Pretending She's His: A Hard Feelings Novella (3 page)

“Yep.” He stretched his arms above his head and took his time looking at the round, ivory flesh of Eva’s delectable ass, which was barely covered by a pair of black panties. Sure, they were friends. But Trevor was a man, and any man who slept next to that little fireball and saw her in panties and a tank top would be cursing himself for not trying to get that black scrap of fabric around her ankles, and flipping her beneath him.

Again, they were friends. But fuck, he wanted her. She was feisty as shit, and he had a pretty strong idea that she would be just as feisty in bed.

“Good.”

Picking up clean clothes from her suitcase, which was sitting on the chair next to the picture window, she stumbled into the bathroom. Within a few minutes he could hear the patter of water hitting the shower floor. Lazily stretching his legs, he stood up and headed to the bathroom.

Trevor opened the door and walked in.

“Trev?”

“Just taking a piss.”

“Okay, but don’t flush.”

Trevor grinned and shook his head. Eva was a rare one. As with Meagan, he could be himself around her—to include pissing in the toilet while she’s standing naked in the shower—except with Eva, he felt the need to pull the shower curtain aside so he could watch her lather her sweet body . . .

He put the toilet seat down then leaned in front of the sink. Turning the faucet on, he quickly washed his hands—then an idea struck, making him grin like an idiot.

Grabbing the cup next to the toothbrush holder, he turned off the hot water, letting the stream from the faucet turn cold—waiting for it to run icy cold—then he filled it up.

“Hey, Red?”

“What?”

He smiled again, proud of his little prank he was about to pull, knowing good and well that if he did this, Eva would get him back. But, hell, it was a risk he was willing to take.

All at once, he pulled the shower curtain back a bit, and without looking in—yes, he wanted to see that naked body of hers, but he wasn’t a complete prick—threw the contents of the cup at Eva.

She shrieked, and he laughed.

“Trevor fucking Owens! I swear to God, you will pay for that!”

“Yeah, I figured,” he said, continuing to laugh. “But it was worth it.”

She joined in his laughter. “You’d better hope so, buddy.”

He took a step toward the doorway. “Yeah, yeah.”

***

The girls were inside doing Lord knows what. Hair, makeup, and whatever else chicks deemed necessary to get ready for a wedding. Trevor had spent the afternoon helping Meagan’s parents set up the reception, and now he was sitting on the back deck by the pool, drinking a beer. It was going to be a small wedding. Just immediate family and close friends—not a lot of people—so it didn’t take all that long to set everything up.

“You need another one?”

Trevor looked over as Luke took the seat next to him. “Naw, man. I’m good, thanks.”

Popping the top on his beer, Luke leaned back and took a long drink. The silence was awkward. Trevor knew the game. Luke was sizing him up. Checking out the competition, more than likely attempting an intimidation tactic. Luke didn’t know that Trevor wasn’t even in the game, but being a man who loved a challenge, regardless of what it was, Trevor wasn’t going to let him in on that little fact.

“So, where you from?” Luke asked.

“I’m stationed at Fort Drum in New York right now.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s how you know Meagan, huh?”

Trevor smiled inside, wanting desperately to let that smile loose. Luke had it fucking bad. He was inching his way around the question Trevor knew he was dying to ask. “No, Meagan and I go way back. We both grew up in the army. I met Meg when we were freshman in high school at Fort Bragg. Fuck, seventeen years ago. She just happened to be at Fort Drum when I relocated there a few years ago.”

“Oh, shit. I didn’t know you two have been friends that long.”

“Yep.”

“How long have you known Eva?”

And there it was. The conversation had drifted right on over to the fiery redheaded soldier they both knew and loved. Trevor smiled, thinking back to when he first saw Eva.

He’d just moved to Fort Drum, arriving earlier that day. The cold weather sucked ass, especially since he’d just moved from Fort Shafter in Honolulu. He hadn’t seen Meg in probably three years, and he was happy she was living at Fort Drum. It made it a hell of a lot easier than driving to wherever she was to visit her. After she went off to college and he joined the army, the most time they had spent together was when they would meet up for a week here and there. With him moving from one army post to another with a handful of deployments in between, it was the first time they’d be living in the same town since high school. And he missed that woman—she was like his little sister.

