Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(34)

“He did? Oh my God are you guys together?”

“No!” Ivy put her hands out. “Look Jen, you don’t understand. There’s nothing going on between me and Ryker.”

“But he likes you. It’s obvious.”

Ivy looked pleased. “Yeah,” she said quietly.

“Do you like him? Have you kissed him? Tell me everything.”

Ivy laughed. “I do like him. But I don’t want to pursue anything until we’re done with this assignment. I’d hate for something to not work out and then we still have to work so closely together. Plus we might get in trouble.” She looked at Jen from under her long, dark lashes. “And I’ve only kissed him once.”

“When? Where? How?” Jen gushed.

Ivy laughed. “Am I being interrogated?”

“Yes! Tell me! Was it last night?”

“No, he slept on the couch last night. He came over to watch movies and it got late. I told him to just stay. He kissed me at the pawn shop.”

“The pawn shop! Where was I? And what about the cameras?”

“We were outside. In the back. Against the building where the cameras can’t see. It was our fourth day. He helped me take some of the early prototypes of my machine to the trash. I told him thank you and he just … pulled me into him and kissed me.” Jen jumped up and down on the couch, a thousand questions showing in her eyes. Ivy held up a finger. “It was wonderful. And soft. But I told him I just wasn’t ready. He said he’d wait for me to be ready for a hundred years if that’s what it took. He said he thinks he’s falling in love with me.”

Jen threw herself backwards and fell off the couch onto the floor. Ivy laughed. Jen climbed to her knees. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I would have jumped his bones right there.” Ivy giggled and a hot blush climbed her cheeks again.

“But he hasn’t known you for very long. Do you really think he could be falling in love with you?”

“We went to high school together.”


“You what? Where?”

“Westwood Prep. He was a jock and I was a geeky smart girl who didn’t quite dare to be punk. He was always nice to me though. I helped him with his homework a few times. And he gave me a ride home once when some other boys f*cked with me.”

“You guys could have your own Lifetime movie.”

Ivy whacked her on the shoulder. “Knock it off.”

Jen sighed. “I miss having a boyfriend. Someone to cuddle with. Tell all your secrets too. Kiss until you think you’re gonna die.”

Ivy watched her silently for a few moments. “You know who would be good for you?”

Jen turned to her, laughter in her eyes, anticipating a joke coming. Maybe she was going to suggest one of the coke heads that came into the shop. “Who?”

“Hunter. He’s always looking at you like you’re ice cream and he’s got a serious sweet tooth.”

Jen’s mouth dropped open. “Hunter?”

“You know, Sgt. Foley? He told me and Ryker to call him Hunter the other day.”

“He does not look at me like I’m— like I’m—”

“Ice cream. And yes he does. Me and Ryker talk about it all the time.”

Jen’s mind twirled and jumped and she forgot to breathe. Hunter? Her? Ice cream? No way. She’d never seen him look at her like that. Well, except the other day at her house, when that look that had made the little hairs on her arms stand up passed between them.

Jen fell backwards on the floor, hitting her back hard on Ivy’s coffee table. She never felt it. She was far away, thinking about gray-green eyes and tousled, dark hair. And ice cream.





Chapter 18





Coleton let his eyes pass over the new skyscrapers downtown. It seemed every time he returned to Westwood Harbor they’d torn down another landmark and put up another towering monster in its place. He used to love walking the shops down here with his mom. But it was all so different now.

He passed a purse boutique and eyed the garishly displayed purses. Too gaudy. Fifteen feet past that was a bath and body shop. No, too impersonal. Across the street he saw a clothing store. No, too fancy. He walked on and let his mind wander. Would she even want a gift from him? He’d asked if he could try to change her mind … about being unavailable. What did that mean exactly? Another man? Hot emotion burned across his eyeballs at the thought. Jealousy. He was jealous of an imaginary man. He laughed at himself, and tried to break up the tension across his upper back with a few shoulder rolls.

He wanted her. Plain and simple. And now he just had to figure out how to make her want him. She was fun, sweet, and beautiful. And he was single, lonely, and tired of being alone. Sure he could have companionship. Women propositioned him all the time. But he’d learned a long time ago that a brainless or conniving woman was not better than no woman. He thought of Megan, his last serious girlfriend. She’d been pre-med at Berkeley. And he’d loved her with everything he had. But when she’d left for medical school, she’d broken up with him. I’ll be too busy. We’ll grow apart. Look me up in 8 years.

His phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out eagerly, hoping it was Jen. Nope. Mom.

“Hi, Mom.”