Catch Me If You Can by Donna Kauffman Read Free Book Online Page B

to see him, I came up here to see you. And, well, Jory answered the door in a bath towel and—” She glanced at Jory and her cheeks flushed. She tried to look repentant when she glanced back at Maura, but didn’t even come close. So she did the shoulder lift again.
    Typically Maura was the kind of person who would do whatever it took to make things work. Life was tough enough, and being a hard-ass every time she encountered another stumbling block was only going to make it harder on her. Having trusted only a handful of people in her life, she well understood the value of friendship. In her heart, she knew she didn’t want to lose the one she had with Priss. She knew she should make some kind of last-ditch effort to salvage at least one relationship from the ashes of this fiasco.
    As it turned out, she wasn’t feeling that generous. “Funny, I didn’t think you were the type for sloppy seconds,” she said, apparently more pissed off than she’d realized. And once she’d given in to the anger and pain, the hurt of it all, it just kept flowing. She might not be proud of herself tomorrow, but at the moment, it felt pretty damn good. “I suppose it’s a good thing he’d already showered me off of him before giving you a go, eh?” She didn’t enjoy the lit tl e punch of hurt that opened Priss’s eyes wide, but she was a bit too wounded at the moment to feel particularly bad about it either. Instead she glanced dismissively at Jory. “He’s certainly all yours now.” She tucked the vase under her arm and clapped her hands. “Well done, both of you. Really.” She looked at Priss. “Of course, I don’t suppose I need to tell you how good he is in bed, seeing as you took the details I shared in private as a ringing endorsement. Perhaps I should think twice about broadcasting such an explicit advert next time.” She blinked back the sudden burning sensation crowding at the corners of her eyes. Clinging to her wounded pride was the only thing keeping the tears at bay. “I only hope he was worth it.” She stepped back to clear the path to the door.
    “Mo, come on, we can talk this out,” Priss began, clutching her black leather boots to her chest. She took a step back when Maura glared at her. “Not now, of course, but later. I want to explain it all to you. Will you at least promise me you’ll hear me out? It wasn’t just sex.”
    Since being shushed, Jory had wisely stayed out of it. He’d remained sitting on the bed, still quite naked and making no attempt whatsoever to cover himself up. Of course, it had been his absolute comfort in his own skin, and his ability to make her feel the same, that had drawn her to the charming bastard in the first place.
    But his ego—which was just as healthy as his appetite for sex, and justly so she’d always thought, up until now anyway—couldn’t let that last comment pass. “What d’ya mean, ‘just sex,’ ” he demanded of Priss, all male affront and stung pride. “Sure, I had you coming less than a minute after I slid my hand in your panties, but it was you who put my hand there in the first place. Otherwise, I’d have—”
    “Otherwise you’d have what? ” Priss exclaimed, rounding on him. “It’s not like I jumped you. You answered the door wearing a goddamn towel, which you conveniently let drop. You know damn well we’ve been less than a heartbeat away from going at each other for weeks. What in the hell did you think was going to happen?”
    Jory looked confused, which Maura realized wasn’t unusual for him. What was unusual was the honest hurt she thought she saw in his eyes. Which confused her now as well.
    “So then that’s it?” he said. “ That’s all you were after?”
    “No!” Priss huffed. “For Christ’s sake, I said it wasn’t just sex. Wasn’t.”
    “ Then why did you just say—”
    “Shut up, both of you!” Maura exclaimed, momentarily clamping her hands over her ears. “And get dressed while you’re at it. I want