Sea Breeze 04 - Just for Now

tightly wound now than he had been before. This was a really bad idea. My coming here was going to be an issue.
    “Did I take your seat, Preston?” I asked, trying to distract him.
    He shifted his gaze to me. “No. You’re fine. I’m gonna go grab another beer and I’ll get a stool. You want something?”
    “A Coke, please,” I replied.
    He nodded and headed toward the bar.
    “Amanda” Marcus called my name, and I tore my eyes off of Preston’s retreating form and looked at him.
    “Yes?”
    “Why do I feel like I’m missing something here?” he asked, studying my face closely.
    I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    He looked back at Preston at the bar. Preston was getting our drinks and blowing off a girl at the same time. He looked very uninterested, which made me smile. Preston’s eyes met mine and a knowing grin tugged at his lips. His eyes shifted to my brother’s and the smile vanished.
    I decided to study the stage. Jackdown had just come back on the stage, and Trisha was doing her normal cheering.
    “Here’s your Coke,” Preston said, sliding a mug of ice and a can in front of me, then pulling up a stool on the other side of Marcus. He wasn’t sitting beside me. This was so frustrating. I just wanted to tell Marcus and let him get over it. How bad could it be?
    The music was too loud to hear anything else, so no one talked while Krit’s voice filled the room. He had a smooth sound with a little raspy touch to it that made girls go crazy. I had to admit, the guy was hot. I’d never really been into him like a lot of my friends, but then, deep down I’d always had a thing for Preston. It was hard to focus my attention on anyone else. I had liked Dameon in high school but it was never anything very serious.
    A girl walked up to Preston and started whispering in his ear. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and his eyes shot directly to me. This was what I was afraid of when I’d decided to come tonight. Girls knew Preston as a player. They loved him for it. Preston moved forward away from her mouth, which was entirely too close to his body.
    His eyes never left mine. I dropped my gaze to my soda and contemplated just leaving. This was too hard. I couldn’t get upset about the girl because of Marcus. Preston couldn’t act like he was taken because of Marcus. If I was going to be anything more than just a blip on Preston’s radar, we were going to have to tell Marcus.
    I couldn’t just keep going this way. Preston’s reputation would require he act a certain way to keep Marcus from questioning things. I reached for my purse and stood up. I’d tell Marcus bye and go back home. It was where I should have stayed.
    Preston was up and out of his seat before I could say anything. I stopped and watched as he pushed the girl away and walked over to me. “Dance with me,” he said in my ear, taking my purse and laying it back down on the table, then pulling me out to the dance floor.

Chapter Seventeen
Preston
    I’d be fighting tonight, but it wouldn’t be with some guy who was getting too close to Amanda. It would be with her brother. He’d been watching me closely, and I’d just given him a very good reason to suspect something. But it had been a choice between letting the girl paw all over me in front of Amanda and watching her face fall, or having my best friend take a swing at me, so I was going with the ass kicking.
    I couldn’t let her walk out of here like that. She’d been upset and about to bolt. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
    “What are you doing?” she asked as I pulled her into my arms once we were in the mass of moving bodies. Hopefully, far enough in that Marcus couldn’t see us. Although there was a good chance he was right behind us.
    “Dancing with you,” I replied, slipping my hands down over the curve of her hips.
    She smiled. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
    I glanced back over my shoulder to see if Marcus was barreling down on us. Coast was still clear. I turned back to Amanda. “You were about to leave,” I told her.
    Her face pinched into a frown. “Yeah, well, I’d seen more than I could stomach.”
    I pulled her closer to me and bent my head to whisper in her ear. “I’m only interested in you. If you’d left, I’d have chased your sexy ass down.”
    She laughed, slipped a hand up my chest, then twined it behind my neck. “I’d have let you catch me. You wouldn’t have had to try real hard.”
    I was ready to haul her out