Playing For Keeps (27 page)

Haley opened her mouth to remind him
that they weren't going to be doing anything together in two years
when she realized what he said.

"You've been banned from Las
Vegas?"

"Not from Las Vegas, just from all the
buffets," Jason said with a shrug as if it was no big
deal.

"All the buffets?" she asked, unable
to hide her shock. There had to be hundreds of buffets in Las
Vegas.

"I guess they had a meeting or
something. As I said before, it's all political," Jason said,
gesturing for her to move up in line.

She was too stunned to say anything
for a few minutes. She knew they loved food, but
wow......

"What movie do you want to see?" Jason
asked, pulling her from her frightening thoughts.

Haley quickly scanned the
list, about to tell Jason to go ahead and pick when she spotted a
movie she'd been waiting to see for a while. How about
"To hell and back?
" she
suggested.

Jason frowned. "The one with Edward
and Dana Pierce?"

She nodded.

"Fine," he said with an exaggerated
eye roll, earning a smile from her. "A chick flick it is." He
bought their tickets and headed for the concession stand. "I just
need something to eat before I pass out."

He reached out to take her hand, only
to drop his hand away. His smile became polite as he gestured for
her to go ahead of him. Haley forced a smile as she stepped in line
ahead of him, reminding herself that this was exactly what she
wanted. She wanted to go back to being friends, even if it was only
for a little while, so Jason readily accepting that was a good
thing, she told herself.

After they bought their snacks, well
Jason's snacks since she was still full, they found two seats in
the middle towards the front. Thankfully the previews were already
playing so Haley took the opportunity to get her head on straight.
She really had to stop herself from wanting Jason to touch her,
hold her, and kiss her.

They broke up. Jason obviously
accepted it and so should she. It was for the best no matter how
much it made her want to cry.

Chapter 24

"You didn't have to buy dinner. I
could have cooked," Haley pointed out as they followed a waitress
to the back booth in the fifties style dinner.

"You're not lifting a finger while
you're on vacation," Jason pointed out, again. It was just another
thing they were going to have to discuss, but later. Right now he
was too busy showing Haley how much he cared about her. Over the
last two days he was pretty sure Haley had started to forgive
him.

By now she probably realized they
shouldn't be apart. Now all he had to do was work on not screwing
up again, not that he really thought he would. He'd been acting
like the perfect friend over the past couple of days. At night he
allowed her to decide the sleeping position and in the morning he
bolted from the bed and took a very cold shower or went for a swim
in the ocean. Then he spent the rest of the day finding fun things
to do and keeping his hands to himself.

It was more difficult than he'd ever
imagined, but somehow he managed to treat Haley as a good friend.
There was no doubt in his mind that she was ready to go back to the
way things used to be. Thank fucking god, because he didn't think
he could last another day with this friendship bullshit.

She was his little grasshopper, plain
and simple. Not being able to touch her and hold her was just
wrong.

"Can I get you a drink to start off?"
the waitress asked, throwing him an appreciative look.

"We'll take two Cokes, please," he
said, directing his attention to the menu in front of him. He
wasn't about to do anything to encourage the woman. Right now he
needed to be able to focus all his energy on his little grasshopper
and not some waitress in a tight pink shirt two sizes too small
that hoped to warm his bed tonight.

"I'll go get those right now," she
said in a seductive voice. Jason snuck a look at Haley, wondering
if the waitress' obvious interest bothered her. If it did, it
didn't show. Apparently once again Haley was too oblivious to care,
which was probably for the best because he couldn't stand jealous
women.

"I need to use the bathroom. Could you
order for me if she comes back before I do?"

"Sure," Haley said, not bothering to
look up from her menu. "What do you want."

"Two cheeseburger dinners," he said,
not bothering to tell her how he wanted them or to ask for two
extra sides. She knew what he liked.

Five minutes later he was walking out
of the bathroom just as their waitress finished writing down their
order. The waitress looked up from her writing pad and smiled at
him. She said something else to Haley before walking over to him,
smiling coyly the entire time.

"Your friend," she said, gesturing
behind him to Haley who was watching them with bored interest,
"said you might like the band playing over at TJ's. It's a
Nickleback cover band. She said you could pick me up in two hours
after I get off work, but if you give me fifteen minutes I could
probably get the night off."

"Wait? What?" Jason asked, confused as
hell. "She told you I was interested?"

"Mmmhmm," the waitress said,
unconcerned that he was clearly pissed.

"Excuse me," he said tightly, stepping
around her.

"I'll go ask about getting off early,"
the waitress announced, sounding giddy.

"Don't bother," Jason threw over his
shoulder.

He walked over to Haley, placed his
hands on the table, and leaned over until he was practically nose
to nose with her.

"Tell me you didn't just try to set me
up on a date with the waitress," he bit out, trying to stop himself
from wringing her little neck.

"I didn't set you up per se, but I did
tell her you might like the band and that you were single," she
simply said, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"I'm single?" he repeated, his voice
sounded hollow.

"Yes," Haley said, shifting her glance
to the left and away from him.

He slowly pulled away from her and
stood up. Swallowing hard, he asked, "Is that what you really
want?"

"Yes," she said without the slightest
hesitation, making everything suddenly crystal clear.

He pulled out two twenties and tossed
them on the table. "Come on," he said, heading for the
door.

"Where are we going?" Haley asked when
she caught up to him.

"Home."

