Authors: Chloe Walsh
“I can’t believe you actually got the ice queen to buy something other than jeans. I’m shocked,” Derek joked as he slung his arm around Cam’s shoulder.
They both laughed.
“Are you guys done?” I snapped, storming off in the direction of the exit.
“Awh come on ice queen, we were joking. Come back.” I heard Derek call out, but I was too upset to stop.
I walked out straight out of the store, and made my way to the entrance of the shopping mall.
“Hold up.”
An arm swooped around my waist, and I stopped, my heart beat soaring from his familiar touch.
Kyle pulled me closer, speaking into my ear, “They’re only trying to get a reaction out of you baby.”
Baby…
My heart jumped clean off the rector scale.
“I’m not like that.”
I shivered, and turned to face him.
“I can’t wear things like that. Like what Cam wears.”
Kyle knitted his brow, “Come on, I’m taking you out of here.”
He clutched my hand and led me outside.
“Wait. What about Cam and Derek?”
We all drove here together in Kyle’s truck.
We couldn’t leave Cam and Derek behind.
Kyle pulled his phone out and fiddled with it for a few seconds, before putting it back in his pocket.
“They can get the bus, or walk, I don’t give a shit. I’m taking you for food.”
We got to his truck, and he opened the passenger door, “I texted Derek, so don’t worry about them.”
He lifted me up without a second thought, and I sank into the passenger seat, my heart continuing to somersault around in my chest.
He walked around the truck and climbed in beside me.
“You okay?” Kyle asked, as he buckled me in. It was routine to us now.
“Yeah,” I breathed, completely mortified at my reaction in the store, “I’m sorry for being dramatic. I don’t know why I reacted like that. I just hate when Derek calls me that. I know he’s only joking, but it hurts…”
I ducked my head, leaving my hair cover my burning cheeks, tears threatening.
Kyle’s fingers pressed my chin up gently.
Those baby blues penetrated me.
“He was being an asshole to you. He won’t be again. You’re not used to being on show like that. Cam should know better.”
I sighed, leaning slightly into his touch.
I felt so comfortable in his presence.
It felt so good when he touched me.
“She was trying to be nice, buying me a dress, I behaved like a lunatic.”
He unbuckled my belt, and yanked me into his arms.
He smelled so good. I felt secure in his arms.
“I could kill them for upsetting you.”
I giggled nervously, “Please don’t. I’m fond of them, minus the assholeness.”
He exhaled dramatically, “Okay, for you I’ll let it go.”
Kyle pulled back and re-buckled our belts.
He turned on the ignition and pulled out.
“So, there’s no chance I’m gonna see you in this dress is there?”
He was trying to lighten the mood.
Chuckling, I held the bag closer to my chest, “Not in a million years.”
KYLE
Lee was unusually quiet while during dinner.
She had barely taken a bite of her burger.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked.
She jerked her head up with an alarmed expression, before her lips curved into that killer smile of hers.
“Sorry, I’m not great company for you, am I?”
Whether she was loud, quiet, drunk, sober, asleep or awake; her company was the only kind I wanted.
It disturbed me that Lee was so skittish sometimes.
“What’s on your mind princess?”
I figured that a safer thing to ask, instead of freaking her out by admitting how badly I craved being with her.
I didn’t want to screw up the friendship thing we had going.
I was enjoying it, tortured, but still enjoying every minute I spent with her.
She was the first female I was actually friends with, besides Cam.
I didn’t count Linda in that, since she was more like a parent.
My best friend was a girl and worse, I was in the fucking friend zone, and I wanted to kick myself in the nut sac.
In my life women were divided into two categories; girls I fucked, and girls like Cam, who I had no desire to fuck whatsoever.
That might make me an asshole, but I had good reasons the build barriers.
But with Lee, it was different.
I didn’t just want to fuck her; I wanted to be around her.
I wanted to do things with her, go places with her, and make plans with her.
She had crept under my walls, and blown my defenses to dust.
She was so goddamn adorable.
If someone had told me four months ago, that Lee and I could be in room together without arguing or trying to rip each other’s clothes off, I would have laughed.
Well, I still wanted to rip her clothes off but I was refraining, barely.
It was unsettling how much I liked being around her, she was innocent and fresh, and so goddamn honest, different from any other girl I had ever met.
She was nothing like Rachel.
Thinking about Rachel was what kept me firmly in my chair, instead of leaning over the table and showing Lee just how much I wanted her.
Thinking of Rachel chilled me to the bone.
I often thought about how different my life would be, if I were free to make my own choice.
In a perfect world, it would be Lee every time.
But this wasn’t a perfect world…
Knowing we could only be friends didn’t stop me imagining different scenarios in my head, all of which ended with Lee naked beneath me.
I had come close to having an apocalyptic fit when I found out that dick Mike had his eye on her.
Linda had mentioned how taken Mike was with Lee, and how she hung out with him every day.
I wanted to kill him.
I wanted to lock her up and have the only key.
But shit I didn’t own her, and never would.
