Rough and Ready, page 10
Chapter Six
“So what did he say then?” Liza asked.
Gianna sighed. “He accused me of being a control freak. Me! Can you believe it?”
Keeley and Liza exchanged a quick glance, but neither of them said a word. Because Gianna’s picture was probably in the dictionary next to the words “control freak.”
Gianna had texted them on a group thread this morning, upset about a fight she’d had with Sam before he’d left for work. A few weeks ago—just after Penny’s birthday party—she, Liza, Jess, Gianna, and Penny had started a group text that Liza had dubbed “Sisters from Other Misters,” and Keeley couldn’t recall a single day that had gone by since without someone sending a message or meme to the thread.
After her parents’ death, Keeley’s life had become a bit—okay, a lot—guy heavy, as more often than not, her childhood home was filled with Kayden and his friends. Not in a frat house way, but more in a Kayden-is-in-over-his-head-and-we’re-all-pitching-in-to-help-raise-the-girl-cub way.
She’d had a bunch of girlfriends in high school, but those friendships had faded, as they often do with distance, time, and a lack of anything in common other than Algebra II. Upon returning home after college, she’d turned acquaintances—Gianna and Liza—into real, true friends. And over the past year, they’d included Jess and Penny in their merry band.
“It sounds like it was a nasty fight,” Keeley observed.
“They all are lately,” Gianna replied sadly. Then she picked up her margarita. “But I don’t want to talk about Sam tonight.”
Liza lifted her glass in a toast. “Good for you. Tonight is girls’ night out. We’re going to get half-lit on margaritas, dance until our feet fall off, and man-bash with reckless abandon.”
“Hear, hear,” Gianna said, tapping her glass against Liza’s.
Keeley followed suit, though she wasn’t as on board with the man-bashing as much as she normally would have been. Before this month, she would have been leading the charge, declaring all men assholes and idiots, thanks to her shitty dating history. But tonight…she wasn’t feeling it.
And it was all because of those kisses last night.
She’d gone to bed cursing herself for basically daring Rafe and Gio to kiss her good night. Part of her had actually expected them to put the kibosh on those kisses. After all, she’d flirted with them for years, and they’d never once taken the bait.
She’d brushed off Gio’s first kiss as sympathy the night of the storm, chalking it up to a consolation prize after she’d gotten freaked out by the lightning, then bitched about her long list of failed dates. She knew Gio had a soft spot for her, especially since her parents died, and she assumed it was because he’d lost his mother when he was young as well. That compassion, combined with his charming bad boy, had prompted the kiss that night. She was certain of it.
The second kiss had been a little harder to brush off, but not really. Because once again, she’d been hurt by Joel. Gio and Rafe were born protectors, so her vulnerability had been the equivalent of her waving a red flag in their faces. Gio responded by giving her a kiss, and Rafe, one of his amazing, warm bear hugs.
But last night… Fuck…last night.
She didn’t have a clue what to make of that. She could have credited Gio’s third kiss to the fact the two of them were a bit tipsy after splitting a couple pitchers of beer, though that felt like a weak excuse at best. And no matter how many times he told her the kisses didn’t meaning anything, that didn’t help her keep the crush she’d always harbored for him at bay.
God. She hated the word crush. It made her feel like a kid, when the truth was, what she felt for Gio—and Rafe—went far beyond that.
Especially now that she’d experienced Rafe’s kiss.
Jesus. Christ.
Rafe…her quiet, somewhat repressed new boss…had a dark and delicious side. No man had ever kissed her with that much…raw masculinity. Her lips were still tingling.
She glanced across the room and spotted Rafe, Gio, and Luca at the bar, talking to the bartender, their backs to her. She’d purposely told them she was coming to Eclectic tonight because she wanted to see if they’d follow.
After an hour had passed and they hadn’t shown up, she’d been relieved. Because it proved she’d been right. The kisses meant nothing.
Oh, fuck that. Who was she kidding?
