Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2) (5 page)

NAVIE RUSHED ME THE
moment the door closed behind me.

“
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
,” she said in a high-strung flurry as her socked feet skidded along the hardwood floor until she came to a stop in front of me and snatched the bouquet from my hand.

“How much coffee have you had, shorty?”

She ignored me and exhaled heavily. Her dark blue eyes widened in awe. “It’s beautiful,” came out in a whisper before she added on a shout, “I love it!”

I chuckled. “Relax there, Gollum. It’s not your precious.”

She glared and clutched the bouquet to her chest, stroking it like a child as Rowan walked down the hall from his office and joined us.

I arched a brow at him. “Dude, I think your fiancée’s losing her mind.”

He grinned and wrapped his arm around Navie’s shoulder, pulling her back against his chest. “It’s the wedding planning. It’s making her a little…” he trailed off.

“I swear to God, if you say crazy, I’m shoving this ring so far up your—” Rowan covered her mouth before she could finish her threat, ignoring the ring finger she held up to show off the massive rock she just threatened to shove somewhere no man would want it.

“Tense,” he finished wisely.

I nodded my head and looked down at my soon-to-be-sister-in-law. “Well, that’s one thing you can cross off your list, shorty.”

She pulled out of my brother’s grasp and stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on my cheek. “Thank you for going to get this. It really helped me out. Now all I have to do is call her and confirm that this is exactly what I wanted. I’ve been so stressed lately.”

“No problem at all. But I will say, your florist is weird. Cute, but weird.”

“She’s not weird,” Navie waved me off. “She’s… eccentric.”

My brow furrowed as I thought about the woman who’d practically hurled the flowers at me before bolting out the door. And that didn’t even take into account the strange behavior when she first discovered me standing there. “Whatever you say. I just can’t imagine how she’s stayed in business for so long if she’s so horrible at dealing with people.”

Navie cocked her head to the side. “She’s not horrible at dealing with people. I actually really liked her.”

Rowan’s deep laugh pulled my attention his way. “Maybe it was you, brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she just didn’t like you. If that’s the case, I’d have to say the woman has good taste. I think I’d like this woman.”

That couldn’t have been the case… could it? I mean, she was slightly off her rocker and totally not my type, but for some reason, the thought of Delilah not liking me made me feel… off. Choosing to ignore him, I flipped Rowan off and snorted. “Women
love me
.”

“No, women think you’re hot,” Navie declared. “There’s a huge difference. I thought Rowan was hot when I first met him, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t imagining jamming a sharpened pencil into his eyeball on a regular basis.”

He leaned down and kissed her temple. “That’s when I knew we were soul mates.”

I felt my hackles rise as I defended myself. “I’ll have you know, I haven’t had a single complaint.”

I thought Navie’s eyes were at risk of falling out of her head, she rolled them so hard. “That’s because you don’t stick around once the condom comes off. Ever since you left Bree, you haven’t had anything that lasted longer than it takes you to come.”

“Hey!” I barked in affront. “That’s not true!”

She quirked an eyebrow, her look saying, “
who the hell do you think you’re kidding
?”

“Well… it’s not
totally
true.” I couldn’t help but think about the woman in the red dress and how, even as I moved inside of her, I’d felt the desire for more than just one night. Christ, I needed to get that woman out of my damn head.

“As much as I’d love nothing more than to stand here discussing the fact that you use meaningless sex as a way to protect yourself from something more significant, I really need to get back to work,” she chided.

I let out a bark of laughter as she hugged me and shuffled off, further into the apartment, leaving me and Rowan alone.

He gave me a good-natured smile and a slap on the shoulder. “Just ignore her. When she isn’t busy losing her mind over wedding plans, she’s trying to set up everyone she knows. It’s like weddings make women think men aren’t complete unless they’re in a relationship.”

I laughed. “My divorce has been final for all of a week!”

His expression grew serious, contemplative. “Yeah, but the marriage was over long before that, wasn’t it?”

I felt myself growing itchy under his speculative gaze. “Dude, you’re starting to sound like your woman. This isn’t ‘Let’s Get Richard Hitched’ Day. I’m perfectly content with the way my life is going at the moment. You should understand. Before you settled down, you enjoyed sampling what the city had to offer.”

A wry smile tipped one corner of his mouth up. “Yeah, but you haven’t sampled anything in what?” He tapped his chin, the prick. “Three months?”

“See!” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. “This is why I don’t tell you anything. Because you’re an asshole!”

He stuck out his bottom lip and crooned, “Aw, baby brother, does someone need a hug? I get you’re feeling inadequate, when a man’s dick stops working—”

I punched him in the stomach. “First of all, you’re older by seven minutes, jackass. And secondly, I’m not feeling inadequate. My dick is working just fine, thank you very much.”

But even as I said the words, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were true. Panic started to take over as I contemplated the idea that my dick actually
was
broken. I was relatively young and healthy; hell, I was in the prime of my life! So what other reason could there be for my little buddy to just pack it in and close up shop?

I scoffed internally. No, it wasn’t broken. It couldn’t be. It was just… taking a little break. Right?

Oh God
.

It was all
her
fault. Her and her sexy dress and sinful curves and tight, wet…
No
! I shook my head. I refused to let myself think about her for one more second. I had to banish her from my head once and for all.

