“I like when Luck dresses you,” he said, as his hand lifted to run over the swell of my hip. Luck had lent me the dress this morning. Her washing machine had mysteriously not been working. I knew I should have put my smoky, stinky clothes back on.
“Thanks.” I wasn’t surprised he liked it. Luck’s wardrobe had one goal in mind, make as many men drool as possible. She was extremely good at it. She never gave it all away, just hinted enough here and there to keep their eyes glued to her, waiting to catch another glimpse, a little more cleavage when she bent over or a bit more thigh when her step went a little wider at just the right moment. She was like a sex appeal ninja and she’d armed me with one of her secret weapons.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, not demonstrating an ounce of remorse. His fingers tested the span of my waist where the dress showed it off to its best, before returning down to the swell of my hip again, fingers splaying
“Sorry about sharing the room?” I needed to break off contact because I was going down hard and soon. Maybe I wanted to. No, I knew I wanted to, and I couldn’t remember why I was fighting it. Maybe the ride was worth the crash.
“No. Not that.” His right arm wrapped around my waist as his left hand bunched in my hair, angling my head back, the better to access it. I was too shocked to think or doing anything before his lips were on mine. The only thing that came to mind briefly was what had happened to covert tactics, subtle attacks that came from the side and nipped away slowly at my reserve? This was nothing like the kisses he’d been stealing over the last few weeks. This was a full siege.
I quickly realized that he’d been going soft on me but he wasn’t anymore. The other thing I was sure of was that it hadn’t been all Cupid those other times. In fact, I might have highly overestimated his contribution. He might have pushed us both into the same boat but he wasn’t the one who’d raised the sail to full mast.
He walked me backward and I was too overwhelmed to even think of stopping him. The bed hit the back of my calves as he bent forward, and I fell back upon it, him following me down. He pulled me with him further onto the center of the bed. His legs wedged in between mine as he settled his weight against me, full erection pressing exactly where it would do the most damage and feeling absolutely exquisite against me. The only thing I was thinking then was I wanted him in me.
My arms were holding him close and I would’ve crawled inside him if I could’ve, just to get closer. I loved the weight of him pressing me into the mattress, being surrounded by him on all sides as his arms cradled my head, as if I’d pull away. That wasn’t an option.
“Whoa, sorry!”
Murphy’s voice and then the sound of the door closing broke my lust-induced state enough to pull back just slightly.
He rested above me, his face inches from mine and the look on his face was about to make me melt right back in oblivion.
His eyes shot to my lips again before he rolled onto his side. He had me, bed to rights—no, that was supposed to be dead to rights—and he was pulling back? He was stopping?
I quickly scooted off the bed while I could still think straight and he changed his mind.
“What the hell was that?” I asked once I had a good distance between us and my brain was functioning on all cylinders.
“You should know. It’s nothing we haven’t done before.”
Leaning on his side, completely at ease, just waiting on the bed for me, a slight smile touching his lips. It would be so easy to walk back over and let all my worries fall to the wayside. Except for the prospect of an eternity of pining for him. “Why did you do that?”
“I want you in my bed, and I’m tired of waiting.”
He did not just say that. Knowing a man like Fate wants you can have some serious potency. Delivered from his lips, it was devastating.
“And that’s what you apologized for?”
“I was apologizing because I’ve reached the point that I’ve decided to stoop to unfair tactics if that’s what it takes.” He shrugged.
I should’ve been more alarmed than anything else. Instead I was intrigued. This was a very bad reaction. The normal car alarm that went off was blasting like a five-alarm fire was burning. I needed to evacuate the area immediately.
I practically ran to the door and just as I had my hand on the knob, he said, “You know it’s going to happen.”
I slammed the door shut, not looking back.
Chapter Twelve
“Sorry about the intrusion.” Murphy was standing in front of the TV looking at the remote with a confused expression when I entered the living room. I hoped he’d keep looking down at it or that my face wasn’t as flushed as it felt.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to brush off what he’d seen a few minutes ago. “That wasn’t what you thought,” I added. That sentence made it sound like it had been exactly what he’d thought. When had I become so bad at this?
Now he did look at me. His mouth twisted and his eyebrows rose, confirming my suspicion, but he didn’t say anything more about it.
“When did you get here?” I asked.
“A couple minutes ago. Same time as Luck and Mother. You didn’t hear us come in?”
“No.” He didn’t comment on the fact that I’d been otherwise occupied, while I was trying not to roll my eyes. Of course Mother was here already. I was surprised she hadn’t come over last night.
Luck broke the awkward tension with her heels clacking down the hardwood stairs, armed with lip-gloss in her hand and Smoke following her.
“I’m not staying in a room with her!” she hissed under her breath the second she got within ten feet of the two of us. Smoke started howling, as if backing her up.
“Mother?” Murphy confirmed. “She’s not that bad.”
“She’s horrible!” Luck blinked her eyes as if she could barely hold back the tears. “I was supposed to be with you,” she said, pointing her lip-gloss at Murphy.
“We had to make room for the Jinxes,” Murphy explained.
All of our eyes shot to the bar at the mention of their name. They did have a propensity towards being on the wet side more often than not. Perhaps an unguarded liquor supply wasn’t a good idea. But they’d probably had more booze in bribes from me than Fate had stocked, so who was I to talk?
Luck walked over to the bar in question and poured herself a shot of peach Schnapps.
“She can’t be that bad,” I said, thinking of my own arrangement and how much easier it would be to room with anyone but Fate.
“She is.” She threw back her shot and shivered like she’d just put down 180 proof moonshine.
I heard a door shut from somewhere behind me and then Luck called out Fate’s name, rushing across the room to him.
For the most part, Luck didn’t have the same effect on the guys in the office that she had with human males. I’d never confirmed it with her but my hunch was she dulled the sex ninja down on purpose.
Fate came into the living room just as we heard Mother’s annoyingly high voice singing We are the World upstairs. She was very loud and extremely off tune. I had to concede Luck’s point. I didn’t think I’d make it long with her either.
Luck grabbed on to one of Fate’s arms. “I need a different room. I can’t stay with her.”
“She’s not that bad,” he said.
A screeching ripped across the house before we all realized Mother had brought a karaoke machine with her.
“Really?” Luck asked. She threw her hands up in the air and broke into full dramatics.
Another screech of an amplifier had Fate relenting a little. “I’ll talk to her.”
I’d been avoiding eye contact with him until I heard that. There it was—again. Fate having to swoop in with his soft touch and handle Mother. Maybe he’d buy her some lingerie to go with the perfume.