Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan Page A

and insisting, “You know Pepper.”
    His smile flickered for a moment. “Uh, sorry, no. Should I remember you?” I could see the wheels in his head turning, searching his memory of girls he had slept with.
    I shook my head dumbly and shoved at Emerson who was laughing herself silly beside me now. “No. We haven’t met before.”
    Logan . His name was Logan.
    His fingers still held my hand in a warm clasp. “Thought so. I would have remembered someone so pretty.” Slick. And with a face like his, I bet he didn’t have to work too hard.
    Emerson, who was still laughing, held up a hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You work here? How come we haven’t seen you the last couple nights we’ve been here?”
    “I only pick up a shift here and there. Usually I work one or two days during the week, but Reece called me in when one of the guys got sick.” He shrugged one shoulder, considering Em now with the same thoroughness with which he had examined me. Apparently he liked what he saw. He winked at her, his smile widening to reveal straight perfect teeth. “I was free.”
    Em grinned back, clearly dazzled.
    “Reece?” I echoed.
    “Yeah. My brother.”
    “Your brother,” I breathed.
    Annie was laughing now, holding her sides, her boobs jiggling.
    Emerson looked at me a little worriedly at this new information.
    “Your brother?” I murmured. Things clicked into place in my head. I’d been throwing myself at some guy who wasn’t the bar’s resident man-whore. Logan was the younger brother Reece had mentioned. Oh. God.
    Annie wiped at her eyes, leaving streaks of mascara on her cheeks. “Oh, this is too precious. Don’t tell me you were making a play for Reece. Oh, he doesn’t give the time of day to anyone.”
    “Well, he gave the time of day to Pepper,” Em retorted, angry color filling her face. “He kissed her. Maybe he’s just not into skanks.”
    Annie flattened a hand to her impressive cleavage. “Oh, I’m the skank?”
    Logan’s eyebrows lifted. “My brother kissed you?” He assessed me with new interest, ignoring the hostile banter.
    “Yeah.” Annie waved a hand in agitation. “Don’t you get it? She thought he was you .”
    I closed my eyes in a slow, pained blink, my hope fleeing that this might somehow not get back to Reece.
    “What?” Now Logan looked genuinely confused. He waved a finger between the two of us. “You came here to make out with me?”
    My mortification only grew. “Of course not.”
    Annie nodded sagely. “Your reputation precedes you.”
    After a long moment in which I wanted to curl up and die, the confusion cleared from his features. His grin returned, and his chest swelled. “Cool. I’ve got a rep.”
    I dropped down from my stool, feeling like the biggest idiot. “I have to go.”
    Emerson nodded sympathetically. “I’ll go with you.” With a quick good-bye to everyone—even Annie, who I would rather have slapped—we began wending our way through the bar. We had to stop occasionally for Emerson to chat with someone she knew. I shifted on my feet impatiently, scanning faces, hoping desperately that Reece wouldn’t appear. I couldn’t talk to him right now. I couldn’t play cool and unaffected.
    The crowd grew tighter. A body bumped me, and I lost my grip on Em’s wrist. I felt like a buoy at sea, tossed in the current. I stretched onto my tiptoes and called for her, searching for her among the flushed faces.
    Suddenly I felt her grip back on my wrist. My chest loosened. Now we can leave .
    My gaze swung up. Reece stared down at me.
    The hundred-pound weight was back on my chest, pressing down hard, trapping my breath. My face burned, flamed, the encounter with his brother still fresh. Embarrassingly so. “Hey, there,” I said lamely, studying him closely, trying to gauge what he knew.
    His fingers burned an imprint onto my skin. I could feel the shape of each one locked around me.
    His lips flattened into a grim line. “Heard you met my brother.”
    My