper slants. Their mouths were open and the kiss turned visibly carnal.

“Fuck me, seein’ that I see now you were never in there,” Freddie muttered at his side and Lash grinned. He and Ivey were openly affectionate but they never made out and certainly not in a public corridor by the pool of an exclusive hotel spa in the Colorado plains. “Watch that shit any longer, I’ll need a cold shower,” Freddie kept muttering.

Freddie was not wrong. Lash was g*y but that could turn pretty much anyone on.

The kiss ended in a way it was obvious neither participant wanted it to end. Freddie and Lash didn’t move as, lips nearly touching, Cody and Ivey whispered to each other. Cody smiled, Ivey returned it, he touched his mouth to hers, gave her a squeeze then he lifted his lips and kissed her forehead.

Then he let her go and she turned to the doors to the pool. She threw a beaming, radiant smile over her shoulder at Cody then sashayed toward the pool deck.

Lash Caldiwell knew who he was and how he was for a very long time. But that didn’t mean watching Ivey Larue’s ass swaying in bikini bottoms didn’t remind him that more than once in the seven years he knew her that he considered switching sides.

Lash took his eyes from his friend and they went to Cody and he remembered instantly which side he was on.

He also saw that Cody was watching Ivey walk to the pool too. Lash’s view of him was only a hint of his profile, Cody’s head turned mostly away, but even that showed pain.

Lash barely knew the man but he knew and loved Grayson Cody’s woman. For Ivey Larue there was one man on earth for her. Seeing Cody now, that expression on his face, loss close to the surface, Lash knew with no doubt there was one woman on earth for him.

The burn he’d been fighting anytime over the last day that he thought about what was done to them fired in his chest.

He beat it back when Cody turned and started walking their way. He caught sight of them and jerked up his chin.

Lash returned the gesture, Freddie probably did too.

You loved Ivey, you saw those two together, even for a second, they won you over. It was the simple matter of fact that, at a glance, you knew they belonged together.

That said, Lash had thought that it would take Cody some effort to win over Freddie who was arguably more protective of Ivey than Lash. An occupational hazard, he’d seen many men eyeing her, he’d warned others off, he’d stepped up for her frequently, he’d had her back for six years.

But he accepted Cody easily.

Lash knew what it was. That beaming, radiant smile.

Ivey was happy.

That was all it took.

Cody stopped at them. “Gotta get back to Mustang. Got shit to do. Ivey says you guys are leavin’ tonight. She wants us all to have dinner. Know a place, I’ll call for reservations.” One side of his lips twitched and he said, “Warnin’, won’t be fancy.”

“Food good?” Freddie asked and Cody looked at him.

“Yep.”

“Works for me,” Freddie muttered and both sides of Cody’s lips twitched.

Then his amusement fled and his gaze slid between both Lash and Freddie.

“You got time before I leave, I need it. Shit you need to know.”

Lash went alert as he felt Freddie do the same.

“Do we need privacy?” Lash asked and Cody studied him before he looked over his shoulder toward the pool.

Then his eyes came back to Lash and he nodded.

“Right, let’s go,” Lash murmured and led the way.

Conversation was scarce as they made their way to Lash’s room. Inside, Lash took a seat in an armchair and rested his arms along its sides. Freddie took his place at a wall, shoulders to it, arms crossed on his chest, habit. It was a stance he assumed often when he was close to Ivey.

Cody stood in the room, muscled legs planted slightly wide, arms crossed on the wall of his chest.

Christ, Lash thought as he took him in. He’d noticed it but only in a vague way as other things took his attention. But, if this man lived his entire life in a small town or not, he was not someone to f**k with. Everything about him screamed it.