Served Hot: Best Revenge, Book 2 Read online

  “Yep,” Riley agreed. “Maya is still a huge pain in my ass.”

  “All I hear is blah, blah, blah. Pass the lemonade.” Maya joined in their humor, though a good part of her remained cautious. Ann had finally snagged the love of her life. It was only a matter of time before she started pulling away from the group. Date nights with Jack that interfered in wine nights with the girls. She and Jack would get married, have kids. Possibly move out of town if Jack’s job took them away, breaking up their trio…

  Riley snapped her fingers in front of Maya’s face. “Hey, dream girl. Wake up. Ann asked you a question.”

  Maya swallowed her food past a dry throat. “Huh?”

  “So eloquent.” Ann snorted. “Pass me a sandwich and tell me how your date with Dex went.”

  Riley lit up. “Oh yeah. I totally forgot that was last night. Funny you didn’t mention it.”

  “I was going to tell you.” Maya hoped her cheeks didn’t look as warm as they felt.

  “So? How did it go?” Riley grabbed a sandwich. “Is he groveling at your feet yet?”

  Ann smiled. “I think it’s cute he pretended to blackmail you into dating him.”

  “Pretended? The bully said he’d go to the cops.” Yet Maya knew he wouldn’t.

  “Please.” Riley huffed. “He never liked Selena Thorpe. Remember? He wasn’t one of the in-crowd back in high school. Like us, well, like you and me, he was an outsider.”

  Ann shook her head. “I might have been a little popular, but you forget the star quarterback broke my heart in front of the entire senior class. I lost any popularity I had.”

  “Technically you lost that in second grade when we became best friends,” Maya countered. “Hang with the outcasts and you can’t help but get some dirt on you.”

  “Good point.” Riley grinned, losing the tension she’d been carrying earlier.

  “You two had tons of friends. You just like to think you didn’t because it’s more dramatic.” Ann pointed at Maya. “You, especially, can be a real drama queen.”

  “Yes, she can.” Riley checked on the cookies, then returned to the island. “And don’t think all this chatter has distracted us from the date you still haven’t described. Talk, sister.”

  Maya groaned. “It was horrible.” She recounted everything, from the scare in the tub to the scorching kiss in the truck. “How the hell do I one-up him if I’m always thinking about doing him?” She glared at Ann. “And get that stupid, sappy look off your face. This ain’t hearts and flowers here, kid. My body might want him, but the man bugs me. He still hasn’t said he’s sorry for forcing me to go out with him.”

  “You talking about the prom, or your recent date where he not only paid, he kissed you senseless afterward?” Riley asked, overly polite.

  “Shut up. At least I have a reason to be wary around Dex. You can’t even find a real reason to dislike Anson.”

  “Other than that he’s a dick,” Riley said.

  “Well, yeah, there is that,” Maya admitted, wishing she didn’t sound so pathetic. If only Dex would be more of an asshole, then she’d be able to be firmer in her stance to reject and hate him. The sexy jerk made it difficult to hold onto her grudge, and Maya had a reputation as a champion grudge-holder.

  She ran a hand through her hair, feeling the need to pull it out strand by strand. “Why are we talking about Riley and Anson anyway? You guys are supposed to be helping me.”

  Riley scowled. “Look, dumbass, you’re the one who brought up Anson. Not me.”

  “It’s called avoidance,” Ann said. “Maya doesn’t want to admit that she actually likes Dex and always has.” She turned to Maya. “Let’s be honest. Of the three of us, you’ve got the easygoing adversary. I had a real beef with Jack. Hello? Pregnancy scare? He dumped me in public? And Riley has always been competing with Anson. We all agree he’s conceited.”

  “Yeah.” Riley planted her hands on her hips, nodding.

  Maya took another bite of her sandwich, never too emotionally compromised to eat. After chewing and swallowing—to satisfy the prissy Miss Manners—she said, “I don’t know that I’d call Dex easy, but I agree with you about Jack and Anson.”

  “Dex is such a nice guy. I always liked him.”

  “I don’t do nice.”

  Riley smirked. “Funny. Seems to me you want to.”