She’d been disappointed as hell. Something she knew was completely unwise. Because despite the kisses, Rafe and Gio hadn’t said a damn thing that indicated they didn’t still see her as Kayden’s little sister. The date-crashing was Moretti Protectiveness 101, and nothing she hadn’t experienced before from her brother and other various males in the group.
Though usually, she could admit, it was just Kayden and Liza’s brother, Aldo, leading that particular charge. The other guys just made an appearance if they happened to be out with her brother on whatever night he decided she was with the wrong man.
Now, she wasn’t sure what to think. Because Rafe and Gio had arrived a few minutes earlier, each of them giving her a simple, single nod of the head, acknowledging they’d seen her, before heading straight to the bar. Her foolish heart had skipped twenty beats and was now racing at what had to be an unhealthy pace.
“Keeley,” Liza said in a tone that told her it wasn’t the first time her friend had called her name.
“Sorry. Daydreaming. What were you saying?” Keeley asked.
Liza’s eyes narrowed. “I was going to see if you wanted to dance, but now I’d rather know what you’re daydreaming about.”
All the truth serum in the world wouldn’t drag that information out of Keeley because she could already imagine the pitying looks and “oh Keeleys” she’d get from her friends if they found out she was interested in two men who would forever view her as Kayden’s little sister and never as a woman they would date.
Keeley paused.
Because that was the moment she realized she’d stopped crushing on Gio or Rafe. When she thought of them now…she dreamed about both men, together, at the same time. They’d had a ménage before. That was the one piece of information she’d played over and over last night because…God…because she wanted that. With them. Desperately.
Damn Jess and her idyllic happily ever after with Tony and Rhys!
“I don’t think you want to know,” Keeley said, trying to buy time until she could come up with a lie.
Liza brightened up. “Of course I do.”
Keeley glanced around the nightclub, the answer appearing just in the nick of time. “Work.”
Liza scowled. “Work?”
“Yeah. This is my first time just hanging out at Eclectic as Marketing Director of Baros Corporation. I keep looking around thinking of different ways to promote it. What do you think of theme nights?”
Liza groaned. “No. No boyfriend talk. No work talk. When did the two of you forget how to have fun? Come on. We’re dancing.”
The three of them hopped up from the table, chiseling a spot for themselves on the dance floor. Keeley closed her eyes, shut down all the sexy fantasies that had been keeping her awake nights, and gave herself up to the music.
* * *
Rafe glanced at the dance floor, aware Gio’s attention had been drawn there as well.
“You ready for the big move?” Luca asked them.
Rafe forced himself to stop staring at Keeley and focused his attention on Gio’s twin brother. They hadn’t intended to come out tonight at all. Gio had packing to do, and Rafe, despite his progress, was still buried in a mountain of paperwork. Those adulting reasons fell away the instant Keeley informed them it was girls’ night out. She’d texted them the information, letting them know they could take the night off from date-crashing. Then she’d added the fact that she would be perfectly safe since they’d elected to come here…to Rafe’s nightclub.
He wasn’t sure why she’d thought that would set their minds at ease. There were still too many sharks circling their prey, something Keeley and her friends appeared to be oblivious to. Rafe had counted no fewer than eight men stealing glances at their table as they’d ordered yet another pitcher of margaritas. And right now—he peeked over at the dance floor again—there were three or four men jockeying for position, ready to break into the girls’ circle.
Rafe scowled, then remembered Luca had asked a question. Problem was, he couldn’t remember what he’d asked.
“We’re ready. I’m nearly all packed. Just a few more things to box up,” Gio replied, but unlike Rafe, he wasn’t even attempting to pretend his interest was anywhere other than exactly where it was—homed in on Keeley, like she was a target in his sites.
“Worried about the girls?” Luca asked, his gaze following Gio’s to the dance floor.
“I don’t like the look of that guy in the black shirt trying to weasel his way closer.”
