Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (8 page)

The smug look
reappeared. “That’s kinda what I was hoping.”

I couldn’t
help but chuckle. God, he was charming and hot and sweet and sexy
and I was an idiot. “Thank you, though. For everything. I’ll, uh,
make sure to give you the book back on Friday. Goodnight.”

I tore my eyes
away from his and turned to go inside, hearing him drive off only
after I closed the door. I called Jay to let her know I was
okay.

And then I went
to my room and cried
.

Zeke came into The
Nook as usual the next morning, but this time he was with a
gorgeous blond woman and he sat in Grace’s section instead of mine.
Upon seeing me, he’d nodded giving me a small smile when he came in
but that was it
.

And, damn it,
why the hell did I suddenly feel jealous? I’d told him just the
night before that I couldn’t see him, so why was I getting all bent
out of shape?

“That boy is
something else,” Grace muttered dreamily as she came back behind
the counter. Grace was in her mid-fifties and was recently
divorced, having stayed with her dickhead husband until the last of
their three children had graduated high school last spring then
she’d “cut and run” so fast he hadn’t known what had hit him. He’d
been every aspect of abusive to her, she’d informed us, but now she
was free and loving it, having gotten herself a small apartment and
a cat, which she said her husband had never allowed her to have in
the thirty-five years they’d been married. This was the first time
she’d ever worked, but she’d caught on quickly when I’d trained her
and said she loved it. Clearly she did because a lot of the patrons
who came in requested her because she was such a good waitress and
nice as could be on top of that.

I frowned at
what she said, feeling my mood bottom out as I tossed an old coffee
filter in the trash.

“He’s so
polite! Did you see him pull the chair out for that gal he’s with?
What a sweetheart. And they make a lovely couple too, don’t you
think?” she added, which made me grit my teeth as I scooped fresh
grounds into the new filter in the coffee maker.

“Isn’t that
Karissa Jackson from the newspaper? The sportswriter everyone’s
always going nuts about because she’s not only beautiful but she
actually knows what she’s talking about?” Jay asked as she snacked
on a pastry as she stood at the register. “She’s single, too.” She
raised an eyebrow at me as if to say I was a dumbass for letting
Zeke get away because now he was going to be snatched up by this
woman.

I glanced over
to see Karissa laughing at something Zeke had said and watched as
he grinned back at her.

Ugh.

I scowled back
at Jay before grabbing a pot of coffee to go top off my customers’
drinks. And characteristic of me and my selfless demeanor (even
though I was a tad pissed off), I went about my duties as if
nothing was wrong, as if I didn’t want to pour this flaming hot pot
of coffee down Ms. Sportswriter’s back. And all was fine until I
heard her giggle and my curiosity got the best of me. Looking over
at them, I sucked in a breath when I saw her reach across the table
and put her hand on Zeke’s. But that hadn’t been the crux of it.
Nope. Besides his not pulling his hand away from under hers, what
really took all the air out of me and made my heart constrict was
the look he gave her, almost exactly like the one he’d given Scout
yesterday, as if this Karissa woman mattered to him.

Like the one
he’d given me last night when he’d told me he was interested in
me.

I hurried back
to the counter, setting the coffee pot down and grabbed Jay’s hand,
jerking her back to Mae’s office and pulling her inside.

“’The hell,
Scar?”

“What do I
do?” I asked frantically, feeling like I was going to puke.

“What do you
mean?” she replied with a frown watching as I paced and shook my
hands at my sides.

“I mean, what
do I do?” I all but yelled at her making her head jerk back in
surprise.

“You like
him…”

I stopped my
pacing and looked at her then closed my eyes and hung my head.

“Oh, sweetie,”
she said, coming over and taking my face in her palms and making me
look at her as she shook her head. “You and your stupid rules.” She
thought for a moment then her face lit up. “Tell you what, there’s
a party tonight that Dex and I are going to and you’re coming
with.” When I started to protest, she added, “No ‘buts’! Drake is
gonna be there and you know he’d fuck you in a heartbeat and that’s
what’s going to happen. You need to get laid now!”

I huffed out a
laugh and shook my head at her as she dropped her hands from my
face. “Well, getting laid will solve
all
my problems as you
know. Let’s do it!” I gave her a sarcastic smile and an eye
roll.

