Shade cocked an eyebrow at her question. “Yes, I went upstairs for another beer, and Cash and Rider were having a card game, so I joined in. I wasn’t ready for bed as early as you.”
If he had climbed into that bed with her, he wouldn’t have gotten out until he had fucked her. He had drunk two bottles of whiskey to keep from coming downstairs and waking her up. He told himself he wouldn’t have taken her unless she wanted him, but Shade was smart enough not to put his control to a test because he wasn’t sure he would be happy with the outcome.
Lily fiddled with the rubber band on her wrist. “I didn’t expect you to be. I guess I’ll see you this afternoon.”
She started out the doorway yet turned back when he spoke.
“It was just us; none of the women were there.” He didn’t want her spending the day flicking that fucking rubber band, wondering where his dick had been the night before.
“I didn’t ask.”
“You didn’t have to,” Shade mocked, seeing her relief.
She fled the bedroom, leaving him staring after her.
He stood up, pulling off his jeans and kicking them across the floor viciously. His spending the night drinking hadn’t touched the fire in his dick she had started.
Going into the shower, he turned on the music, letting himself picture her in his mind as his hand stroked his cock, sliding back and forth as he imagined her lying naked on his bed, begging for him. His hand was no replacement for her body, but his cock didn’t care. It had been at a fever pitch since her lips had touched his. He groaned as he climaxed.
When he finished showering, he returned to the bedroom, finding it as empty as he had left it. Somewhere in the part of him that he didn’t allow himself to acknowledge, he felt the brief hope die that Lily had come back and would be there waiting for him.
Chapter 55
“They lay down the hardwood floors today. The men want to install the cabinets tomorrow,” Rider told him.
Shade, Rider, and Bliss were standing in the basement talking as Bliss did the laundry. He and Lily had finished their workout, and she had left to take a shower.
Shade used his T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his chest.
“When are you going to tell Lily you’re building the house for her?” Bliss asked, and Shade could see the hurt in her face.
He was about to answer when Lily came back through after showering. Still not speaking to him, she went upstairs without a word. She was giving him the cold shoulder after she had come to his office earlier in the day, asking for Georgia’s brother to be given her job. He had refused, telling her they didn’t want the brother and sister working together.
She had turned the conversation into an attempt to get him to see he didn’t need her, that he only wanted her, saying she wouldn’t be able to be with him then watch him be with another woman and remain friends. She was placing herself on the same level as the women members when Shade had been trying to show her he wanted more from her than he did the other women. It was frustrating that everyone else could see what was right before her eyes.
“I’ll tell her when she’s ready to hear it.” Shade pulled a beer out of the mini-fridge and sat on the couch.
Raci and Cash came downstairs to hang out. He never went upstairs to eat, relaxing with the others. He didn’t go upstairs to check on Lily, either, sensing she needed time to herself in order to come to grips with the emotions she was battling. It couldn’t be easy having your body betray you with a sexual attraction to a person you disliked. Hated. Lily didn’t dislike him; she hated him. However, her body wanted him, and with her past, it had to be terrifying.
He had to get her to the point where her body’s demands outweighed her fears. He was going to have to use his years of experience to build her desire until she couldn’t think of anything except him. He planned to get her so needy that, when she walked and her thighs rubbed her pussy, she would think of him.
Bliss turned on the music after she had folded the last load of clothes. Then Raci and Cash slid the workout mats out of the way and began dancing.
When Lily came back downstairs, she paused, watching Raci and Cash.
Rider and Bliss were kissing on the couch after playfully tossing the clothes back and forth, and he was sitting next to them on the couch, watching Raci and Cash dance.
Raci was dancing seductively, grinding her butt back into Cash’s pelvis. His arms were on the pole, trapping her between them.
Lily tried to rush past but as she did, Shade reached out, snagging her wrist and pulling her down on the couch next to him. She started to protest, but he cut her off mercilessly.
“You can sit out here with me or you can run and hide in the bedroom, wondering what I’m doing out here with them.”
“I don’t care what you’re doing,” Lily snapped.