Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4) Read online

  She only tossed her hair and giggled again, her eyes never leaving mine as she stepped forward, deliberately moving toward Ian, who backed away from her advance, hands still clenched at his sides. She kept going, watching me as she backed him into the wall and pressed herself against him, rubbing her chest against his. She dropped my gaze long enough to lean forward, aiming her lips toward Ian’s face and, when he turned his face away, licked along his jawline until she pressed her lips against his cheek, leaving a bright red imprint of her lips behind before he brought his hands up and cupped her shoulders, gently but firmly pushing her away from him.

  In that moment, I wished, just for a second, that Ian was the type of man to hit a woman. Because there was no woman on the face of the planet who deserved it more right then.

  Unable to control myself, I stepped forward, my hands fisted at my sides so I wouldn’t jerk her away by her hair and pound her in her face until she was unrecognizable. “Bitch,” I said, tightly, but I didn’t get any further.

  Ian moved away from her, grasping my arm and pulling me into him, his arms wrapping around me for two obvious reasons. One, to keep me from attacking, and two, to show Victoria, again, that he was choosing me.

  His words, when he spoke, were sharp and brutal. He pulled no punches this time, all thinly veiled attempts at niceness completely out the window.

  “I’ve told you time and time again that there is nothing between us. There never will be. Any schemes that you have with my parents, or even on your own, that you’ve cooked up in that Godforsaken bubble of a brain, just forget them. It’s NEVER going to fucking happen. Do you understand?”

  I could feel him trembling against me, knew he was beyond pissed.

  Victoria cocked a hip and pouted, sticking her lip out comically, like a five year old would. Her eyes filled with tears and she stood there staring for just a second before she stomped her foot and shrieked in her throat, literally throwing a temper tantrum.

  I couldn’t help it. Disbelieving laughter bubbled from my lips. I mean, seriously, was this 30 year old woman really acting like a toddler?

  As soon as she heard me laughing, the pout left her face and I bit my lips, all traces of humor gone in an instant because that cold calculation was back in her eyes. She drew Ian’s hoodie close around her and walked to the door, swaying her hips exaggeratedly. She stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder at us.

  “I tire of these games, Ian. I’ve overlooked all of your little affairs over the years, knowing that you just had to get it out of your system before we got married and started our family, just like our parents have always planned. But this one? She’s overstayed her welcome. I’ll give you six months to deal with this…this…” she waved her hand at me, her face twisted in disgust before she continued, “girl. But then I expect you to come home to me. And trust me, I’ll be checking in in the meantime to make sure that you’re scraping her off.”

  After delivering her ridiculous ultimatum, she flung her hair over her shoulder and strode out.

  I glanced up at Ian and saw him staring out the doorway, a muscle in his cheek twitching. I slid my arms around his waist and buried my face against his chest, shaking my head, utterly baffled by what had just happened.

  I felt Ian pull me closer, then his head came down and he rested his cheek against the top of mine. He held me like that for a moment, then lifted my face to his with a gentle finger under my chin.

  “You know that she’s completely delusional right? There’s no way in hell that I knew she was going to be waiting here in my office…”

  “I know. But…God, Ian, did you see the way she looked at me? Like, I felt chills. Does she have a history of torturing household pets, or any other characteristics of a serial killer? Because, seriously, she just gave me that vibe.”

  A ghost of a smile crossed Ian’s face and faded quickly. “No, she’s not dangerous. But she’s obviously got a screw looser than I thought. Don’t worry, baby. I’m not playing around anymore. I’m calling my parents and letting my mom know exactly what I think of her conniving little ploy, and then I’ll be calling Victoria’s parents and telling them just what she’s been up to.”

  I kept silent. There was nothing to say to that because I think we both knew that it wouldn’t help. We’d thought she’d given up and she came back with a vengeance.

  And now, I was a little afraid to see what she’d come up with next.

