Playing For Keeps (20 page)

"Fine," Haley said with a sigh. "What
if I promise to make a big bowl of frosting tomorrow and let you
lick it off me?"

She had to bite back a smile as Jason
shifted anxiously while he licked his lips and ran his eyes
hungrily down her body. "Buttercream?" he croaked out.

"Mmmmhmm," she said, walking over to
him. She cupped the back of his head and gently tugged him down for
a quick kiss. "And if you're good I might lick some off you," she
said, loving the idea.

"Get your own bowl of frosting. I
don't share," he simply said, giving her one last kiss before
walking out the door, whistling happily, no doubt thinking about
the large bowl of frosting he was going to devour
tomorrow.

With a smile she grabbed her small
black purse and headed out the door. She wasn't too surprised to
find Jason playing basketball with Mitch and Brad. Not that she
would ever really expect it, but it was nice to know that he'd pick
her over his friends. She wasn't the type of woman that expected a
guy's attention twenty-four seven, but it was nice to know it was
hers if she wanted it.

She blew a kiss in his direction and
couldn't help but laugh when Mitch jumped in front of Jason to snag
it.

"That was my kiss, you bastard!" Jason
yelled, placing a choke hold on Mitch and taking him down to the
ground while Brad stood by sighing.

He really was a sweetheart. Maybe
she'd make him a big batch of fudge brownies to go along with that
bowl of frosting.

"And stop looking at her ass!" Jason
snapped.

******************

"Oh my god, I can't believe you came,"
Amy said, leaning back in her chair as she watched Haley approach
the table.

"He's probably following right behind
her," Sarah pointed out with a laugh.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Haley said,
taking the only empty seat at the table as her four friends and a
woman she had absolutely no idea who she was gave her knowing
looks.

Amy gestured to the new woman. "This
is my friend, Kate. Kate this is Haley, the woman I told you
about."

Frowning, Haley reached over to shake
the woman's manicured hand. She couldn't help but wonder what Amy
said about her. Thankfully she didn't have to wonder for
long.

"So, this is the woman that brought
Jason Bradford to his knees?" Kate asked, cocking her head to the
side as she ran an assessing eye over Haley. Haley didn't miss the
woman's lips twitching when she came to her glasses. Obviously the
woman thought she came up short.

Haley didn't care what this woman
thought. It wasn't the first time someone had a hard time believing
she was with Jason and probably wouldn't be the last. There was no
denying that she wasn't Jason's usual type. She hadn't lived next
door to the man for five years without learning a thing or two.
Granted she never saw the woman until after he dumped them and they
were drunk screaming messes, but it was pretty easy to guess his
type.

The old Jason, as she liked to think
of the not so sweet Jason that used to drive her insane, liked
woman who were a walking breathing advertisement for sex. Kind of
like Kate, Haley thought with an inward groan. With her perfect
silky long raven hair, makeup that made her look sultry and clothes
that were a little too tight and showed off way too much Kate could
be a walking advertisement for Jason's type.

Judging by the smug smirk on the
woman's face she'd guessed what Haley was thinking.

"How long have the two of you been
together?" Kate asked casually, but Haley hadn't missed the
calculating gleam in her eyes.

Before she could tell her it was none
of her business Amy answered for her, "About two
months."

The surprised look on Kate's face was
rewarding. She knew she'd lasted longer with Jason than any other
woman, surprisingly since she never put out. Well, she did do a
thousand and one naughty things with him and kept his interest with
baked goods, but that was neither here nor there. She was pretty
sure he really cared about her, maybe even loved her.

Okay, love might be pushing it for a
man like Jason, but she was damn sure that he cared about her. He
was always sweet to her and seemed genuinely happy to see her. Not
to mention that he went out of his way to spend time with her. She
wasn't entirely sure, but she didn't think he'd done that with
anyone before her.

"That's pretty impressive," Kate
mumbled distractedly.

Amy waved off her comment, leaning
closer towards Haley with an unholy gleam of interest in her eyes.
"Well?" she said expectantly.

Haley could only frown as she looked
past her friend for the waitress. Suddenly she had the feeling the
only way she was going to survive this girl's night out was with a
lot of alcohol.

She looked back and was startled to
find Beth, Alice, and Jen leaning towards her as well with similar
expressions.

"Well what?" Haley asked, wondering if
she needed to start drug testing her friends. They were seriously
freaking her out.

As one they rolled their eyes. It was
seriously creepy. She barely fought back the urge to
flee.

"Have you slept with him
yet?"
Amy hissed excitedly.

"Oh.....that," she said, squirming and
feeling a little self-conscious. "We sleep together every night,"
she said, hoping against hope that they'd drop the subject,
especially with the way Kate was glaring at her.

Beth snorted. "We know you sleep
together every night. What we're wondering is if you finally had
sex with the man!"

Her cheeks began to burn with that
little announcement.

Kate looked confused. "She just said
she's sleeping with him."

Amy leaned back in her chair, taking a
sip of her martini. "Haley here doesn't sleep with a man unless
she's in love with him. Right?" she said, giving Haley a pointed
look.

Why oh why had she shared that little
tidbit of information all those years ago in college? Oh, that's
right, she'd been drunk.

She squirmed uncomfortably in her
seat. "I just want to be sure," she mumbled
pathetically.

Kate sat up straighter, holding her
hand up to stop Haley's friends as they opened their mouths to no
doubt give her another lecture on sex in the twenty-first century.
None of them understood why she wanted to wait.

"You've kept Jason Bradford interested
for two months and you haven't even had sex with him?" she asked,
clearly as surprised as her friends were.