He walked into the restaurant where they were meeting for dinner and a few drinks and was surprised to see that Meagan hadn’t come alone. She’d brought along her friend Eva.

She was sitting at the table in a tight long-sleeve shirt that cut low on her chest, showing off a nice amount of subtle cleavage. She stood up and walked to the bar before he reached the table and he couldn’t help enjoying the nice view of her ass in the painted-on pair of jeans she wore tucked into her high-heeled boots.

When she got back she smiled at him and offered him a hello, but it wasn’t in the way women typically regarded him. She wasn’t nervous or flirty. She didn’t blush or fidget. She was just Eva. Confident, snarky, sexy as hell, and a pain in his ass.

“I’ve known Eva for about four years now,” he replied.

“And you two are?”

Now they’d get down to it. Sitting up straight in his chair, Trevor leaned his elbows on his thighs and tilted his head to the side to look at Luke. “Look, man, I know you and Eva have a past. I also can tell that whatever was in that past is still in the present—for you. I’ve known Eva a long time and I care about that woman a lot. We’re—”

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you,” Eva interrupted as she stepped out onto the deck. He could tell she had caught the tail end of their conversation by the way her nostrils flared and her lids lowered, giving him just the right amount of warning. But she didn’t need to worry about what he was going to say—the sight of her had rendered him speechless anyway.

Her normally wild curls were smoothed and straightened, her copper locks tumbling down over her shoulders. As he lowered his gaze, his eyes fell upon the open neckline of her dress. Two delicate straps held up a soft, flowy fabric that caressed her slight curves and looked as if it was chosen to match the midnight specks of blue that splayed in her eyes. The dress covered little of her thighs, and Trevor was a leg man. He loved a smooth, delicate thigh—and he loved the way Eva’s fit little body played with the lean, defined muscles of her legs. She was short, and small, not much in the tit department, but she had one sexy-ass pair of legs.

“Damn, Red. You look good . . .
Fuck
.”

Raising her eyebrows, she smiled. “I will take that ‘
fuck’
as a compliment. So, thank you. Now get your ass inside, Meagan needs you. She’s having a Meagan moment.”

He stood up from his chair and stepped next to Eva. “Lead the way,” he said, flattening his palm out on the small of her back.

Chapter Three

Holding up the bride’s wedding dress while she peed went to new extremes when the bride was six months pregnant. Eva had just come down from the cabin for probably the third time in the last hour, trailing behind Meagan as she carefully descended the steep stone steps back down to the reception.

Meagan’s parents were letting loose out on the dance floor, showing the “young’uns” how it was done, as her dad had pointed out earlier. A few of Reed’s friends were spinning their dates around and Reed had his niece in his arms, bouncing her along with the music.

“He’s gonna be a good daddy, isn’t he?” Meagan asked rhetorically as an elated smile fanned across her flushed face. The sun was lowering, but it was still hot as hell outside.

Eva laced her arm through Meagan’s as she stepped off the bottom step and pulled her toward the tent and to the bar to force a bottle of water down her throat—and refill her own champagne glass. “Yes, babe. He’s going to be an amazing daddy to that little princess you’ve got growing in there,” she said as she rubbed Meagan’s stomach with her other hand.

Bumping Eva with her hip, Meagan looked over at her and winked. “Thanks. And I was going to wait to tell you this . . .” She trailed off, shifting her gaze back to Reed, who was still dancing with his niece.

Meagan didn’t keep secrets from Eva, so the idea that she had information she’d been keeping from her and was still contemplating telling her had Eva’s mind instantly whirling.

Dropping her arm from Meagan’s, she stepped in front of her as they reached the bar. “Spill it, babe.”

“All right, but I haven’t told Reed yet. I want to surprise him,” Meagan said in a stage whisper.

“Okay, okay. Lips are sealed.” Eva swept her hands out in front of her, gesturing for her to continue.

Meagan smiled. “I want to name the baby Maclynn Eva Porter.”

Eva’s hands fluttered to her collarbone as a wave of joy engulfed her. A sheen of moisture accumulated across her eyes and Meagan’s grinning face became a blurred distortion as the tears kept coming. “It’s beautiful,” she choked, suppressing a full-on happy cry.

