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  felt like I belonged. This wasn’t the kind of friendship I was used to, and I loved it. I woke up every morning thinking about what I would bring to dinner and what we would talk about. Things would happen during the day, and the first person who I wanted to tell was Blythe. In the short month since she had moved in, she had made herself the most important person in my life.

  Fuck.

  I turned around to see her grinning at me like I’d hung the moon, and my heart clenched. No. This was wrong. I wasn’t that guy. She needed to see the real me. The me I was when I wasn’t here eating dinner with her and talking about our days. She was looking at me with . . . oh, hell no. She was looking at me with something more.

  I set the fork down and stared at the table. I had to remind her. She had to remember who I was. I was only worthy of her friendship. She had to remember we would always be just friends. This need I had for her company was confusing her. It was in her eyes. Those big beautiful eyes were so expressive and trusting.

  Fuck. Fuck. Shit!

  “I, uh, I’m running late. I gotta run. Didn’t look at the time. Sorry, but you have plenty of pad Thai you can eat. Uh, yeah, I’ll see you . . . later,” I rambled. Panic was in my voice, but I couldn’t help it. Backing up from the table, I forced myself to smile at her, but I didn’t look in her eyes. I couldn’t. I turned and got the hell out of there.

  Protecting Blythe was my original intention. Someone needed to protect her, but damn it, I hadn’t protected her from me. But there was still time to show her what she had forgotten during our cozy dinners. I was Krit Corbin. I was the lead singer in a band and I fucked women. Lots of them.

  Chapter Six

  BLYTHE

  No one’s sweet tea was that bad. But I couldn’t figure out what else I had done. Krit had left my apartment like he couldn’t get away fast enough. That was two weeks ago, and he hadn’t been back since. That night, and every night since then, his parties had been going until late.

  I used the iPod he left me and, luckily, it worked. I was able to sleep, and only occasionally did loud banging on the ceiling wake me; it made things rattle in my apartment. Other than that, I was okay.

  I stood at my door for an hour last night trying to work up the nerve to open it and go upstairs to see Krit. Maybe I should apologize for something, but I didn’t know what that would be. I had made sweet tea. He had liked it and gotten our plates. Then . . . then he suddenly left. I had thought it was odd, but I believed him that he was running late and hadn’t noticed the time.

  But he didn’t come back the next evening. And after a week had gone by, I knew it had to be me. I hadn’t gone to his apartment to face him because I couldn’t stand it if he was disgusted with me. I shouldn’t have let him get too close. I shouldn’t have gotten comfortable with him. I had been ridiculously excited about my sweet tea. He had shown me how to make it, and that batch had been my third attempt. I was so sure I had gotten it right.

  So I let my guard down, and I was me. He had seen me. That was the only thing it could be. I let him see me, and what he saw sent him running. It was stupid. I should have known better, but Krit made me feel different. I wanted to trust him, and because I wanted it so much, I had.

  Stupid girl.

  “Frowning again? Third time this week I showed up to see your smiling face and it wasn’t what greeted me.”

  I snapped my head up to see Linc standing in the doorway with a white bakery bag. He looked concerned. Why did he keep coming around? He hadn’t kissed me again. But he brought me sweets and spent a good deal of time trying to make me laugh.

  But I didn’t let him in. I was careful with Linc. That was why he was still coming around. I should have been careful with Krit.

  Linc lifted the bag in his hand. “Cream-filled doughnuts with the sprinkles on top, just like you like them.”

  I smiled at him. Seeing him helped me forget the sadness of Krit’s absence. “You are awesome,” I told him.

  His smile got bigger, and he glanced back at the door. “Excuse me while I go buy some more doughnuts,” he said with a teasing gleam in his eyes.

  “Do not leave with that bag,” I said, standing up.

  Linc set the bag in front of me and put his hand on my waist before pressing a kiss to my cheek. He lingered there and inhaled deeply before pulling back. He had been greeting me this way since our kiss.

  “I need to see you outside of this office. I was being patient with you because you seem so easily spooked and I didn’t want to screw this up, but I really want to take you out. Please, go out with me. Tonight, anywhere you want. Your wish is my command.”

  I stood there staring at Linc as his words sunk in. He was asking me out on a date. I’d never been on a date. He seemed so hopeful. If I went and I let my guard down, would he run off and leave me too? This thing with him visiting me at work was safe. A date wasn’t safe.

  “I, uh . . .” What could I say? I didn’t want to push him away. He was now my only friend, and I didn’t want to mess this up too. Now that I knew what it was like to have friends, I liked it. I wanted friends.

  “Please,” he begged, tightening his hold on my waist. “I swear, I won’t push you. You’ll be in complete control. I just want to spend time with you.”

  Telling him no would be a mistake. I couldn’t do that. I would just be careful not to be me with him. I would be what he wanted me to be. I could pretend. “Okay. But you need to plan the date. I’ve never been on one.” Oh, crap. I was being me. Crappity crap.

  Linc pulled back and frowned at me. I had done it. He was about to leave me too. He was going to see the real me. The ugly inside was going to shine through. I closed my eyes, unable to watch another friend run away from me. I just hoped he did it quickly.