"Yes," she said somewhat defensively.
"Our relationship isn't about sex."

Kate sat back, back to giving her a
condescending look. "Clearly."

Haley opened her mouth to give the
woman a piece of her mind when Beth cut her off.

"Oh, look at that," Beth said,
gesturing with her frilly pink drink towards the entrance of the
bar. Everyone looked and chuckled and for once Haley was glad that
they lived in a small town.

Jason spotted her and waved and then
of course slapped Mitch upside his head when the man blew a kiss
towards her. Rolling her eyes, Haley stood up and grabbed her
purse.

"I'll be right back," she said, not
really sure if she would. She really didn't feel like spending a
night getting hounded over her virginity again.

"Uh huh," Beth said.

"Sure," Amy said.

Haley didn't bother arguing with them.
She was in no mood. All she wanted to do was cuddle up with Jason
while he fed her hot wings. Was that too much to ask
for?

She walked over to their table. He
paused mid-order when he saw her. Frowning, he asked the waitress
to come back in a few minutes.

"What's wrong, my little grasshopper?"
he asked, pulling her against his side.

"Girl's night sucks," she mumbled
pathetically against his shoulder.

He chuckled, pressing a kiss to the
top of her head.

"Do you want to join guy's night?" he
asked, sounding amused.

After a short pause she asked, "Do I
have to have a penis?"

"I think we can ignore that
requirement tonight," he said, chuckling.

"Will you buy me hot wings?" she
mumbled, tracing circles on his knee.

He sighed heavily. "If I
must."

"You must," she said
solemnly.

"Alright. Anything else?"

She shook her head standing. "No, that
will do," she announced, leaning over to press a kiss to his
cheek.

"I'll order you hot wings if you kiss
me," Mitch offered. "In fact if you kiss my--Ow! Damn it!" he
snapped, glaring at Brad.

Brad gestured towards Jason with his
beer. "It saves time this way."

Laughing and feeling better already,
she gave Jason one last kiss before heading to the bathroom where
she would no doubt spend half the night just waiting in
line.

Chapter 19

"Did you just growl?" Mitch asked,
laughing.

Jason tore his eyes off his little
grasshopper's retreating ass and sent a scowl towards the man.
"No." But he had. Oh goddamn, he had. He'd been imagining licking
frosting off of Haley in a hundred different ways since she'd
offered.

Licking frosting off a woman was a
simple fantasy and one he'd dreamed of doing for years, but hadn't
found the right woman to share it with. There was no doubt he could
have asked any one of the countless women he'd slept with in the
past to live out this little kinky fantasy with him before, but he
never felt comfortable enough with any of them.

With Haley.......

There wasn't anything he couldn't talk
to the woman about. In fact he'd mentioned this fantasy to her only
last week. After she playfully teased him for a good hour about it
she swore she'd let him lick anything he wanted off her body.
Anytime. Thirty seconds later he was struggling to get his damn
legs in his pants and mentally making a shopping list when she
walked back into his bedroom wearing a smile and a whip cream
bikini.

He may have tackled her to the ground
and licked every damn creamy morsel off of her before he threw his
giggling grasshopper over his shoulder and carried her to the
refrigerator where he proceeded to put all the sundae toppings he
had to good use.

God, he loved that woman.

"Excuse me? Do you remember me?" a
beautiful woman with silky black hair asked, tearing him from his
thoughts.

Jason looked at her and frowned. He
didn't have a clue who the hell she was and judging by the
appreciative look Mitch was sending her way, he'd like to get to
know her better.

"No, I'm sorry," he said, taking a sip
of his beer.

Her coy smile faltered for a second,
and then was back in full force. Without asking she pulled out the
chair to his left and sat down, making sure to lean forward enough
to give him a view of her generous cleavage.

She reached forward to run her fingers
down his arm only to find his arm pulled back.

"Can I help you?" he asked, feeling
all his good humor fade away. There was no doubt this woman had
seen Haley with him only a few minutes ago. It's funny how once
upon a time he would have found this woman's assertive behavior
flattering and probably would have ditched his date for her, but
now he was with Haley. It pissed him off to no end that women took
one look at his little grasshopper and dismissed her as if she was
nothing.

"Well," she said, drawing out the word
as she shifted in her chair, giving him a better glimpse of her
breasts, "I was over there with my friends and funny enough you
were the subject of conversation. Then suddenly you were here and I
couldn't help but feel that fate was telling me that you and I
should be spending a long sleepless night in my bed tonight," she
said in husky voice.

"Holy shit," Mitch muttered, taking a
much needed sip of beer.

"Weren't you sitting with Haley's
friends?" Brad pointed out, sounding as pissed as he
felt.

She shrugged Brad's comment
off. "I'm sitting with
my
friend," she stressed. "I would never be friends
with someone as cold as Haley."

With that announcement all three men
broke out laughing. Haley was many things, but cold? Hell
no.

She may still be a bit of a pushover,
but only because she truly cared about hurting other people's
feelings. Of course that was something they needed to work on, but
he was willing to overlook it for now.

The woman glared at him as she crossed
her arms over her ample chest, giving him what was probably her
best bitch look.

"I wonder how you would feel if you
found out you were being played," she snapped.

"Oh, and who's playing me?" Jason
asked, still chuckling.

"Haley," she said.

"You can go now," he said, gesturing
with his beer for her to leave. Damn, women truly could be cold
hearted bitches. Putting down his little grasshopper for a chance
at him was low. It was understandable, but low.