I couldn’t tell her what to do, and I definitely didn’t want to get into why I hated that prick so much.
I’d fire his ass if I thought it wouldn’t give him so much satisfaction.
Fuck it, I would fire him anyway, except it would go against my grandfather’s wishes.
Lee didn’t say much about him to me, but I’d seen the way he looked at her in the restaurant.
He was eye fucking her every time her back was turned.
It made me sick that she continued to eat her lunch with him every damn day, even though I’d offered to have lunch with her on more than one occasion.
I knew that creep and there was only time in it before he put the moves on her.
She was too good for that dipshit; too good for everyone.
“Kyle are you alright?”
Lee’s hand brushed against my cheek, startling me.
What had she said?
“You’re gone pale. Are you feeling okay?” she asked again, stroking my cheek, pressing her palm against my forehead.
For a brief moment I debated faking illness to have her touch me some more, but the concerned look on her face kept me honest.
“I’m okay princess, I was just thinking.”
She moved her hand from my face, to my hand resting on the table.
Squeezing it gently she whispered, “Can I ask what about? You looked pretty angry.”
I smiled at her to ease her worry, “Just work stuff princess.”
I didn’t trust myself to say any more.
Chapter Sixteen
LEE
Hell had frozen over.
Yep it had. It had frozen over and I had lost my mind in the process.
I stood in front of the full-length mirror pulling at the red fabric clinging to my body.
“Fabulous,” Cam exclaimed, clapping her hands.
She looked stunning in a short, canary yellow stretch boob tube dress.
It clung to her narrow frame perfectly. Her hair was curled to the side, and her make-up seamless.
I pulled the hem of the dress down to cover my thighs, but that only caused my boobs to spill out over the low plunging neckline.
I pulled the material over my chest causing the dress to rise again.
“I’m going to kill you, and it’s going to be painful,” was my response to her enthusiasm.
Cam snickered as she pulled at my dress, straightening it so that everything was covered.
“You look gorgeous Lee. Panty tearing, jeans bulging, erection approved sexy.”
“You did not just say that Camryn Frey.”
She dropped a pair of black stilettos into my hands.
“Here put these on. We need to get over to Dixon’s place soon. It’s gone ten and Kyle is getting pissed off with waiting. He needs to go into work.”
My heart dropped.
“I thought you said Kyle was going with us?”
Cam shrugged and ignored my question.
She never answered my questions about Kyle since the whole movie theatre make-out fiasco.
“Just put on your shoes and let’s go already,” she said as she skipped out of the bathroom.
Oh dear god, I had turned into Cam’s real life personal Barbie doll.
I looked at myself once more.
Cam had painted my lips blood red, and straightened my hair, so that it now fell to my elbows.
My eyes were smoky.
Well that’s what Cam had called the dark sooty coloring framing my pupils.
My cheeks were flushed, but that had nothing to do with make-up, and everything to do with people seeing me dressed like this…Kyle seeing me dressed like this.
I was practically naked.
The dress covered me in the important places, but only just.
I checked and rechecked the length of it, making sure the scars were covered.
KYLE
Derek scowled at me for the tenth time.
“Dude, do you have to work? Couldn’t you call Lucinda or whatever her name is to go instead? You are the boss.”
I shook my head.
“Linda, and no Derek I’m not gonna call the poor woman on a Saturday night, just so I can go get smashed. Besides someone needs to drive your drunken ass around.”
Derek huffed loudly, and cracked open another bottle.
“You suck dude.”
I ignored him. There was no point talking to drunk Derek.
I honestly didn’t know how Cam handled him when he was like this.
Then again, I didn’t know how Derek handled Cam drunk either, so I guess they were well matched.
I didn’t mind not going to the party; I wasn’t a fan of Dixon, so listening to the jackass all night was something I could do without.
I had offered to give Cam and Derek a lift on my way to the office.
I figured the quicker I got to the hotel and sorted the ‘emergency’, the sooner I would be back to Lee.
It was fucking ridiculous that Marcus, my night manager couldn’t sort out a malfunctioning freezer.
Good staff were like gold dust.
Linda had made the right move hiring Lee; she was a gem.
Maybe I could get some take out on my way home and she and I could watch a movie.
Some Mexican food, or pizza, Lee liked pizza.
She didn’t eat much at dinner earlier…
“Surprise,” Cam shouted from the hallway.
“Wahhh.” Derek replied in a high-pitched feigned scream, as he jumped from the couch and wobbled to the door.
He had too much to drink already.
I could hardly hold back my laughter when I thought about the condition he would be in tomorrow morning.
Fucking idiot.
“Kyle, uh, come here man,” Derek said in a strangled tone.
I stood up and went over to join him.
“You better not be naked Cam...” I joked, freezing to the spot.
My words stuck on my tongue, as I took in Lee’s half-naked body.
Holy shit.
What was she wearing?
I couldn’t talk; just stare at her tits spilling over the fabric of the dress.
If I stared long enough I could see nipple.
Thigh and nipple, was all that was going on inside my perverted head.