“You like it?” Meagan asked. “I haven’t even met her yet and I already love her more than I could even begin to explain. I want to name her after the two most important people to me and Reed.”

“Dammit, Meggy,” Eva cried, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you.”

Pulling away, Meagan brushed a finger underneath her eye and cleared her throat. “All right,” she said, quickly changing the subject. She picked up the water bottle the bartender handed her and took a few long pulls. “So, I know your selection is limited”—she turned and scanned the tent and the dance floor—“but have you found anyone worth switching beds for?”

Meagan was right, her selection was limited. But wasn’t it protocol that if you didn’t bring a date to a wedding, you got to have hot, steamy wedding sex with a stranger?

Eva turned around from the bar and laughed. Most of the men who came brought dates, and Eva knew all of them anyway—they were all Reed and Luke’s friends—they definitely didn’t classify as strangers. Then there was Reed’s brother-in-law, who was off-limits for obvious reasons, and Reed’s dad—who definitely had that sexy-George-Clooney-older-man thing going on. But again, married . . .

That pretty much left Luke and Trevor as the only eligible bachelors of the bunch, along with a few other men whom Eva wasn’t interested in.

Meagan’s eyes circumnavigated the reception again then looked back at Eva. Eva arched her brows and Meagan clenched her teeth together and sucked in a sharp breath. “Yeah, your selection went from limited to nonexistent. Sorry, babe.” She laughed. “Like I said, you should’ve taken advantage of your plus one.”

Shrugging, Eva sighed. “I will happily spend my evening next to this handsome man,” she affirmed, smiling at the overweight, balding, middle-aged man behind the bar. He smiled and his cheeks flushed.

Meagan grinned, rolling her eyes, but it turned into an all-out smile as Reed made his way to her.

Kicking off her wedges, Eva sat down at the table next to the bar. It was really satisfying seeing Meagan this happy. Eva had witnessed Meagan’s fair share of asshole boyfriends through the years, and watching the way Reed looked at her—like she was the very reason for his own existence—sent the warning sign of more tears stinging in her eyes.

Meagan crashed into Reed’s waiting arms and his lips connected with hers lovingly, gently, as if he couldn’t get enough. He walked backward with her still in his arms, their mouths still kissing, until they reached the small section of grass that acted as their dance floor. And even then, he didn’t stop moving, he just changed his destination to nowhere—content with holding Meagan and moving with her in a circle to the slow tempo of music.

That love was rare. It was special. It was the kind you grabbed on to and didn’t let go. She’d seen that kind of love a handful of times. With Meagan and Reed, with Meagan’s parents, with her sister and her husband. She envied that love. That soul-consuming, weak at the knees, your world in their hands kind of love. That was the kind a woman held out for. That little tightening in your chest caused by the space that was now inhabited in your heart by someone else.

She’d never felt that . . .

“Dance with me?” a deep voice said, slipping through her mind.

Turning her head over her shoulder, she smiled and stood from her chair. “Sure.”

Eva took Trevor’s hand and he led her to the makeshift dance floor right outside the tent. The sun was still shining, although the early-evening cast had dimmed the rays and softened the sky. The yellow hues bounced and danced with the ripples of the water, radiating the lake with a mid-summer’s glow.

When they stepped onto the lush section of grass that was squared off by large hurricane vases lining the perimeter with tall gold candles, Trevor pulled on her hand, tugging her into his arms. The thick grass felt soothing underneath her bare feet as her toes curled around the smooth blades, closing the distance between herself and Trevor.

His large palms flattened on the small of her back and he slowly pressed against her, forcing her body to run flush against his. His head lowered, his lips turning up slightly on the side, giving off the cocky air that expelled from him on a normal basis.

Lifting her hands, Eva glided her fingers over his arms, coasting across the tendons and muscles that pulled under his skin. She’d always appreciated Trevor’s beautiful physique and had never been one to shy away from the feel of a powerful pair of arms. But she caught herself pressing the pads of her fingers hard against the sleeves of his shirt as if her body were willing her to feel more of him.

Was it the cool air that had her acting out of sorts? The wedding? Or maybe her recent mental contemplation of what it would feel like to feel . . .