  An hour later, it was still the foremost thought on my mind as I threw together a salad while Ian grilled some steaks and corn on the cob for dinner. We really hadn’t spoken any more about it; I don’t think either of us wanted to bring it up.

  Ian came in the back door and sat the platters of perfectly cooked meat and corn down on the counter, then placed a sweet kiss on my shoulder as he moved behind me to the cabinet to get plates out for us to eat on.

  We sat at the table to eat rather than eating in the living room in front of the TV, which is what we usually did. But then again, it’s easier to eat corn on the cob and steak when you’re not balancing a plate in your lap. Trust me. Or, I guess it could be just that my whole family is just accident prone…

  Ian was the first to break the silence. “So, the big party is tomorrow, huh?” He waggled his eyebrows at me, making me roll my eyes and grin at him.

  “Yes, the party is tomorrow. Why?” I asked him suspiciously.

  “Nothing. Just wondering.” He shot me a cocky smile and I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “You’re up to something,” I stated, pointing my finger in his direction. “What did you do? Or what are you going to do?”

  He pretended to look affronted, gasping, “Me? How dare you assume that I’m up to something? You know what they say about assuming…”

  “I’m keeping my eye on you,” I told him, and he only laughed at me and finished eating.

  He helped clean up the kitchen and just as we were about to sit down in the living room, there was a knock at the door.

  Ian went to answer it, stepping back and letting my brother inside.

  “Since when do you lock the door?” he asked me.

  “Uh, since the last time you walked in here unannounced and…well, you know what happened.” I could feel my face turning red, even though it’d been a while since.

  Calland visibly cringed and shuddered. “Yeah. Truth. Thanks for reminding me of the reason I willingly gave up my key.”

  See, Ian and I were getting busy on the kitchen counter one afternoon and Calland dropped in. Needless to say, he got an eyeful of Ian’s bare ass (thankfully that’s all he saw) and hightailed it out like his own ass was on fire. I hadn’t been able to look him in the eye after that until just recently.

  “What’s up?” I asked him, thinking it a little weird that he was at my house, alone, on a Friday night.

  He blew out a breath and moved past me, falling onto the couch and saying, “I think I’m in trouble.”

  I glanced at Ian, seeing the same surprise etched on his face that I knew was on mine. We both sat back down, Ian in the recliner, and me on the couch beside Calland as I asked, “What do you mean, you think you’re in trouble? Calland, what’s going on?”

  “You know that girl I’ve been seeing?”

  “Lucy?” I asked him, hedging on the name. I can’t keep track of all the different ones he dates all the time.

  He shook his head. “Lily, but nice try. Okay, so you remember the girl I dated before that?”

  I raised my hands, shrugging and shaking my head as I tried to think. “I don’t know, Fluffy? Muffin?” (To my credit, I managed to keep a straight face while teasing him.)

  He glared at me. “Ha ha, funny. No, Grace.”

  “Yeah, Calland, I don’t really remember. I can’t keep all your women straight. Have you thought about settling down? Maybe keeping one for longer than a month or two?”

  “Oh, got jokes tonight, huh?” he said, then turned to Ian and asked, “How the hell do you put up with her?�
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  Ian just grinned and replied, “Cause she’s awesome and I love her.”

  Calland pretended to gag. “Anyway, so I just found out that Grace is Lily’s sister.”

  I stayed silent for a moment, letting the logistics of that sink in. “So, you dated Grace. Now you’re dating Lily, and they’re sisters. I mean, that’s kinda low, moving from one sister to the next, Calland. I mean, what the hell is Grace saying about this?”

  “Well,” he hedged, “That’s where the trouble is. I just found out. I knew Grace had a sister, but they didn’t get along the greatest. I never met her, never knew what her name was. But then Lily was just talking about her sister, who’s named Grace, and how they’ve gotten closer lately and she’s so happy about it.”

  Ian chimed in. “So? There’s a lot of Graces in the world. How do you know that she’s talking about the Grace you were just seeing?”