  After giving her friend the finger, which Riley happily returned, Maya groaned. “Look, you two, I have nine more dates with the guy. Yeah, I want to have sex with him. He didn’t take me up on my first offer, but I think he wants me. I mean, I know he wants me.” As much as she wanted him? Damn it. She wished she knew him better.

  “He did kiss you in the truck.” Riley looked thoughtful. “Maybe he ended the kiss so suddenly so he wouldn’t jump your bones. You know he’s always liked you. It follows if he wants to date and not sleep with you right away that he’s a sincere kind of guy. I think it’s sweet.”

  Maya hated sweet. “That’s the problem. I don’t like nice or sweet. And don’t even describe the guy as kind.” She shuddered. Give her a bad boy any day.

  “But you want him.” Ann narrowed her eyes. “I say go after him. Don’t make this about trying to get even or making him apologize for prom night. You want him? Be your take-charge self and grab him. You and Dex get some hot sex, you have some fun, and maybe you part as friends. Everybody’s happy. What’s not to like about that?”

  Riley agreed. “And if you’re too stubborn to take on that hunk of man, let me know. Because he is right up my alley. I love nice.”

  Maya glared. “You’re so full of it.” The idea of Riley going after Dex bothered Maya. A lot. They’d never poached on one another’s guys before. Not that Dex belonged to Maya or anything, but—

  “You see that, Ann?”

  “Yep.”

  Maya didn’t know what they were talking about. “What?”

  “You get that line between your brows when you’re really annoyed.” Riley’s smug smile aggravated Maya all over again. “You don’t like the thought of me anywhere near Dex. You don’t just lust after him. You like him. Admit it.”

  “What is this, second grade?” She sneered at Riley, then Ann—a second grade teacher.

  “Oh yeah.” Ann laughed at her. “You pegged it, Riley. Maya has the hots for Dex. Lighten up, Maya. Follow my advice. I did what you told me to do with Jack, and look at me now. I’m in looovvee.”

  “Ew.” Maya tried to be angry but couldn’t hold out against Ann’s dopey smile. “Yeah, but if you remember, my advice was to be mean. To bump and dump him.” She heard an echo of Dex’s deep voice in her memory. “Your advice is for me to play nice with the enemy.”

  Riley took the cookies out of the oven and gave Maya a look—the one that said, you’re so full of it. “Dex isn’t anyone’s enemy. He’s a great guy with a terrific sense of humor. If you’d stop being so stubborn, you’d realize you liked him back then, and you like him even more now.”

  Maya stared at her best friends, struggling with her inner bitch as well as her inner artiste. Angst made for a hell of a creative bent, but it was exhausting. Trying to hate Dex took too much energy, and lying to herself about how she felt was harder than it should have been.

  She sighed. “Hell. I do like him.” It galled her to say, but she couldn’t ignore the truth. “So what? Fuck him and then we go our separate ways?”

  “Crass, but why not?” Ann shrugged. “You’re both consenting adults. Dex wants to date you, so he obviously likes you. Why not enjoy time with the man, have some killer sex—because just looking at Dex makes you think the man is a god in bed—and still be friends? Not all guys are out to shaft you, Maya.”

  Riley snickered. “To hear Maya tell it, they’re all about shafting her.”

  Maya laughed with her. “I wouldn’t mind shafting Dex.” Boy was that the truth. />
  “Oh stop.” Ann sighed. “What am I going to do with you two?” Then she started laughing with them.

  Maya made a memory of the moment—watching her friends, feeling warmth and acceptance from head to toe. Her friends had always been there for her. A family when she only had her father for comfort. Sisters of her heart and a never-ending source of camaraderie, love and laughter.

  Three things she’d never been able to get from any man not her father, unfortunately. She didn’t need a man, not when she had a real family.

  So why did a sudden image of Dex’s smiling eyes continue to plague her with promises of an impossibility?

  Chapter Three

  Saturday night, Dex had managed to pry Jack away from Ann and hung out with Anson at their favorite bar downtown. A nice hole-in-the-wall that served cheap beer on draft, decent scotch for the price and catered more to the late twenties/early thirties crowd than to the college kids at the bar next door.