That’s it
, I thought. I was sick and tired of moping around, always in a bad mood. I needed to get my ass out there and get laid.

Tonight.

WE DIDN’T DRINK WINE
that night. Instead, Devon walked through the door with everything needed for frozen margaritas.

I put up a fight at first, seeing as tequila was the reason I was in this problem in the first place, but, as usual, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

That had been three hours ago. Since then, I’d already had two and was working on my third. And believe me, I was feeling it. “I can’t believe he didn’t even recognize me!” I shouted from my place sprawled out on the living room floor. “I mean, who does that?” From the corner of my eye, I saw Slim Shady lift his head from his little doggy bed, staring me down for my outburst before snuggling back in.

Devon slurped down the remaining dregs of her margarita and reached for the pitcher on the coffee table to pour herself a refill. I sat up and held my glass out for a top-off as well. “Well, in his defense, babe, you do look kinda different when you’re all gussied up.”

I shot her a killing look. “I don’t look that different.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, you really do, honey.”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. “But what about the fact he has a fiancée, huh? A fiancée whose wedding flowers
I’m
responsible for! A fiancée I’ve
met
!”

She gave that some thought at the same time she sucked back more margarita. I followed suit. “I think we need to track this asshole down and set his car on fire.”

I loved Devon, but she had a tendency to go from normal to bat-shit crazy with the flip of a switch.

“This is New York, dumbass. No one has a car.”

She let out a hiccup before saying, “Rich people do. And a douchebag with the last name Locklaine has to be a
rich
douchebag. That name just screams money.”

I took another gulp, letting the sweet and tangy flavor wash over my tongue as I mulled over his name in my head. “It’s a stupid name.
Richard Locklaine
,” I sneered. “I bet he made it up so he’d sound like some hero out of an historical romance novel or something. I bet his name’s really Richard Nezbit or Richard Peabody or some shit.”

Devon snorted before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Oh! You think he’s related to that famous Locklaine author dude? Damn, what is that guy’s first name? Roman? Rowland?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “And they’re probably not related. Remember, I told you he made his last name up. He’s really Richie Peabody.” With that, it was my turn to giggle-snort as I flopped back onto the floor. “Ooh. I think I might be a little drunk.”

“
Pfft
. Ya think?”

“I think the ceiling is spinning.” I squinted my eyes and tried hard to focus.

“That’s the ceiling fan, you loser. Man, you really can’t handle your liquor, can you?”

Squeezing my eyes closed, I let out a pained groan. “God, why’d he have to be so good in bed,” I whined. “It’s like a cruel joke from God. Assholes who cheat on their fiancée’s and don’t remember the women they’ve slept with should all be cursed with small penises! It should be a rule or something.”

“Know what we should do?” Devon asked as she scooted off the couch and crawled to the floor awkwardly, her margarita still balanced in one hand.

I turned my head in her direction as she collapsed down next to me. “What?”

“We should totally go out tonight. Get your mind off that shithead.”

I shot up, spilling some of my drink and making my head spin in the processes. I held my arms out to try and keep from toppling over like a damn teeter-totter and glared at my best friend once I’d my head stopped wobbling. “Have you lost your damn mind? Wait… no, don’t answer that. Obviously, you have. That’s
exactly
what got me in this position in the first place! If I hadn’t listened to your
horrible
advice to get over Brant, then I wouldn’t have unwittingly helped a man cheat on his super sweet, adorable fiancée. There’s no way in hell I’m doing that again. It’s bad enough I have to call Navie and make up some lame excuse as to why I can’t do the flowers for her wedding. I’m not going to risk losing anymore future business because I’m a magnet for every asshole in the city.”

“You are
not
dropping this wedding,” Devon declared, sitting up to scowl at me. “Are you crazy?”

“Devon, I can’t keep working with that poor woman—”

“Like hell you can’t! This is your job. So you screwed the groom. That wasn’t your fault, it was his.”

“But—”

She slapped her hand over my mouth. “No buts. I swear to God, Del, if you drop this wedding, I’m calling Jace.”

I let out a shocked gasp. “You wouldn’t.”

“Bet your sweet, sexy ass I would. I’m not letting you ruin your career over some jackass that can’t keep it in his pants.
You’re
the victim in this scenario.”

I smacked her hand away and frowned, “Technically, I think that would be Navie.”

She waved her hand at me. “Whatever, you know what I mean. The wedding is a month away, if you bail on her now, not only do you risk your reputation, but you’re putting her in a bad position of trying to find another florist at the very last minute. Do you really want that on your conscious?”

I fell back to the floor and let out a loud, long breath. Slim Shady let out a commiserating grunt from his doggy bed. “You’re right, it’d be an asshole thing to do.”

“No shit,” Devon scoffed.

We lapsed into silence as I mulled over the rock and hard place I’d unknowingly shoved myself between. After finding out Brant had been cheating on me for most of our three-year relationship, I hadn’t thought my life could possibly suck any more. Obviously I’d been wrong. Sleeping with the fiancé of one of my clients proved to be my new rock bottom.

“This day can’t possibly get any worse,” I grumbled. “I’m done with men. Completely. Tomorrow morning I’m googling what it would take to become a nun.”