“God, you’re pissing me off so much right now.”

He leaned in. “Maybe, but you still wanna fuck me. When you’re ready to talk, come find me. My tongue’s ready to do whatever you want.”

He walked away. Her sound of outrage was satisfying.

Chapter 24

Cherisse

THESE PING-PONGING emotions were annoying. As was Keiran. The damn man. How dare he try to make her feel guilty for hanging out with Jerome? Which was really what going to Fleur’s Tea Shop had been about. She didn’t even like tea, but the shop was so cute and served other beverages, and Jerome was a cool guy to hang out with.

She liked Jerome. He was easy to talk to, and they’d bonded over both of their mothers’ ridiculous attempts at matchmaking, so it had been the perfect distraction from this Keiran mess, not that she’d told Jerome any of that. He was still Keiran’s family.

Was she a terrible person for leaving him to believe she was in any way interested in Jerome romantically?

“What’d that pencil do to you?” Remi whispered in her ear.

Cherisse looked down at her grip on her pencil. She’d crumpled one corner of the games sheet, too, without even realizing. She was supposed to be chipper and ready to host the games with Reba, not thinking about Keiran or that parting comment. Or that his words had heat pooling everywhere, even as she was fuming. She hated this.

She tried to smoothen the crinkled edges, eased her death grip on the pencil. “Nothing,” she said.

“Something happen before I got here?” Remi asked.

“Keiran King happened, that’s what,” she muttered before plastering on her best smile. “Nothing I can’t handle.” She found his smug face among the guests, remembered that discreet middle finger she’d tossed him at Ava’s engagement party. Unsure she could pull off the move as smoothly, this time, she didn’t try it. She just returned his grin and then got into host mode.

The games ran smoothly. Reba was a great co-host, ad-libbing jokes, hyping everyone up, even managing to capture all the fun moments on her phone. Ava and Eric were clearly having fun, which was all Cherisse had hoped for during the course of planning this. That and surviving Keiran. She was crashing and burning at the latter because right now, even as pissed as she was at him, her eyes kept finding his.

She needed air. The games were over, and people were either heading off to the cozy corners or engaging in conversation with the bride and groom-to-be. The perfect opportunity to slip away, especially with fatigue lingering in her bones. It would hit her hard.

She’d expected the crash to descend a bit later on after she got home. Planning events, in general, was exhausting, but working with Keiran had her emotions all over the place. As she stepped outside, she hoped no one would need her for anything. She should have taken advantage of one of the cozy corners, but that meant still interacting with others while they had movie time. Why hadn’t she thought of having a single cozy corner made for herself?