Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(30)

“I’m ready,” I answered, standing.

We met Chase staggering to the front door just as we were leaving. He was flushed, bleary eyed, and his torn shirt was on backwards so that the front read ‘Security’. He grinned so broadly when he saw us that I wondered if I’d simply imagined the coldness in his eyes the night before.

“You kids eloping?”

Creed looked him over. “What chewed you up and spit you out?”

Chase frowned with mock seriousness “You’re wrong. You’re so very wrong. She didn’t spit at all. She graciously accepted the milky essence I bestowed upon her.”

Creed just stared at his brother. “Huh?”

“Some ladies still know how to swallow.” Chase winked at me.

“Chase, for f*ck’s sake,” Creed bellowed and Chase rolled his eyes.

“Jesus, not you too. I’ve already got hyper Cordero breathing down my neck, whining ‘No, no, Chasyn, you can’t do that, say that, wear that, or think that,’ and now you’re playing the same f*cking record. I happen to know that my BFF Saylor finds me wildly entertaining as long as I don’t roam around with my dick swinging.” He gestured to me. “I’d place bets that this one feels the same, don’t you honey?”

The brothers turned and looked at me expectantly.

I cleared my throat. “I’m not really sure what the question is.”

“Do I offend you, lovely Truly?”

“Not yet. I do encourage you to keep trying though.”

“Shit, don’t you just love her accent? Come give me a hug, sweetheart. My brothers have a peculiar way of making me feel unloved.”

When Chase came for me with his arms open Creed stepped in front of him.

“I’ll hug you,” he growled.

Chase crossed his arms. “The hell with that. You don’t even know how. Where are you guys going anyway?”

“Breakfast.”

“Cool. Can I come?”

“No.”

“But I’m hungry.”

Instead of answering, Creed just opened the apartment door and shoved his brother over the threshold.

“Asshole!” Chase shouted from the other side.

“Let’s go,” Creed said, ignoring him.

I figured Creed would just swing by a drive thru to grab something quick and greasy but he had a different idea. He took me to a quaint diner over by campus. I talked a lot more than he did but that seemed to be the standard between us at this point. Once I asked him about this rumor that he was a pretty fantastic singer. He just shrugged and poured more syrup over his pancakes. But several times over the course of the meal I caught his blue eyes staring at me searchingly.

I was starving and ordered enough food to solve the problem. I’ve never believed a girl ought to hold back her appetite. However, if I’d known that Creed would ignore my pleas to split the cost of the check I would have only ordered some toast and coffee.

“You got to work today?” he asked me at one point.

“Yeah,” I said reluctantly, realizing I needed to be back at Cluck This in a few hours. At least it was Sunday so the place closed early.

Creed dumped some more cream in his coffee and began stirring. “What are you doing after?”

I smiled, thinking of our conversation at the game last night. “After what?”

“After work.”

“Why? Are you asking me to do you?”

He stopped stirring, catching on. He touched my hand and repeated his line from last night. “Is that an option?”

“I can be persuaded. If you kiss me the way you did at the game.”

Creed pushed back from the table. He patted his lap. “Come over here then.”

I felt quite a few eyes on me as I sat down in his lap. Creed circled one hand low around my back and moved the other behind my neck. He didn’t move in slowly, his mouth colliding with mine. His grip on me intensified as the kiss deepened and when he pulled away I let out a little moan.

“Good enough?” he whispered.

“Yes,” I answered softly.

We left the restaurant soon after that since some of the Sunday morning patrons seemed less than amused by our steamy make out session. Creed smiled when I took his arm as we exited the diner. I thought about how to anyone watching we would have just seemed like a regular couple. I looked up at Creed as his handsome face squinted in the morning sunlight.

Regular.

Maybe there was no such thing.

Or maybe it was closer than I thought.





CHAPTER TWELVE


CREED



Truly had left her car in front of Brayden’s apartment before they all went to the game last night. As I parked behind her beat up Escape, she paused with her hand on the door. I ran my hand up her leg.

“So, I’ll pick you up from work later. What time do they close again? Eight?”

“Eight,” she confirmed, fussing with her hair. She noticed me staring and smiled. I touched her gently under the chin, tipping her head up slightly.

I couldn’t pretend that at first I’d gone after her for anything more than a wild night. But every time I was inside that girl I felt a little bit closer to something else, something that had always been a mystery to me. I hadn’t been lying when I told her I was always listening when she talked. Truly’s life hadn’t been a fairy tale. From what she’d said so far, I knew she understood a little bit about the kind of neglect my brothers and I had known. I also suspected she was keeping some secrets for herself and that was fine. I still wanted to hear everything she felt like telling me.