  “How?” was all he said.

  How? What did he mean how? I opened my eyes and looked up at him while he searched my face. Was he looking for something? What did he see?

  I couldn’t do this again so soon. I was already sore from Krit’s exit. I stepped back and sat down in my chair. “It’s okay. Just go. I don’t need excuses.”

  The doughnuts in the bag reminded me of the pad Thai that Krit had left me in his great escape. The sweet cream no longer appealed to me. I tried to focus on the papers in front of me.

  Linc didn’t move at first, but when he did, I held my breath and expected him to walk away. Instead he bent down. “What just happened?” he asked gently.

  I turned to him, and my eyes collided with his. “You’re not leaving?” I asked.

  His frown deepened, and he shook his head slowly. “No, Blythe. I’m not going anywhere. I just can’t figure out why you seem to think I would want to leave.”

  He didn’t see it. I hadn’t laid myself bare to him. He was still here. I let out a relieved sigh and smiled. “Sorry, I just thought that because I hadn’t been on a date . . .”Shut up, Blythe. I couldn’t seem to stop saying that I hadn’t ever been on a date.

  “Was Malcolm very overprotective?” Linc asked me.

  Pastor Williams, overprotective? Wait. He thought I hadn’t dated because I hadn’t been allowed to. He didn’t think it was a bad thing.

  “Yes,” I lied.

  Linc smiled then. “Good. He should have been.”

  If he only knew the truth. No. He couldn’t know the truth. He’d run too.

  “So, that kiss,” he said, watching my face carefully.

  I nodded. “First one,” I admitted.

  Linc’s grin got even bigger. “Tonight, Blythe. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  We were actually going to go on a date. “I live at Sea Winds Apartments,” I told him.

  He stood up. “I know.”

  His dad’s office door opened, and Linc took a step back and stuck his hands in his pockets.

  “Linc, visiting again today. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were trying to bribe my secretary with all the sweets you bring her.”

  Linc chuckled. “Yeah, well, maybe
I am.”

  His father shot him a frown before turning to me and smiling. It was forced, but he was still smiling. “I have to leave early for a dentist appointment. Can you lock up when you leave?”

  “Yes, sir,” I replied.

  Pastor Keenan turned his gaze back to Linc. “Walk me out, Son.”

  Linc looked frustrated but nodded. He followed his dad out and then turned back to me, holding up seven fingers before disappearing through the door.

  KRIT

  I was sitting in my favorite chair, a beer in hand, glaring at the wall, when the apartment door opened and Green strolled in with a smirk on his face. He closed it behind him and looked pointedly at me. “You’re fucking stupid,” he said, then turned to head to the kitchen.

  He’d been telling me I was stupid since I had brought back two blondes two weeks ago and held our after-show party here. He was the only person who knew just how much time I was spending with Blythe and why I had moved our parties. I didn’t tell him why. I just let him be pissed at me.

  He stepped back into the living room with a bottle of beer in his hand and pointed toward the parking lot outside. “If you get up now, you can see Blythe dressed in a sexy little sundress and a pair of heels, getting into some preppy boy’s Honda Accord.”

  What? I stared at him, letting his words sink in, then I jumped up and ran to the window. Sure enough, Blythe was walking across the parking lot. A guy about my height stood beside her, his hand settled on her lower back. Fuck that. Who was he? Blythe didn’t get out enough to know people. She was too damn shy.

  “You should have seen the guy drooling over her as she stood there with him and introduced us. She was completely unaware that the guy wasn’t hearing a word she said. He didn’t give a shit who I was. He just wanted to get her alone. She even asked about you. Wanted to know if you were okay. I told her she was welcome to come up anytime, but her eyes went wide like she was terrified and she shook her head. How the fuck you went from hanging out with her and making her laugh to the idea of her seeing you scaring the shit out of her I don’t know.”

  Blythe climbed into the car and the douchebag holding her door leaned down and . . . Did he kiss her? He stood up, jogged around the back of the car, and climbed in. Then they were gone.

  I walked back over to my chair and sat down. I wasn’t talking about this with Green. He wouldn’t understand. Fuck, right now I didn’t understand. All I could think about was that guy kissing her. Touching her. My heart was pounding in my ears.

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll have one or more hot babes to have a cheap fuck with tonight. Just like last night. No need to worry about the one girl you wanted to actually talk to and wasn’t a used groupie. You made sure to shut her out.”

  Closing my eyes, I refused to listen to him. “She is just a nice girl I spent some time with. I made her feel welcome—that was it. Don’t give a shit who she dates,” I replied in a bored tone, then took another drink of my beer and picked up the remote control.

  And that lasted about five minutes.

  Throwing the remote down, I reached for my phone and sent a text to Blythe.

  ME: WHO’S THE GUY?

  I deleted it before I could send it. That wasn’t the right thing to send to her. It would give her the wrong idea. I wasn’t jealous. I just wanted to protect her, if no one else was going to fucking do it.

  ME: THE BAND WILL BE PLAYING AT LIVE BAY TONIGHT. ABOUT TIME YOU CAME AND LISTENED.