Luca studied the man for a second, then shrugged. “He looks like every other guy out there. And you have to admit, if it wasn’t Liza, Gianna, and Kiwi, we’d probably be out there, trying to score a dance with them as well. They look hot tonight.”
Gio shrugged in response to Luca’s comment but didn’t look away from the women.
Nope. Scratch that. His best friend wasn’t looking away from Keeley.
And leave it to Luca to call a spade a spade. Gio’s twin was a straight shooter, someone who never minced words. He was right. Perhaps Rafe was biased, but he was certain Keeley and her two girlfriends were the most beautiful women in the nightclub. None of them wore overly provocative clothing, though Keeley’s minidress was showing enough of her trim thighs that Rafe was doomed to sit here with a damn hard-on, like some teenaged boy with zero self-control.
Something had to give. Because he was getting in way over his head.
He’d kicked his own ass nonstop since last night.
What the fuck had he been thinking?
He didn’t kiss. And he sure as shit didn’t kiss—he forced himself to use the safer signifier—Kayden’s sister.
Somewhere around three a.m., when he had given up all hope of sleeping, he’d decided to stop thinking of her as Keeley. If he could just put other descriptors at the forefront—Kayden’s sister, his employee, his friend—maybe he wouldn’t do any more stupid shit.
Like kiss her. Again.
He’d expected Gio to call him out for his actions last night, especially after Rafe had told him not to kiss her. But as soon as they got back in the car, Gio had gotten a call from Tony. There had been several break-in attempts at one of Moretti Brothers’ warehouses. Copper piping was valuable, so thieves were on the prowl again last night. They’d installed a state-of-the-art alarm system, but Tony had still wanted Gio to meet him at the warehouse to talk to the cops and make sure nothing had been stolen. Rafe had dropped Gio off, and Tony had taken his brother home afterwards.
Rafe took a sip of his beer, his attention drawn back to the dance floor when he noticed Gio’s dark scowl.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Gianna had left the floor and was back at their table, texting someone. Two men had joined Liza and Keeley, invading their personal space in a way that looked way too personal. The man in the black shirt had stepped behind Keeley, and he was trying to pull her back against him, his hands on her waist. Keeley continued to dance, but Rafe noticed her subtle attempts at putting more distance between them, something the asshole continued to ignore.
The guy dancing with Liza was more circumspect, the two of them facing each other in a way that indicated they were just having fun, sharing a dance.
It was Keeley’s guy who kept crossing the line.
Gio stood up and cast a glance at Rafe, who nodded, albeit reluctantly, and rose as well.
“Where are you guys going?” Luca asked.
“Feel like dancing,” was all Gio said in reply. Or at least that was all Rafe heard because his friend was already storming toward the dance floor.
Before Rafe could consider his next course of action, or what it meant, he followed, the two of them entering the space next to Liza and Keeley. Liza narrowed her eyes at their arrival, something entirely unsurprising. She was no stranger to overprotective brothers and male cousins.
However, Rafe witnessed her expression changing to something infinitely more dangerous when she realized Gio wasn’t looking at her at all. Rather, his attention—and anger—was directed at the man dancing with Keeley.
Liza looked intrigued.
Something that was going to bite them in the ass later because Liza was like a dog with a bone whenever she sniffed out juicy gossip.
Gio reached out a hand to Keeley, who took it immediately, confirming Rafe’s suspicions. She wasn’t comfortable with the way the man was attempting to manhandle her.
The guy shot Gio a dirty look when Keeley danced away from him and into Gio’s arms.
“Hey,” the asshole bitched. “What the hell, man?”
Gio held her closely, possessively, as he shot daggers at the guy. The idiot was one more word away from Gio laying him out right there.
Rafe decided to step in before the confrontation ended in bloodshed. It was his nightclub after all.
“She’s with us,” he said, claiming the spot behind Keeley, his hands resting on her hips, just beneath Gio’s, closing them into a tight, dirty circle of sexy bumping and grinding.