  “So.” Anson took a large drag on his beer.

  “Nice to see you out from under a hard hat.” Dex grinned at his cousin.

  They looked enough alike that people often thought them brothers. Both had dark hair, large builds and similar features—square jaws, a stubborn nose, long-lashed eyes. But Dex had pretty gray eyes, not the ugly green ones Anson always bragged about. Dex also wore his hair military short, while Anson preferred his to drop down his neck.

  He stared at Anson’s hair. “Too long, you friggin’ hippy.”

  Anson smirked at him and flipped his hair, causing Jack to grin.

  “I’m so glad you guys moved back. What perfect timing.” Jack clinked his beer against their glasses. “It’s hard being the only guy around the Terrible Trio. I worry about getting overloaded with estrogen.” He laughed.

  Dex laughed with him. Everyone knew how over-the-moon happy he was with his old high school sweetheart Ann. Though Jack, like Dex and Anson, had been out of town since graduating, they’d all managed to move back in time to rekindle old friendships—and old flames.

  Speaking of which… “I blackmailed Maya into dating me.”

  Anson rolled his eyes. “And you wonder why I don’t tell people we’re related.”

  Jack snorted. “You think that’s smart? Woman will slit your throat while you sleep, and we’ll be lucky to find your body. You know she has a kiln.”

  “Right. The artist.” Maya crafted amazing pottery and had been showcased in galleries across the Northwest. Sexy, gorgeous and skilled. Was it any wonder he still had the hots for her?

  “So how was the date?” Jack asked.

  “Really? We’re going to gossip about a girl like, well, girls?” Anson sneered.

  “I already filled him in,” Dex explained to Jack. Dex and Anson lived together in a nice rental on the West side. For all that Anson acted like an arrogant ass most of the time, he hid a heart of gold. The only son of doting parents and taught to believe in himself, he’d taken their lectures to heart. Maybe too much.

  To hear him tell it, Anson could do no wrong. The fact that he followed words with actions only made dealing with him that much worse. Dex tolerated his cousin’s attitude because he loved the guy, and he had to admit Anson was a lot of fun.

  Jack suggested Anson do something anatomically impossible to himself, to which Anson responded with an obscene gesture.

  “You guys are a riot.” Dex drained his beer and ordered another. With his height and weight, it took nearly a six pack to get him close to buzzed. But he didn’t want to get drunk, just mellow out and relax with the guys…while getting some much-needed intel. “Jack, tell me about Maya.”

  “Here we go.” Anson motioned for another round of drinks. “Barely back in town and he’s at it again.”

  “Please. Like I’m the only one. Don’t even pretend it’s nothing but chance you’re building a restaurant next to sexy Riley Hewitt.”

  Dex had always liked Ann and Riley. Ann, a petite redhead with eyes for his best bud, and Riley, the dark-skinned beauty he alternated naughty dreams with Maya about. As he’d matured, he still considered Riley beautiful. The woman could cook anyone under the table and from what he’d heard worked harder than anyone he’d known to finance her own bakery. Even in high school she’d known what she wanted to do.

  Dex on the other hand had known who he wanted to do. He grinned at the bad pun. Photography had been his first love, next to Maya. Now that he had the one, he intended to snag and keep the other.

  Jack looked from him to Anson, his brow raised. “So you want info on Maya or Riley? Or both?” he asked with a smirk aimed at Anson.

  Anson glared back. “I need to take a piss.” He hopped from his seat and disappeared.

  “Anger issues.” Jack shook his head.

  “Impatient bastard.” Dex laughed. “But he’s family. Now tell me about Maya.”

  “Impatient bastard,” Jack repeated with a grin. “She’s still snarky, unattached and sexy as hell. You sure you know what you’re in for trying to land her?”

  “Do I question your attraction to a woman I’d fear squashing in bed? I mean, dude, she’s so little.”

  Jack’s smile widened. “Just perfect for me. But I take your point. Maya… Hmm. You know she’s only got her dad.”

  “Right. Her mom died when she was a kid.” But he didn’t know much more than that. Her mother had to have been Native American, because her dad was Caucasian. Not a bad-looking guy, but Maya had clearly inherited most of her features from her mother.

