Free Checking It Twice by Jodi Redford Page B

Unfortunately it’d been a one-time deal with no hope of a repeat performance.
    Nick choked on a laugh. Stacking her hands on her hips, she glared at him. He swiped a hand over his mouth, trying without success to hide his grin. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. But obviously if you had paraded naked in front of Kevin, this conversation would be null and void. A voyeur faced with a gloriously naked you? Poor Kev wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
    Shock spiraled through her at Nick’s pronouncement. She gaped at him, momentarily struck mute as she attempted to process the startling news he’d revealed. Finally she managed to find her tongue long enough to let one word escape, the most important of them all. “ Voyeur ?”
    Nick blinked—twice—before mumbling “Shit” beneath his breath. He scrubbed at his mouth again. “I should have figured he wouldn’t come clean about that. Fuck .” His gaze turned beseeching. “Let’s pretend I didn’t say anything.”
    “No way. You think I can just forget something like that?”
    Kevin. A voyeur. How many times had she all but flashed the goods at him and he’d barely responded to the bait? Even when she’d worn the naughty-elf costume, she’d had to pretty much jump him in order to break through his resistance. For all she knew, that had been a pity orgasm he gave her.
    Prickling anxiety creeping up her spine, she nibbled on her thumbnail and glanced at Nick. That proved to be a mistake when the butterflies began mamboing. He was right about one thing at least. Their mutual attraction was a big ole complicated mess.
    Smothering a groan, she cleared off the corner of the nearby display of thongs and bikinis and plunked her butt down. She ran a hand down her face before taking another risky peek at Nick. How many freakin’ people existed on this planet, and she had to go and develop feelings for best friends who had some kind of falling out…over God knows what? She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
    A sharp, hissing breath leaked from Nick. “Jesus. You’re killing me.”
    “I’m not doing anything.”
    “Yes, you are. All you have to do is fucking breathe and my dick reacts.” He slid a desperate glance toward his briefcase.
    Interpreting that gesture as a possible attempt at escape, she quickly abandoned the table. “Please, don’t leave. I…I’m really tired of constantly being walked out on.”
    Sympathy overtaking his features, Nick shifted toward her, the subtle movement diffusing her tension. “It isn’t you he’s running away from. It’s himself. It’s always been that way.”
    She grimaced. “Isn’t that the clichéd line he’s supposed to feed me? Baby, it’s not you, it’s me?”
    “In Kev’s case, it’s the truth. He has…intimacy issues. They make it hard for him to truly lower his guard enough to let people in.”
    It was her turn to blink. “Intimacy issues. How do you know—?” Her mouth dropped open. “Were you guys lovers?” The notion probably shouldn’t have intrigued her as much as it did.
    Nick’s dark eyebrows slashed upward. “Fuck no.” A rumbling laugh broke from him. “Shit, I’d pay to be a fly on the wall if you posed that to Kev. He’d probably drag you into bed just to prove he doesn’t have designs on my ass.”
    If she thought she’d have a prayer of that happening, she’d gladly ask Kevin if he wanted to ball the entire defense line of the Detroit Lions. “Then mind explaining how you know about his alleged intimacy issues?”
    Nick cleared his throat before his gaze darted up and to the right, a sure sign of someone with a big, fat, hairy lie in the prep stage. “He told me.”
    “Ha!” She shook a finger at him. “Bull. Shit. We both know Kevin isn’t the sharing type.”
    Nick choked on another cough.
    Narrowing her eyes, she dropped her arm. “There’s something you’re not telling me.” Crossing her ankles, she leaned against the edge of the table and studied Nick. “If