His eyes drifted over to a curvy little drama queen on the other side of the aisle, who was also bouncing as she clapped. Drawing attention to herself, as usual. It wasn’t hard for her, since she was also beautiful, but couldn’t she just be happy with the regular amount of attention? Why did she have to go out of her way to be the center of it all the time?

Although her need for attention didn’t irk him nearly as much as how all her obnoxious quirks, her lack of responsibility, and her crass mouth still didn’t keep his cock from twitching every time he looked at her. She was exactly the kind of woman he’d never wanted, but for some reason his body disagreed with that sentiment. Even worse, she was friends with his sister and all of his other friends, so it wasn’t like he could just talk her into bed, get her out of his system, and then peace out. He’d never actually done so before but some of his army buddies had, especially when they were overseas, and it seemed to work for them. This was the first time he’d ever had to deal with a woman he both disliked and desperately wanted but couldn’t have, and he didn’t quite know what to do about it.

It also bothered him that she riled his protective instincts. She was still looking for someone to be her roommate, putting up ads on Craig’s List and other places, attracting who knew what weirdos. There was no reason for it. She was a trust fund baby, she didn’t need a roommate. She probably just didn’t want to live alone because then there’d be no one to pay attention to her.

I could pay all sorts of attention to her.

Jake gritted his teeth. His cock wasn’t really talking to him. That was just some bullshit which had started after he’d met Sharon and overheard her having a conversation with her lady parts. Somehow, she’d gotten into his head, and now he couldn’t help but think it was his cock talking to him whenever he had an inappropriately sexual thought about her. Which just made him want to bang his head against a wall until he was sane again. Not an unusual impulse when it came to her.

A poke in his side had him jumping. “Our turn to leave, dude,” Chris said as Jake shot a glare at him. “Stop staring at Sharon and pay attention.”

The seats on the other side of Jake were already empty, because Patrick and Lexie had moved into the aisle to head to the door and the other side of the dance studio, where the reception was going to be.

“I wasn’t - never mind.”