Green With Envy

*Garrett and Aysunn aren't mine.

Isabel ignored the sounds of the party around her, blocking out the music and the chatter of people's voices as she typed up an email for work on her phone. She didn't know how she ended up there when she had a mountain of work to do. It probably had something to do with the puppy-dog eyed look Alistair had turned on her—the look that made it near impossible to say no to the man.

So there she was, stuck at a party while trying to get some work done. It wasn't exactly how she planned her evening.

The couch dipped next to her, and she tore her gaze away from her phone, expecting to find Alistair returning to sit with her. She couldn't have been more wrong.

"Garrett," she greeted, retuning her focus to her phone as she continued typing away.

"Don't tell me you're working at a party," the brunet said dramatically. "I thought you were more fun than that."

"I'll have you know that I am very fun," she declared, her eyes not leaving the screen as she typed. "If I didn't have all this work to do, I'd be the most fun person here."

"Put the phone down and prove it."

Isabel stopped typing and met Garrett's gaze, the brunet waggling his eyebrows at her. "No," she said simply, shooting him a glare before returning to her work.

"Ugh, you remind me of Andy," Garrett whined. "Did you know we went to a club and he started writing a paper? A paper!"

"It's such a shame he didn't devote every minute of his attention to you," she replied sarcastically.

"Ouch! That one hurt, Isabel," he said, bringing his hand to his chest in mock offense. "How do you sleep at night?"

Isabel looked up from her work, fixing him with a mischievous grin. "On silk sheets. Rolling naked in money."

Garrett's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"No, of course not," she said. "Well, not the rolling in money part. The rest of it, yes." Garrett slowly nodded, a foolish grin spreading across his face. "You're picturing me naked now, aren't you?"

"You brought it up!"

She sighed, shaking her head and returning her attention back to her work. "Just don't bring it up in front of Alistair. I don't think he'd appreciate it."

"You think he'd get jealous?"

"I don't know. I've actually never seen him jealous."

"You should try it," Garret said. "Andy's pretty hot when he's jealous."

Isabel snorted a laugh. "You say that with such conviction. I take it that sort of thing happens a lot?"

"Sort of," he replied, a devious grin on his face.

She laughed, rolling her eyes as she tried to return to her work… but a certain idea had sparked in the back of her mind. She didn't know what Alistair was like when he was jealous… but she could certainly find out.

"Garrett," she started, putting her phone away for good. "You wanted me to prove that I'm fun… are you willing to help me out with that?"

He quirked a curious eyebrow at her. "What did you have in mind?"

"Just a little game," she said, her gaze flicking over to where Alistair stood speaking to Varric and Aysunn. She found Andy across the room, in a conversation with Bethany and Merrill. "What do you say to finding out which one of our boyfriends gets more jealous? Who would cave in first given a certain situation, Alistair or Andy?"

"You're on," Garrett replied, a cocky grin spreading across his face.

"Good." In one swift movement, Isabel sat up and tugged the skirt of her dress up, swinging her leg over his and straddling his lap. She loosely draped her arms over his shoulders, smirking as the grin dropped off his face, his eyes widening the slightest bit.

"You really weren't kidding about this, were you?" he muttered, taking a moment to assess the situation.

"Nope," she replied. Garrett grabbed her thighs and started to sit up, but Isabel wasn't about to hand the reins over to him. "I don't think so," she said, placing her hand on his chest and pressing him back against the couch. "I like to be in charge," she purred.

"Alistair goes for that?"

"You'd be surprised at what he likes." Isabel narrowed her eyes at him, studying him. "Do yougo for that, Garrett? Are you uncomfortable?"

"No!" he said quickly, holding her gaze. "You're not the first woman I've had in my lap."

"No, but I'm the prettiest woman you've had in your lap," she said, batting her eyelashes. She leaned in towards him, her fingers tracing over the collar of his shirt.

Garrett huffed, clearly having underestimated her. "I'll play along," he replied, sliding his hands up to her ass and scooting her closer to him.

"Then it looks like I found the right man for the job," she murmured. "But you'd better let go of my ass in the next five seconds or you're going to regret it." Isabel accidentally scratched him while toying with his shirt, and he hissed, sliding his hands up to rest on her hips. "Much better."

"All right. I can see why Alistair likes this," he pointed out, and she laughed.

"Is he looking yet?"

"Oh, he's looking."

Isabel glanced back over to where her boyfriend was, his mouth hanging open as he watched her, a half-eaten cube of cheese in his hand. She bit back a laugh before turning her attention to Andy. He was glowering at the two of them.

"I think I'm going to win," she whispered in Garrett's ear. "Your boyfriend is practically scowling at us."

He went to see for himself, but Isabel stopped him from turning his head with her finger, keeping his attention on her. "Don't look now, he's coming over here," she muttered, keeping her gaze on Andy out of the corner of her eye.

"Isabel, do you mind if I have a word with my boyfriend?" Andy growled a moment later. With that, she shot Garrett a victory grin and sat up, climbing off of him.

"Go right ahead," she said cheerfully, straightening out her skirt. Andy took his hand and dragged him off, Garrett winking at her over his shoulder. She giggled before turning around, finding herself face to face with a very unpleased Alistair.

"What was that?" he asked, unable to mask the anger in his voice.

"It was nothing, Ali," she replied, placing her hand on his chest. "Garrett and I were just having a little contest to see which of our boyfriends would get jealous first."

"So you were trying to make me jealous?" Alistair said, narrowing his eyes at her.

Isabel moved closer to him, watching his reaction carefully. "Did it work?"

"What do you think?" he replied, practically growling. Isabel bit her lip, trying to ignore the things his voice was doing to her.

"Well, are you going to do something about it?" she asked seductively, teasingly sliding her hand down his chest.

Alistair swallowed hard, his eyes boring into hers. He stared at her a moment before a devious grin started to spread across his face. "Yes, I am," he said, grabbing her wrist, pulling her hand from his chest and jerking her forward so their bodies were pressed close.

"I like where this is going already," Isabel breathed before his lips claimed hers in a passionate kiss that left her breathless.

"We need to go," he murmured, and she nodded enthusiastically.

They couldn't get home fast enough.

…

Some time later, they lay together in bed, completely spent, silk sheets twisted around their bare, intertwined bodies.

"Remind me to thank Garrett for putting that idea in my head," Isabel muttered between panting breaths as she cuddled to his side. Alistair closed his arms around her tight, his wild heartbeat thumping in her ears.

"Just don't… don't ever do something like that again," he replied.

"But how am I supposed to get you jealous enough to ravage me?" she asked. "Because I quite liked that. We should definitely do it again."

He laughed, the sound rumbling throughout his chest. "I'll ravage you anytime you like, love, all you have to do is ask."

"Mmm, I'll keep that in mind," she said, snuggling closer to him. As she fell asleep to the sound of Alistair's steadying heartbeat, Isabel wondered if Garrett's night had turned out as fantastic as hers had.