Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan

you told me about that works here.”
    Annie’s eyes widened. “Really?” She looked me over with new respect. “I didn’t think you had it in you to be so . . . flexible, Pepper.” She emphasized the word flexible, the innuendo deliberate. My face burned hotter. She might as well have called me a virgin to my face.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Emerson snapped.
    “Pepper is such a goody-goody. I didn’t think she’d be up for sharing him. I mean, the guy gets around, Em. He’s kissed like three girls tonight already. He’ll score with at least one of them before midnight. When I hooked up with him he was on break and we just used the backseat of my car.”
    “Ew.” Suzanne wrinkled her nose. “Remind me never to sit in the backseat of your car.”
    I closed my eyes in a slow blink. I wished Annie hadn’t said that. Now I had the image of them branded in my mind. The blood rushed to my head. The deep roar started in my ears as I thought of the kiss he gave me out by my car. It had seemed so spontaneous, almost as if it surprised him, too. Had I been one of many that night? My sense of betrayal was ridiculous. The guy was obviously experienced. I knew that. You didn’t get to be that good a kisser and not have a fair share of experience.
    “No way. You’re so full of it, Annie,” Emerson interjected.
    “Seriously,” she insisted. “I saw him feeling up a girl outside half an hour ago. And he was kissing another girl over by the dartboard just five minutes ago.” She jabbed a purple fingernail toward the corner where people threw darts.
    Suzanne shook her head. “We’ve been watching him for the last half hour. No way.”
    “Yeah,” Emerson agreed, looking at me as if I needed that reassurance. “She’s exaggerating. We’ve watched him for how many nights now? If your bartender was hooking up with other girls, we would have noticed.”
    I nodded, the tight band around my chest loosening. She and Suzanne were right. Annie couldn’t be talking about Reece. Maybe she was jealous. Or confused. I didn’t know her motivation. I only knew that he could not have made out with three other girls tonight without me noticing.
    Annie’s gaze suddenly shifted beyond my shoulder. Her bright red lips broke out in a smile. “Well, let’s just find out. There he is now.”
    I shook my head desperately, determined that Annie not embarrass me in front of him. “No! Really, you don’t have to do that!”
    Too late, she was calling hello and waving him over. Mortifying heat fired my cheeks. I felt a presence arrive just behind me. I was too horrified to look. I stared straight ahead as Annie stepped around the table, her arms opening for a hug. Her halter top only gaped wider, and I caught the barest flash of a nipple. The overwhelming urge to scratch her eyes out overcame me.
    “Hey, babe!” Her voice dripped like honey. “How are you?”
    Babe? I wanted to puke.
    “Good. Anna, right?” a male voice asked.
    “Annie,” she corrected, a flash of something ugly crossing her expression at his apparent forgetfulness.
    “Annie. That’s right,” said the deep, masculine voice.
    Emerson was already swiveling around on her stool. She elbowed me sharply in the ribs and let loose a small bark of laughter, which she quickly stifled behind her fingers.
    I glared at her, rubbing the offended area. She gave me an I-told-you-so look. See, she mouthed, nothing to worry about.
    “So you know my friend Pepper, here, right?” Annie asked, waving at me with a flourish.
    I swiveled fully on my stool, facing the inevitable—and felt my stomach plummet to my feet.
    It wasn’t him.
    It wasn’t Reece. Sure, this guy was hot. He even bore an uncanny resemblance to Reece, but it wasn’t him.
    “No,” he said, extending his hand to me, looking me over like he was imagining me without my clothes on. I shook his hand, at a loss for words.
    “Of course you do, Logan.” Annie frowned, looking between the two of us