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Austin continued to assess me. “What makes you think I don’t like you? Maybe this is just the way I am now.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’ve seen you with your friends. The intense hostility you have appears to only be toward me. But if you’d let me explain...”
Before I could say anymore, Ryan arrived with our food, and placed it on the table in front of us. I felt his eyes on me as I unfolded my napkin and placed it in my lap.
“Did you really put my name on the RSVP?”
An effortless smile took over my face as I cut into the tender chicken. “I did, but didn’t exactly specify who you were to me. I just don’t want to go through everything I know she has planned. And she’ll recognize your name.”
I glanced up to find Austin staring at me, but I couldn’t read his expression. “I’d assume she would since you dated my sister. And my brother was your best friend.”
“Is,” I replied. “Is my best friend. And that was a favor over a hundred years ago for my best friend when we were in college.”
He huffed out a breath. “Whatever.” He paused for a moment, then looked up at me. “Anyone might think you had a thing for the Wentworth siblings. Except for me, of course.”
The scowl was different this time, and when he looked down at his food, I felt some hope for the first time in a long while. There were so many things I wanted to say; to tell him he was wrong. But now was not the time, especially when we had an audience.
“You couldn’t be any more wrong,” I whispered, cutting into my chicken.
I was determined to prove it to him in Costa Rica.
CHAPTER 6
AUSTIN
Our feet pounded the damp pavement as we ran our usual route through downtown Portland. The sun was just beginning to rise, making this the most peaceful time of day. More than anything, it gave me time to wrap my mind around how to handle my trip with Greer.
He made me feel things I thought I’d put behind me. Somehow, I had to get a grip on this uncontrollable lust I felt toward him. No matter what I did or who I did it with, nothing erased him from my memory. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted him again. And my fucked-up brain refused to let go of Greer. Every time I closed my damn eyes, he was behind the lids, waiting for me. My subconscious was working overtime with him.
Dreamboat had his earbuds turned up, leaving me to my thoughts.
I was still replaying the look on his handsome mug when he tried to apologize. His eyes pleaded with me, but I wasn’t sure for what. But in true Wentworth fashion, I refused to listen. Just like my old man.
All I’d managed was to toss and turn most of the night. Even jacking off didn’t help me sleep. When I couldn’t string more than an hour or two together, I gave up trying. Maybe I could catch up on the plane if Greer sat somewhere else.
But thoughts of him were like an irritating chorus of a song, playing over and over in my head.
We headed toward the waterfront and looped back around, running along the river’s edge. I loved the view of snow-covered Mt. Hood in the far distance because it placed me as far from Texas and the Middle East as I could get without leaving the country.
The cooler climate in the Pacific Northwest was the other reason I’d agreed to move the company from Cheyenne to Portland. Jesse wanted to be near his brother, and when Aidan Hayes made the offer to combine forces, how could I say no? I was really a silent partner, and more than happy to let him run the business. He didn’t need me for that, but he did, for some fucking reason, need me to accompany Greer out of the country.
The only drawback to living here was the six-foot-two silver fucking fox owner of the Pirates. I knew we might cross paths here and there, and I honestly thought maybe I was over it. But reminders of that night in Chicago continued to resurface every time I came face to face with him.
The asshole had the gall to look even better now than he had all those years ago. The silvery gray now dominated his thick, dark hair. The luminous color was unique and made him incredibly sexy. Maybe even more now than fourteen years ago. And it left me frustrated, horny, and mad as fuck because I still couldn’t manage my absurd feelings about him.
And the physique. Where the fuck had that sculpted frame come from? Wide shoulders and a narrow waist were hidden under designer labels that made him hot as hell. I almost couldn’t stand to look at him. And to this goddamn day, I couldn’t figure out why the fucker had such a hold on me. I knew I had to get over this, so maybe if I gave him a little of his own medicine in Costa Rica, I could even the score.
I could show him what it was like to be embarrassed and humiliated for once in his life.
“Fucking hell, Lieutenant. Think about something else,” I told myself.
“Huh?” Dreamboat asked. “I missed what you said.”
I huffed out a breath. “Nothing.”
Brent elbowed me. “It’s only a week. You can make it work.”
Glancing over at him, I raised a brow, then slowed to a walk to cool down. “If you were going to spend a week with the Commander on a tropical beach, you’d be okay with that? You’d just get through it?”