  “Yeah. You know her dad, of course. Great guy. He’s friends with my parents and Riley’s mom. Probably a support group to get through the Terrible Trio’s growing years.” They both laughed. “Those girls are still thick as thieves. You take one, you kind of inherit the others. But I love that about Ann. She’s loyal and has terrific friends.”

  “Just like you,” Dex pointed out.

  “Oh yeah. My friends are great.”

  They both looked up as a growling Anson sat back down. Anson flagged down a server and barked an order for another beer, which arrived in seconds from a nervous waiter.

  Dex turned back to Jack. “So Maya. No steady guys?”

  Anson kept his mouth shut, thankfully, and nursed a second beer while Jack filled him in.

  “They don’t last long. Woman is rough on men. She’s nice enough, but I get the feeling she gets bored easily. Try not to be so nice, Dex. That might help.”

  Dex frowned. “I’m not nice.”

  Anson choked on his beer. “You’re kidding, right? Did you or did you not help an old lady across the street yesterday?”

  He flushed. “She’d lost her cane. Gimme a break.”

  Jack coughed but didn’t quite hide his laughter. “Polite is good. Boring is bad. Maya likes ’em a bit rough.”

  “I was in the Corps.” He knew how to handle himself just fine.

  “And you can be a bit of an asshole. You’re in,” Anson said drily. “In fact, now that I think about it, you and Maya are perfect for each other.”

  “You know, you’d be a lot more convincing as a dickhead if you weren’t being so helpful with my studio.”

  “Whatever.”

  Jack poked him. “Tell me more about the new place. How’s it going?”

  “You know I’m getting into portraits.”

  “Mundane photography,” Anson murmured. “The man’s lost his edge.”

  “Not mundane. Local stuff. Weddings, portraits, stuff like that. My downtown location is perfect for walk-ins or appointments. At first it’ll just be me, but I plan to hire on some help.”

  “Nice.” Jack gave him a thumbs-up. “I know you won a bunch of awards from those overseas shots in Afghanistan.”

  Dex shrugged. “Feels like a lifetime ago. Don’t get me wrong. I still plan to do the heavier stuff. Some wildlife and nature phot
os when I make trips to Asia and Africa. But mostly I want to settle down here.”

  “Near Ma-ya,” Anson added in a singsong voice.

  Dex just looked at him. “I know you don’t want to go there.”

  Anson shook his head but shut up and watched the hockey game on the TV overhead.

  When Jack frowned in question, Dex mouthed Riley.

  Jack nodded. “Right. So what else can I tell you about Maya? Hmm. Let me think. She’s still competitive. Still addicted to coffee. Has a soft spot for dogs and kids, go figure. At Halloween she gave out too much candy and Ann kept bitching at her to slow down. But of course they ran out, because our neighborhood is crazy at the holidays.”

  “I thought about buying in there, but it would have to be the right place.”

  “For the right girl.” Anson sighed. “Are you sure you’re set on her? I know a shitload of women who would love you. You have your own job, your own car, money, don’t live with your parents and aren’t paying four different child support payments a month. The coup de grace, you’re related to me. You could be rolling in pussy if you wanted.”

  “Now isn’t that an image.” Dex grimaced. “Thank you, but I can get my own dates. I’m not interested in easy or expensive.”

  “Hooker is not a four letter word,” Anson said.

  “Neither is girlfriend, you moron.”

  Jack laughed at them. “Oh man. I used to be you two. Wanting what I can’t have. Then I nabbed her.”

  “Lucky prick.” Dex wished he could be as happy as Jack. But he had a plan—to keep Maya on her toes by continuing to force her to date him.

  “Exactly how did that blackmail happen again?” Jack asked. “I was with Ann in the back room in your studio when it went down. Something about Selena’s face?”

  “It was a thing of beauty,” Anson admitted.

  Dex frowned. “I thought you said you didn’t see anything.”

  “I saw everything. Selena was mouthing off, then Maya belted her in the face. Broke her nose with a classic punch.”

  None of them had liked Selena, and they liked her even less now since she’d just divorced—and raked over the coals—a friend of theirs.