Feel The Fire (Unforgettable Series) (11 page)
Read Feel The Fire (Unforgettable Series) Online
Authors: Adrianne Byrd
Chapter 13
“It’s not you. It’s me,” Toni said, clutching Sterling’s hands while they huddled together at the ESPN Zone. On the hundreds of televisions screens around them, the Atlanta Braves had just taken the lead at the bottom of the fifth inning.
Sterling tried to pull his hand away. “It’s you or is it Jonas?” he questioned softly.
“I told you before-there’s nothing going on between me and your brother.” Guilt burned at the tips of her ears, however, she was fairly certain Sterling couldn’t see that; but when their gazes met, she had second thoughts. “I like you,” she admitted. “But not in the way that you want.”
He nodded, took a swig of his beer.
She waited, not sure how he would react to her rehearsed speech. A part of her was prepared for an explosion or some kind of verbal attack, especially if Jonas had already confessed what had transpired in his office last week, but instead Sterling looked remarkably blasé.
“That’s too bad.”
For a moment she thought she needed to clean her ears out. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I regret things didn’t work out, but...at the same time I sort of sensed or rather I was told that Jonas is more than a little interested in you.”
“Oh, he is?” She laughed and then reached for her own beer. “Did he tell you this?”
“No. Quentin did.”
“And he gets his information from...?”
Sterling shrugged. “He said that it was rather obvious.”
I thought it was obvious, too.
“Well, your brother is wrong.”
Sterling weighed her words and reached for his beer again. “It wouldn’t be the first time but...I guess I was sort of hoping he wasn’t. After all Jonas has been through I find it encouraging he’s finally interested in someone new.”
Toni turned her attention to one of the large television screens. Anything was better than discussing Jonas Hinton. It had been a week since that humiliating scene in his office and she was just as angry now as she was when she’d stormed out.
“What about you?” Sterling asked, suddenly.
“What about me?”
Sterling shifted and leaned forward in his chair. “How do you feel about my older brother?”
“I told you, there’s nothing--”
“Yes. Yes. There’s nothing going on between you two. I heard you. But that’s not what I asked you. How do you
feel
about him?”
“There’s nothing to feel,” she lied smoothly. “I hardly know him. We met once waiting for a plane and the other two times I’ve seen him were strictly for business.” She tried to meet Sterling’s gaze, but found it difficult since his eyes were so similar to his older brother.
“I understand,” he finally said. “It’s probably difficult to discuss this with me.”
Guess that meant he saw straight through that line of bs she’d just given him.
“Well, I hope you’ll forgive me for what I did tonight. Or rather what I’m about to do.”
Toni froze as her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What are you about to do.”
Just then, popping up like a jack-in-a-box, Jonas appeared at their table. “I thought you said tonight was boys’ night out?” His hand dropped onto to Sterling’s shoulder with a loud whack.
Toni’s gaze shot up as a firestorm of emotions blazed through her. The only problem was that one half were happy to see him while the other half still wanted to maim or at least throttle him.
“Sorry, man,” Sterling said casually. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I invited my new girlfriend along.”
The blatant lie surprised Toni and when she looked back down at Sterling, he was actually grinning. This was an odd way to play matchmaker—especially if she was supposed to be his date.
She shook her head, not sure she wanted to play this game. Jonas Hinton’s emotional baggage was larger than she’d originally thought and as far as she was concerned, life was too short for this kind of drama.
“Are you going to pull up a chair or are you going to stand there all night?” Sterling asked Jonas.
Determined to show she didn’t give a damn whether he stayed or let the door hit him where the good Lord split him, Toni rolled her eyes back toward one of the television screens and sulked with her beer.
She heard a chair scrape the floor and then the loud rustling as Jonas took his seat. “Where’s Q?”
“Something came up.”
During the ensuing silence, Toni became conscience of Jonas’s heavy stare, but she remained steadfast in her resolve to ignore him.
“I’m going to head up to the bar and order us some wings. Can I get anyone anything else?”
Toni shook her head and watched as a Pittsburgh Pirate struck out and end the top of the sixth inning.
“I’ll have a beer,” Jonas said.
“I’ll be right back,” Sterling said, leaving the table.
“Giving up the hard stuff?” she snipped, but then wanted to kick herself for speaking.
“No,
Mom
. I plan on hitting the bottle later tonight. Something tells me that I’m going to need it.”
Her gaze sliced away from the TV to impale him. “Screw you.”
Their eyes locked and Jonas wrestled with the apology poised on the tip of his tongue. He didn’t want to feel the things he felt whenever he was around her. Even now with her once again dressed down in a pair of jeans and an Atlanta Braves T-shirt, his cock was throbbing painfully against his leg like he was some prepubescent teenager with his first crush.
Why did he find everything about her so...perfect? Her warm chocolate skin, her thick shoulder-length hair, he now knew to be soft and silky straight. And that wasn’t counting things he shouldn’t know, like how good she tasted and how wonderful the weight of her breast felt in his hand.
“Mr. Hinton,” she said softly.
“Yes?”
“You’re staring.”
He blinked out his stupor and refrained from cursing under his breath.
Meanwhile, Toni settled back into her chair as if she was the cat’s meow. Her anger waned as her dark gaze flickered with triumph. “You’re going to go down fighting, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied, and then glanced over his shoulder.
How long did it take to place an order?
“You want me, but you don’t want to want me.”
“You’re with my brother.”