“Couldn’t
hurt,” she said with a grin. “You know Drake has wanted you for a
long time anyway.”

“Drake wants
everyone,” I replied making her giggle, but it was the truth.

Drake Scott
was one of Dex’s friends who I’d met last year when Jay had tried
hooking us up saying she was going to end my sexual drought. He was
cute but rules were rules and I hadn’t given him the time of day
even though he’d made it clear that he wanted no part of being in a
relationship. But maybe now Jay was right. I knew it was ludicrous,
and slutty to boot, but if I did finally give in to screwing him,
it might make all the feelings I had for Zeke go away. It was worth
a shot, I guessed.

“I can’t
believe I’m agreeing to this,” I muttered.

Jay squealed
now, doing little baby claps with her hands in excitement. “Yay!
The party’s at Landon’s and that’s where Operation Get Scar Laid
commences!”

“Oh. We even
have a name for it now. Nice.” I shook my head in mock
approval.

“Yep! OGSL is
a go! Now, you get right back out there and act as if everything’s
fine, got it? Show Zeke that you’re over it,” she said, turning me
by my shoulders and swatting my ass.

“Ouch!” I
said, rubbing my butt as I headed out of Mae’s office. But I did
feel better about things, noticing that when I went back out to the
restaurant and seeing Zeke with Ms. Thang, it didn’t hurt nearly as
much as it had.

That was a
start.

~*~*~*~

“Hey,
gorgeous. Long time no see,” Drake said as he approached me at the
party that night.

We were at
Landon Knight’s house which was in an extremely nice part of
Seattle. His parents were both hotshot attorneys who made gobs of
money, or so Jay said, so it was no surprise that their son lived
just a few streets from them in the same gated community. Landon
was captain of the tennis team and really handsome but a bit on the
snooty side. He was nice, don’t get me wrong, but I could tell he
thought himself better than pretty much everyone.

Drake, on the
other hand, was as easygoing as they came and immediately put me at
ease since I’d been freaking out how this would go down ever since
OGSL had begun, but he’d handed me a drink and told me a dirty joke
and I calmed down a bit.

You can do
this
, I thought encouragingly, attempting to convince myself
that this whole setup was the best thing to do to get from point A
to point B. The plan was I’d fuck Drake in one of the thirty
bedrooms in the huge house hoping my sexual frustrations when it
came to Zeke would be put to rest then I’d have Jay and Dex get me
the hell out of there.

Sounded good!
Ugh.

Drake and I
stayed in the same place for an hour, talking about what we planned
on doing when we graduated. I told him about the bakery and he told
me about how he was going to move to Hollywood, become filthy rich
as a plastic surgeon, then take over the Playboy Mansion when Hugh
Hefner died which made perfect sense because Drake was, well,
Drake.

By the time we
finished talking, I’d had enough alcohol that I was feeling relaxed
or at least loose enough that when he leaned in and kissed me, I
didn’t lock up. And although it’d been a nice kiss, it just hadn’t
been as nice as the ones Zeke had given me. I sighed in
disappointment when Drake pulled back because I’d thought surely
this would work. Damn it. OGSL appeared to be failing
monumentally.

But I wasn’t
ready to give up just yet, so I pulled Drake down by his collar and
smashed my mouth to his thinking that if I kissed him harder it’d
make everything I felt for Zeke fade. Just as we were getting
going, Drake spun us, pushing me against the wall with his body,
which was kind of hot, and I thought maybe the plan was working
until I felt him suddenly jerked away. My eyes flew open and I saw
Zeke standing there, hands on his hips and squinting his eyes at me
looking pissed as hell.

Whoa.

“What the
fuck, Scarlett?” he bit out, glaring down at me.

I looked
around wondering where Drake had gone. I mean, one minute we were
engaged in mouth-to-mouth foreplay, the next,
Poof!
So
leaning to the side to look past Zeke’s arm, his very large,
muscular arm, I saw Drake shrug at me then he was off to find his
next conquest. Well. Hasta la taco to you too, buddy.

I stood
straight again and looked up at Zeke, and, oh, was he in for it now
because I’d had just enough to drink that my sassiness was front
and center.