Keeley—a great dancer—never missed a beat, her body swaying between theirs. She flashed a grateful smile over her shoulder, one that might have made him grin at any other time. Right now, he was having a hard time concentrating on anything except how good Keeley felt, dancing between them. He leaned closer, taking a quick whiff of her hair. God, she always smelled so good. Lemons and roses.
He’d wanted to indulge in another threesome with Gio since the affair with Jill ended, but there hadn’t been time, what with Grandpa’s illness and passing and then the unexpected inheritance. Now that Gio had opened to the door to that possibility with Keeley—
Fuck. What was he thinking?
He needed to put the brakes on that, and quick.
Something that might have been easier if Keeley hadn’t chosen that moment to grind her ass against him. Rafe tightened his grip on her hips, his intention to push her away…but instead, he held her there, not bothering to hide the impact she was having on him. His cock was rock hard and ready to roll.
A quick glance over her head proved Gio was just as overwhelmed by the dance, by the closeness of their bodies. Gio’s hands were gliding up and down, stroking the sides of her breasts on every upswing. His leg split Keeley’s, their closeness ensuring that his thigh brushed against her pussy.
Their bodies swayed in time to the beat, their motions mimicking too closely what it would be like if they gave into their need and took her to bed.
Rafe loosened his grip on her hips, forcing himself to recall they were on a crowded dance floor. To hold on to the knowledge that they weren’t alone. There were too many people there, watching them, who were no doubt seeing all the things he and Gio weren’t exactly working overtime to hide.
Yep. He was in over his head and going down fast. His previous shared affairs with Gio had been so simple. For him, it was just sex. He’d never once crossed the line between physical and emotional, never felt the tug to do so.
But Keeley was…
Fuck.
He couldn’t finish that statement. Because he didn’t want to, not even to himself in the privacy of his own thoughts.
This was going nowhere good, and he needed to stop it before someone got the wrong idea.
And not just Gio and Keeley.
Luca and Liza were observant as hell, and Rafe wondered—not for the first time—how Kayden would feel about what was happening here.
Nothing is happening here.
Rafe had zero experience with relationships or love, and he intended to keep it that way.
Gio was the one who wanted love and marriage and all that crap. It was glaringly obvious now that his emotions hadn’t really been engaged with Jill, Jennifer, or Vanessa either. Sure, he stuck around longer, dating the women exclusively after Rafe bowed out, but those relationships had ultimately ended.
One glance at his best friend, at the way Gio was looking at Keeley as if she were made of pure diamonds, told him this time was different.
Which meant someone was going to get hurt if they didn’t stop playing this game.
The song ended, another beginning, and mercifully—or unfortunately—Keeley stepped away from them, fanning herself.
“I need a drink,” she said loudly, so that they could hear her over the music.
Liza pointed to the guy she was dancing with, signaling that she was going to keep dancing.
He and Gio led Keeley back to her table, where Gianna stood as if she’d been impatiently waiting on their return.
“I’m going to head out, Kee. Sam texted. He wants to talk. He’s out front waiting for me.”
Keeley nodded. “Okay. I hope you guys can work everything out. Call me later if you need to.”
Gianna gave her a quick hug, then said goodbye to them. Rafe followed her progress toward the exit, sneaking a peek at the bar. Luca was engaged in a conversation with…shit…
Kayden and Aldo.
Fortunately, all three men had their backs to the dance floor, so maybe they’d gotten lucky, and none of them had noticed their sexy dance with Keeley.
Now that they’d gotten Keeley off the dance floor and away from the asshole, Rafe was breathing easier. Her face was flushed, but Rafe couldn’t decide if that was due to the heat or a residual effect of the dance they’d all just shared.
“Thanks for the save,” Keeley said when the three of them were alone. “I was this close,” she pinched her pointer finger and thumb together, “to kicking that guy in the balls. I hate when assholes think they can cop a feel on the dance floor. Like, who tells these guys that there’s any woman on the planet who enjoys some stranger coming up to her and grinding his tiny, limp dick against her ass?”