“You didn’t seem to care about that when you were ripping my clothes off last week.”
“What? You think we’re going to share you or something?”
“Ooh.” Her eyes lit merrily. “A Hinton sandwich? That sounds like fun.”
Red waves of anger darkened Jonas’s honey complexion. “I don’t share,” he said through gritted teeth.
Satisfied in successfully goading him, Toni gave a casual shrug and returned to feigning interest in the baseball game surrounding them.
“One beer,” Sterling announced, setting a Corona before his brother. “Our hot wings are on its way.”
“Yippee,” Jonas mumbled.
“Look, you know, maybe this really should be a boys’ night out,” Toni said, standing. Whatever attraction she thought she felt for Jonas, she was definitely no longer interested in pursuing. Suppressed bad boy or not, life was too short.
“No, wait,” Sterling stood, as well, and then his cell phone rang on his hip. “Don’t go.” The phone rang again. “Hold on, let me just take this call.”
Toni exhaled and sat back in her chair.
“Sterling here.” He held up a finger and moved away from the table, leaving her, once again, with Jonas.
Toni no longer pretended to be interested in the game and instead, kept glancing at her watch. Occasionally, her eyes would dart to Jonas to confirm he was still studying her.
She tried her best not to be turned on by his broodiness, but that was growing harder the longer she remained at the table. Where did Sterling go? Maybe she should take a cab, but then she doubted whether she had cash in her purse.
She looked around the sports bar again.
Where in the hell is he?
“Do I make you nervous, Ms. Wright?” Jonas asked, mocking.
“You?” She laughed. “A man who’s afraid of fire? Hardly.”
His lips curved into a devastating smile and Toni was angered that her pulse quicken beneath his darkening gaze.
“You’re sooo sure you have me figured out.”
Settling back against her seat, Toni lazily crossed her arms. “I can read you like a book. My only mistake was that I initially thought you were at least an interesting book.”
Jonas’s dimples deepened at the jibe and a low laugh rumbled within his chest. “Well, I can’t say the same thing about you, Ms. Wright. You are indeed an interesting book.”
“Think you know me, do you?”
He shook his head, but his gaze remained steady. “I’m trying not to presume anything. After all, you told me very little of yourself that day in the airport.”
That was true, she realized. She walked away knowing about one of the most painful events in his life and she left him with nothing more than a business card.
“If you’d called, I would have been happy to fill in the blanks.”
“It always comes down to that,” he said, lowering his gaze to his beer bottle for a few seconds. “I did call once,” he admitted.
Toni blinked in surprise, but then grew cautious on whether to believe his claim. “It was the next day actually. I reached your office voicemail...and simply hung up.”
“Why didn’t you leave a message?”
He shrugged and fell silent for a long moment. “Long-distance relationships are not my thing.”
“You seem to be into very little.”
“I’m not into pilfering my brother’s girlfriend, if that’s what you mean.”
“I’m not his girlfriend.”
“What? This is a casual fling for you?”
Toni’s eyes narrowed. “What are you insinuating?”
“Nothing. I mean, I did come home and hear you two in the den. Sounded to me like you were really into each other.”
“The den?” she asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
A cell phone chirped just when a waitress appeared and dropped off a basket of hot wings.
Jonas and Toni reached for their phones.
“It’s mine,” Jonas said, and then frowned when he recognize the number. “It’s Sterling.”
Toni closed her eyes and dropped her face into the palms of her hands. “He wouldn’t,” she whispered.
“Where are you, bro?” Jonas asked the moment he answered the phone.
“Sorry, man,” Sterling said. “Something’s come up. Can you do me a favor and make sure Toni gets home?”
“Well, I, uh, really don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Thanks, man. I’ll really owe you one.”
“But-”
“Plus, things were getting a little awkward since she dumped me tonight.”
“What?” Jonas’s gaze zeroed in on Toni’s bowed head.
“Yeah. She was really sweet about it. There are no hard feelings. Well, I have to go. Thanks for doing this. I owe you one.”
“Wait, Sterl-” There was a click and the sound of dead air.
“He wouldn’t. He didn’t,” Toni recited.
Jonas closed his phone and returned it to his hip. “He did. If I didn’t know any better I’d say that we were set up,” Jonas said, reaching into the basket of hot wings.
“Wow. I see why you’re so successful. No one can pull anything over your eyes.” She stood. “Good night. It’s been real...interesting.”
Jonas shot out a hand and caught her by the wrist before she could take a step. “Where are you going?”
“Limited intelligence, I see.” She smiled benignly and tried to pull her hand from his grasp. “I’m going home and, if it’s not too late, find better company for the evening.”
His grip tightened. “Like Brian Olson?”
She lifted an inquisitive brow. “He’s certainly a possibility.”
The hard glint in his eyes weakened Toni’s knees and made it damn hard for her to remind herself that she didn’t want any part of his drama.
“Stay here. I’ll be your date for the evening.”
“I said
better
company.” She challenged him head-on. “Someone who knows what they want and goes after it.”
They stood in what seemed like a stalemate before he finally released her hand and ordered her to, “Sit down.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said sit down.” He reached for his beer. “I’ll take you home tonight—after we eat.”
Toni couldn’t believe she was actually considering sitting back down, but there was something about his sudden take charge attitude that had piqued her curiosity.
Jonas pushed back the chair beside him with his foot. “Sit.”
She sat.
“Eat.”
Toni rolled her eyes. “Jonas-”