“What the
fuck,
what
, Zeke?” I challenged, putting my hands on my hips
too and glaring right back at him, my alcohol-fueled reasoning
being that it was his fault I was here in the first place, so I
deserved to be a bit snippy toward him.

He leaned down
and got right in my face and snarled, yes, snarled, “You had your
fucking tongue rammed down my throat last night and now you’re
doing the same to Scott?” Man, was he mad.

And why do
guys always call each other by their last names? Is it some kind of
military-related thing or maybe dude code or what?

Anyway,
semi-drunken thoughts aside, I then semi-drunkenly hissed, “And you
were practically eye raping Ms. Hotsy Totsy Sportswriter this
morning!”

He slowly
stood to his full height and my head moved back on my shoulders as
I followed. Dang. He had to be at least six-four because my
five-six self was straining a bit to look up at him. We stood
glowering at each other for a good thirty seconds before I
chickened out and had to look away but made the most of it by
moving my eyes down his body. And, God, he looked good wearing a
half-tucked-in light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt,
jeans and black work boots that looked scuffed like he’d bought
them that way. Totally
GQ
. Damn.

“Why’re you
here, Scarlett?” he finally asked making me look back up at him,
his eyes piercing mine hotly and looking even more golden against
the blue shirt he wore.

“Why am I
here?” I huffed out a laugh realizing now how ridiculous this whole
thing had been. “If you must know, I’m here to fuck Drake so I can
get you out of my head!” And why I was surprised when I blurted
that, I have no clue, because blurting my every thought seemed to
be the norm whenever I talked to Zeke. I moved my hands from my
hips wanting to cover my big, fat mouth with them, but crossed my
arms over my chest instead.

I saw his jaw
muscles jumping like crazy as his eyes turned hard. Suffice it to
say, I don’t think he liked my answer. “You seein’ him?”

It was then I
saw movement out of the corner of my eye and looking over, saw Jay
giving me a huge smile and a big thumbs up. Um. Okay.

My attention
came back to Zeke. “No, I’m not seeing him!” He just didn’t get it.
My hands went back to my hips and I leaned into him. “And if I
were, it wouldn’t be any of your business anyway!”

His eyes
narrowed on mine then his look turned smug. “Trying to get me outta
your head, huh?”

I rolled my
eyes. “Don’t look so cocky. It wouldn’t matter who I fucked, Drake
or… or
you
.” I threw my hand out toward him when I said
this. Second time I’d discounted him that way, first the janitor
and now Drake. God, I was a bitch. You’d think he’d see it and tell
me to get bent. “It still wouldn’t mean anything and it’d be over
before it started.” Total lie. “I’ve already told you I don’t have
ti—” and that was all I got out.

“We’ll see
about that,” he mumbled grabbing me by my upper arm and pulling me
to the stairs and up to where the thirty bedrooms were.

“Wh—what are
you doing?” I stammered as he practically took two steps at a time
while I tried keeping up.

He didn’t
reply, and once we’d made it to the landing he just kept walking me
down the hallway, his hand tightening on my arm when I tried prying
it off. And, jeez, his hand was huge, his fingers touching his
thumb because it fully encircled my arm.

We passed at
least four doors on either side (okay, so there really weren’t
thirty
bedrooms) until reaching one at the very end that he
opened into a darkened room and pulling me into it, closed the door
behind him then pushed me back against the door. The room wasn’t
wholly dark, there was a little light coming in through the windows
plus a nightlight, enough that when he bent down and got level with
my face, I could see his eyes sparking in what looked like
anger.

“You so sure
it wouldn’t mean anything, Scarlett?” his voice thundered in the
quiet room.

I was about to
answer, what it would’ve been I don’t recall, something smartassed,
I’m sure, when his lips came crashing down hard on mine and I was
instantly and completely, utterly and thoroughly consumed by his
kiss… by him… oh, my. Of course I had to make it look like I didn’t
want this to happen, so I halfheartedly pushed against his chest
with my hands trying to make him stop before giving up. My arms
then made their way up over his shoulders where my hands were drawn
once again to his silky dark hair and my fingers wasted no time in
clutching it tightly.