  I sent that one. And I waited. A minute later my phone lit up.

  BLYTHE: I’M OUT WITH A FRIEND TONIGHT.

  No shit.

  ME: BRING YOUR FRIEND, TOO.

  A minute later there wasn’t a response. I stared at my phone for five more minutes, then decided I was acting like a damn chick. Tossing my phone on the sofa, I stood up and headed back to the bathroom to take a shower. Blythe wasn’t mine to protect.

  Chapter Seven

  BLYTHE

  KRIT: BRING YOUR FRIEND, TOO.

  I had read that last text from Krit at least ten times over the past two hours. I didn’t respond to him. I wasn’t sure how. He had ignored me completely for two weeks, and now this.

  I glanced over at Linc. Dinner had been nice. He had talked a lot about his family and soccer. He was a big fan of soccer. The problem was nothing he said made my heart flutter the way it did when I looked down at Krit’s text message.

  Linc hadn’t asked much about me during dinner. He had told me a lot about himself, and I had listened. Krit always asked me about myself. I had to find ways to gloss over the truth about my past, but at least he asked me.

  “Where to now? Any suggestions? Mini golf maybe?” Linc asked, breaking into my thoughts. I felt guilty even comparing him to Krit. That wasn’t fair. Linc was a nice guy, and he liked me. Krit was . . . I didn’t know what Krit was.

  Glancing back down at my text, I let the words fall out of my mouth before I could stop them. “There’s a band playing at Live Bay tonight. You met the bass player when you came to pick me up. I haven’t gone to listen to them yet.”

  What was I doing? Linc had mentioned playing mini golf, and I’m asking him to take me to a club. Did pastor’s sons even go to clubs? Shaking my head, I looked up at him. “Never mind. That’s not an appropriate place to go. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”

  Linc grinned as he turned the car around. “I’ve been to Live Bay before, Blythe. Jackdown is a great band. I’ve heard them play several times. They headline the place and bring in the biggest crowds. If you want to hear them play, then I’ll gladly take you there.”

  “Oh. Okay. If you’re sure it’s okay with your dad. I don’t want to upset him.”

  Linc’s face got serious for a second. I would have missed it had I not been looking at him. A forced smile quickly formed on his lips. “Not worried about my dad. I think I made that clear to him once this week already,” he said.

  I wanted to ask him what he was talking about, but I didn’t. We were pulling into the parking lot of Live Bay, and all my excitement about seeing Krit perform took center stage in my head.

  “Parking is fierce tonight. I’ll let you out at the door, and you can wait for me inside while I go park around back. I don’t want to make you walk that far in the gravel with those heels.”

  Linc stopped in front of the entrance. I didn’t want to walk in there alone, but I didn’t want to sound like a baby, either. He was trying to be nice. “Thank you,” I said before opening the door and stepping out.

  The muffled sound of the music inside filled the night air as I walked toward the door. A guy with a tight black T-shirt on and the largest arms I had ever seen in my life stood there. Both of his arms were wrapped with chainlike tattoos. I lifted my eyes to meet his and realized he was watching me. An amused smirk was on his face.

  He opened the door and nodded for me to go inside. “I’ll let your man pay your cover. You go on in, sweetheart.”

  My cover? Did you have to pay to go inside? Maybe I should pay. This was my idea. I reached for my purse. “No, I’ll pay for both of us,” I told the large man.

  “Baby, if you pay, I’m gonna personally kick his ass for letting you. So you need to walk your sweet tail inside.”

  Oh my. Okay.

  I managed a nod and hurried quickly inside. A low chuckle from behind caused me to blush. I wasn’t sure how I felt about some stranger calling me sweetheart and baby. I wanted to wait for Linc, but I didn’t want to wait close to the door and to that guy.

  Inside the club, Krit’s voice filled the place, and I spun around to see him standing on the stage, grinning down at the girls screaming his name. “Damn, y’all look sweet tonight. Got me all kinds of worked up,” he said. He was shirtless, and that in itself was something to scream about. I understood their excitement. He reminded me of a god, standing up there. His beautiful body showcased by a pair of jeans that hung perfectly on his hips gave the crowd a view of his lower stomach and the promise of what was undernea
th.

  I moved closer, wanting to see more. He was laughing at something Green had said, and the dimples that fascinated me flashed out at the crowd. The blue of his eyes was electric tonight. More intense than they normally were. There was an unreal quality to them.

  He slid his hand down his lower stomach and just inside the top of his jeans and winked at some girl up close to the stage. The screaming started up again, and he threw his head back and laughed. The muscles in his neck stood out, and my gaze soaked him in. Every inch.

  When he looked back out at the crowd, his eyes shined with amusement—until they locked on me. Then he went completely still. I had moved closer to the stage than I thought had. Slowly, a real smile touched his lips, and it was as if no one else was in the room. I stood there, unable to move away. He had me spellbound.

  His tongue touched his bottom lip, and then he puckered his lips in a kiss before reaching for the guitar behind him and slipping it over his shoulder. “Let’s do this,” he said, breaking our connection and looking back at Green.