Dirty Power Read Online Free PDF Page B

it.
    “I’m relaxed. Get off me.” I jerked my chin out of his hands.
    “Sure.” He took his beer back.
    “That chick needs to ease up. Reese isn’t into her.” I started to push off the wall. I was going to separate Reese from the woman who was standing far too close to her. Ryan grabbed my arm and pulled me back until my shoulders slammed into the wall.
    “Leave it. It’ll only piss her off.”
    “She needs help.” She didn’t.
    “Reese can handle herself.”
    “Shit. I know. I just can’t handle it.” And I hated myself for not being able to watch Reese. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. Hell, she had turned away nearly every woman who had approached her. They all left looking happy just to have managed a minute of conversation. Reese could be nice when she wanted to. She just wasn’t being nice enough to me.
    “It’s okay.” He pulled me into a one-armed hug that I seriously needed. “You guys will figure it out.”
    “Thanks.”
    “But don’t be so damn needy. Makes you look pathetic. She hates that.” Apparently, my nice BFF had left the building. Now Ryan was just keeping it real and shit.
    “You’re so helpful.”
    “I know.”
    “Shit. She’s coming over here.” And she was. Reese was maneuvering toward us. She was somehow sipping a radioactive drink as she weaved around people. That took mad skill. Or maybe not. It was only her second drink. Ryan and I were on four. Maybe five. I wasn’t sure. “Serious. She’s coming right over here.”
    “Damn, Coop. What is this? Your first high school dance? Be cool.”
    “Sorry. Shit. Fuck. What’s wrong with me?”
    “You’re a tool,” he answered.
    “Thanks.”
    “You guys about ready to get out of here?” Reese asked once she was close enough to us. “Maybe finish our drinks and go?”
    “Sure.” I tried to be nonchalant. I think it worked.
    “Wait,” Ryan said.
    We both looked at him, but he didn’t say anything else. His gaze was locked on something across the room. I followed his line of sight and found the only sexy straight girl in the bar. Ryan had a talent for that shit.
    He still didn’t say anything. Just handed me his beer and walked away.
    “Damn. Now we need to get another room,” Reese said.
    “Yep.”
    Ryan got halfway to the girl before she realized someone was watching her. He didn’t say or do anything. But I knew he was looking at her with those sleepy, stoned, bedroom eyes of his. They were impossible to resist. I’d seen women try and fail. The boy knew how sexy he was.
    Their encounter took two minutes. Less than, maybe. And then they were gone and stumbling back to our hotel.
    “If we hurry, we can get him another room before he takes over ours,” Reese said.
    “Let’s go.” I ditched the two bottles I was holding and grabbed her hand. Because the bar was crowded and so were the streets. I didn’t want to lose her. Swear. It had nothing to do with simply wanting to hold her hand.
    A block later, Reese pointed out Ryan and his temporary girlfriend.
    “They’re definitely heading to our hotel,” I said.
    “Yeah, but they’re moving slow.” If moving slow was a euphemism for making out on a street corner, then yes, they were moving slow. “Cross the street and pass him.”
    “Yes, sir,” I said.
    Reese glared.
    We got to the hotel and reserved a room on the same floor as ours. The kid working the counter handed me the keycard about two seconds before Ryan and mystery girl stumbled into the lobby. I made sure the room number was scrawled on the envelope he had handed me, then followed Reese to the elevator.
    Ryan was too busy doing a thorough tonsil inspection, as all refined boys do, to notice us standing next to him. I stuck the card into his back pocket. That he noticed. He grinned and went back to making out. The elevator came. Which was good because they were kind of gross and noticeable in the lobby of this far too tasteful hotel.
    Reese and I waited for another elevator.
    “That