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

"Jason? Jason, talk to me. You're
really scaring me."

For the past six hours he'd been
deadly quiet. When he said they were going home at the diner she
thought he meant back to the cottage. She knew she shouldn't have
encouraged that waitress. She didn't want to and had been on the
verge of informing the woman that Jason was spoken for when she
realized seeing Jason with another woman might help her get over
him sooner. She had no idea he'd be this pissed otherwise she
wouldn't have said anything, but she needed to get over him before
she finally gave into the pain threatening to bring her to her
knees.

She loved him so much more than she
should have allowed herself to.

Instead of answering her, he threw the
driver's side door open and popped the trunk. She quickly climbed
out of the car just as the motion sensor lights on her house turned
on.

"Please talk to me," she said as she
watched him grab the three shopping bags of clothes he'd bought and
head towards his front door.

"Jason, don't do this!" she said,
unable to stand the idea of ending things like this.

"You want to talk?" he asked, slowly
turning around to face her.

"Yes," she said, relieved that he was
at least talking.

He threw the bags to the side and
walked over to her. "Fine. Let's talk, Haley," he said, getting
into her face. "I fucked up, Haley. I shouldn't have let some bitch
sell me a line of bullshit and I should have talked to you, but you
know what? You screwed up, too."

"You never even bothered to
tell me why you didn't want to have sex," when she opened her mouth
to argue he spoke over her, "I know I could have asked you a
thousand different times, but I was too damn happy to care. I
wanted to be with you, no matter what. I loved you, Haley and I
thought you loved me. So, when that woman told me that you wouldn't
sleep with me
because
you didn't love me I panicked big time and did something I
will probably regret for the rest of my life."

"You regret sleeping with me?" Haley
asked, feeling her heart drop.

"Yes, because I obviously hurt you
that night and it gave you the excuse you obviously wanted to break
things off," he said, stepping away from her as he ran his hands
through his hair in frustration.

"I wasn't looking for an excuse to
break things off," she sputtered, taking a step towards
him.

"Bullshit!"

"I wasn't!" she yelled right back.
"You're the one who thought I was pulling a fast one on you! You're
the one who just had to prove-"

"Oh give me a fucking break!" he
shouted, causing her to jump back. "I fucked up, Haley. I admit
that. Hell, I admitted it right when it happened and I even told
you when we started out that I would most likely fuck up." He
continued, not giving her a chance to speak, "You were happy that I
fucked up. It gave you the little excuse you needed to drop
me."

"No, it didn't! You hurt me, Jason!
You should have-"

"I should have done a hundred
different things, but you know what, Haley? I didn't. I fucked up,
yeah, but you're acting like I fucked around on you!"

"Because you're going to!" she shouted
back, wiping angrily at the tears that spilled down her cheeks. "We
both knew this wasn't going to last, Jason! What you did proved
it!"

"Wasn't going to last? I fucking loved
you!" he shouted, getting closer. "I wanted to spend the rest of my
life with you! But the entire time I was picturing a house,
marriage and kids you were just using me!"

"I wasn't using you!" she cried,
shoving him back.

"Then what the hell do you call it?"
he asked, letting her shove him again. "I was good enough to hang
around, date, sleep with, oh wait, no I wasn't, was I? The only
thing you thought I was good for was a good time!"

"I can't believe you're complaining!"
she said, shoving her hair out of her face. "That's exactly how you
treat women! You're just pissed because someone did it to
you!"

"I have never led any woman on. They
all knew I had nothing to offer them, but you," he shook his head
in disgust, "you made me think that you actually cared for me when
all you were was a bitch looking for a good time."

She slapped him. Hard.

"You're a fucking snob just like your
family," he said coldly.

"I hate you," she bit out, ignoring
the stinging pain in her hand. She hadn't used him, she knew that.
She'd been the only one of them who went into this relationship
with a level head. He might think that he loved her today, but she
knew that would change one day and she wasn't going to feel bad
because she got out before that day came.

He wiped a small drop of blood off his
lip as he watched her. "You came to me for a good time so I'm going
to make sure you get just that."

"Wha-"

He cut her off with a firm kiss. She
tried to pull back, but he wasn't having that. He cupped the back
of her head, holding her to him as he brushed his lips over hers,
coercing them to cooperate. When he ran the tip of his tongue
between her lips, demanding entrance, she was helpless to
refuse.

She moaned when his warm tongue slid
into her mouth, gliding over hers, and then tangled together. Her
arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, unable to stand
the thought of being apart.

No matter what he thought, she hadn't
been using him. She loved him so much and even though she knew she
would wind up hurt in the end she hadn't been able to pass up a
chance to be with him.

When he picked her up in his arms she
didn't fight him. No, she fisted his hair, tilted her head, and
deepened the kiss. Several minutes later they were in her living
room and he was kicking the front door shut. He placed her on her
feet only to grab behind her thighs and lift her up. She wrapped
her legs around his waist, loving the way he grabbed her ass and
ground her against his hard erection.

She released one hand from his hair to
reach between them and yank his tee shirt up. Jason turned in the
hall, leaning her against the wall as he reached back and yanked
his shirt off, only breaking the kiss to pull the shirt off. He
kept her pressed against the wall as he worked her shirt
off.

He raised her above him so he could
lick his way down to her breasts. She hugged his head against her
chest as he traced the cups with his tongue and moaned when he
suckled her hard nipple through the thin lace.