Undenied - Unspoken #3 - Maya Banks Page 0,2

pulled.”

She smiled. “Thanks, but no. I’m stuck driving all these lunatics home after they’ve gotten too drunk to remember their names.”

He turned to acknowledge another customer who’d walked up to the bar but then he looked back at her again. “I don’t know what was up Wes’s ass tonight, but he’s really a good guy. Couldn’t ask for better.”

“I’ll remember that,” she said dryly.

She swung around on her stool and leaned her back against the bar, glass of water in hand. She sipped idly as she watched her girlfriends laugh and whoop it up.

Wes Hoffman. After all these years. And lordy but he’d grown up well. As much as he sent her hormones buzzing when she was sixteen, her adult girly parts were all a-tingle from a simple glance.

When she’d driven into town, she’d wondered about him. Wondered if she’d run into him or if he’d long since left the small town they’d grown up in. But here he was, a cop, apparently still quite rooted in the community.

Had she grown up so awful? Had the idea of seeing her again been so horrible that he’d tucked tail and run at first sight? Because that’s exactly what he’d done, and the expression on his face when he’d seen her… Well, it couldn’t exactly be classified as priceless.

She sniffed in irritation. She might not be a playboy centerfold, but she wasn’t paper bag ugly either. And she knew damn well she had a decent body. Never had a man run from her like Wes Hoffman just had.

The more she thought about it, the more pissed she got. Was that any way to react to someone you hadn’t seen in twelve years? Would a “hey nice to see you!” be too much to ask for?

Jerk. Gorgeous, hunky jerk, but a jerk nonetheless. God, she was a sucker for a man with a goatee. It had bristled across her lips when she kissed him. Okay, well maybe she shouldn’t have kissed him, but again, she’d never gotten any complaints before.

Face it, Payton, you were way too damned pushy and you scared him away.

She huffed again and let out a long sigh. Oh well, c’est la vie and all that jazz. She wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

“Paaayyton!”

She grinned as the group of rowdy girls yelled at her from across the room. She turned, grabbed her cowboy hat and slapped it back on her head. Hell, she was here to have a good time. Piss on Wes Hoffman.

Chapter Two

“Do I suck in bed?”

Gracie Forsythe choked on her tea and coughed as she set the glass back down on the kitchen counter.

“What? Wes, are you smoking some funky weed or something?”

Wes sighed. He’d known this wouldn’t go over well. Not only was he further humiliated by airing his insecurities, but if Luke came back before he finished the conversation with Gracie, Wes would never live this down.

“Do I suck in bed?” he repeated.

“No. Now do you mind telling me what precipitated that question?”

“Okay, so I don’t suck, but am I any good?” he asked, ignoring her question.

Gracie cocked her head then circled around the island to stand in front of where he was slouched against the sink. “What’s going on with you, Wes? Where on earth would you get the idea that you were a lousy lay?”

He growled in frustration. He didn’t have all night to have this conversation with her. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up. His best friend’s wife probably wasn’t the best source for boosting his sexual ego even if she was in a position to judge. And well, she was as much his best friend as Luke was.

“Gracie, will you just answer the question instead of peppering me with more?”

Her eyes softened and she leaned back against the island so they faced each other. “Wes, the night we had our threesome was honestly the

best sex I’ve had in my life. I couldn’t have asked for better lovers than you and Luke.”

He shifted uncomfortably at her intense perusal.

“So you going to tell me what brought this up or are you going to make me play dirty?”

“Play dirty?” he asked, though he was afraid to find out what she meant. Gracie could be downright evil when provoked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you don’t want Luke to know about this little conversation.” She arched one brow. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have waited until he left to go get more beer. Nor would you have declined to go with him.”

“You wouldn’t.”

She batted her eyelashes