  Calland sighed. “Maybe because she showed me a picture of her sister who apparently is so heartbroken over the douchecanoe that broke up with her a couple months ago. I’m not kidding. She held up the picture and asked me, ‘Look? Isn’t she so pretty? How could that ass just toss her away like that? She said he’s already dating some other skank. Can you believe it?’”

  I snorted, trying to contain my laughter, but failed miserably because he had raised his voice and delivered “Lily’s” speech in a creepy, valley-girl inspired falsetto. “Please tell me that’s not how she really sounds?” I asked him, mockingly.

  “Does it matter? How the hell do you tell the girl you’re seeing that the skank who’s dating her sister’s ex is her?” Calland threw his hands up and sat forward on the couch, running his hands through his hair agitatedly.

  “Wow.”

  He glared at me. “Is that all you have to say? Wow?”

  “What do you want me to say, Calland? You’re 29 and practically a confirmed bachelor. You’re a serial dater who always seems to find the most vapid females around to date. What you need is to find a good woman who won’t put up with your shit, and who’ll knock you down a peg or two when you need it.” I cocked my head at him and widened my eyes as I continued, “Which is always.”

  He curled his lip up at me. “God, you sound like Mom. But that’s not going to solve my problem right now. What do I do?”

  “You’re gonna have to tell her the truth. You can’t keep dating her after just breaking her sister’s heart. What are you gonna do when she wants to double date with her sister? When she wants you to set her sister up with a friend?” I asked him.

  “I know…” he replied, sounding glum.

  “Well if you know, then why’d you come here asking me for advice?”

  “I really didn’t come for advice. I just needed an alibi since I told her I couldn’t go out with her tonight because I promised I’d come over here for dinner and to talk about family stuff.”

  “You’re an ass, Calland,” I told him, shaking my head at him.

  “But you love me,” was his reply.

  Chapter 8

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” Chloe gasped, her jaw dropping.

  “I wish I was,” I replied, succinctly.

  We were at Allie’s house for the Down & Dirty party, helping her set things up. Allie and Emma were in the kitchen putting together a veggie tray while Chloe and I moved chairs into the living room from the dining room table to make sure there were enough seats for everyone.

  I was filling Chloe in on all the details of what happened with Victoria at Ian’s office yesterday, and while I wasn’t whispering, I wasn’t talking loudly, but that didn’t stop my sister and Allie from stomping into the living room, wiping their hands on paper towels.

  “I heard the name Victoria and I know you aren’t in here telling stories that we can’t hear,” Emma said sternly. Allie stood beside her, nodding her agreement.

  I opened my mouth to say something and the door opened, bringing my mom and oldest sister, Jenna, into the room. They called their hellos, but only got half-assed hellos in response because everyone was still staring at me.

  Chloe gave me a sympathetic look, because I’d already told her I was just gonna fill the rest of my family in at breakfast tomorrow, but…my family, especially the women, are like a dog with a bone when they want to know something. They’d do well in the CIA or the FBI; they’d just talk prisoners to death, or at least into giving up all the information they had.

  My mom’s eagle eye read the situation immediately and turned to me. “What are you hiding?”

  I threw my hands up. “I’m not hiding anything! Geez Louise, people!” I sighed. “Can’t a girl have a private conversation with her best friend?”

  “Leah Nicole…” Mom warned, and I grinned.

  “Okay, my God. I was gonna tell you all at breakfast tomorrow, but just wanted to tell Chloe because she and Brandon can’t make it tomorrow.” I shot Chloe an apologetic look, because I’d just essentially thrown her under the bus.

  My mom picked up on that immediately, too. “Chloe? You guys aren’t coming tomorrow?”

  Chloe glared at me and then smiled at my mom, shaking her head regretfully. “No, we actually already had plans…” she took in my mom’s crestfallen expression and backpedaled. “But we can move things around and be there!” she said brightly.

  My mom beamed because she’d just gotten her way. “Good, that means everyone will be there, including your mom and her…and T.J. and Allie’s parents, too.”

  Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “My mom and her what, Mrs. Jensen?”

  “Oh, blah. I’ve told you time and time again, call me Jan. Mrs. Jensen was my mother-in-law. And, nothing, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Don’t mind the ramblings of an old woman. Now, Leah, you tell us right now what you’re hiding.”

  And just like that, my mom had effectively closed that subject.

  “I wasn’t hiding anything, I promise,” I began, and then told them everything that had happened with Victoria.

  With all that finally out of the way, we got back to setting up for the party. Chloe and I headed to Allie’s office to start dragging out her tubs of stuff and getting it all laid out on the table she had set up in front of the fireplace.

  Chloe was arranging the wide array of dildos, cock rings, vibrators, bullets, and other interesting items designed to make you scream alongside the bottles, jars, and tubes containing creams, lotions, powders, and lubes of all types for whatever you could imagine, while I went back to get the star of the show, Big Kirky.

  I was a little apprehensive lugging him into the living room, because, well…I honestly didn’t know what kind of crazy thing Nanny would pop off with when she saw him. Big Kirky was an eighteen inch tall, ten inch diameter, jelly-type dildo, complete with veins and balls, and the thing weighed like ten pounds.

  Allie joked around about using him for a door stop (which I think she actually did at one point), but really she had just gotten him for the shock factor when she started selling Down & Dirty. I’ve been to a few of her parties over the past few years, and he’s always been the ice breaker, for sure.

  Thankfully, Nannny had gone into the kitchen with Daisy and my mom, so I made my way over to Chloe, calling out for her to clear a spot for Big Kirky. She shook her head and laughed as she did so, then laughed even harder at the thump he made when I set him down.

  We moved back from the table and studied our handiwork, satisfied that we’d remembered to set up everything like Allie had asked us to.

  She came into the living room, holding a stack of catalogs and pens in her hands. When she saw the table, she nodded to us. “Thank you, you two! Looks great! I guess we’re ready?”

  I shrugged, looking around. I didn’t see anything else that needed to be done. The front door opened and Jackson walked in.

  “Jesus…” he muttered as his eyes went directly to the table we’d set up. “I forgot about that thing.”

  Allie just grinned and lifted her face to meet his kiss. “What
are you doing here? The party is getting ready to start.”

  “I know, I just forgot to grab extra diapers to refill the diaper bag with and wanted to get them before everyone got here,” Jackson called over his shoulder as he headed upstairs. He was back downstairs in an instant, clutching a handful of diapers.

  Emma walked out of the kitchen munching on a carrot stick and almost ran into him as he stepped off the stairs. “Ooh. Sorry, Jacks,” she said, patting his chest fondly and moving away from him. She stopped and turned back to him, her eyes narrowing.

  “Where’d you come from?” she asked.

  “This is my house, you know,” he said, drolly.

  “Smart ass,” she muttered. “You know what I mean. Is everything okay with Luke and Everly?”

  Since the party was at Allie and Jacks’ house, all the guys, along with the babies, were hanging at Luke and Emma’s house.

  “Chill, mama bear, everything’s fine,” Jackson said to her. “I just needed to grab some diapers.”

  Emma looked confused. “You could have just grabbed one of Everly’s. She just moved up to the same size as Liam. Why’d Luke make you walk over here just for diapers?”

  Allie interjected with, “Yeah, what she said. You checking up on us?”

  Jackson gave her a look and said, “No, woman. I’m not checking up on you. I’m also NOT putting my SON in one of Everly’s diapers. They’re girly!”

  Emma screwed her face up at him. “What? They aren’t girly, they’re just normal diapers,” she said, looking at him like he’d lost his mind.

  “They have Minnie Mouse on them!” Jackson exclaimed, looking affronted that it was even suggested he use a diaper depicting a female cartoon character on his son.

  Emma rolled her eyes and said, “They also have Mickey Mouse on them.” She turned to Allie. “Your husband…”