The steps in the hallway heading toward the bedroom were my first signal. The door opened moments later and my eyes popped open in the dark. A silhouette I knew as well as my own stood in the doorway, pausing briefly as his eyes moved over me.
Fate walked in, shutting the door behind him. He pulled his shirt off, revealing the male perfection that had left a permanent image in my mind. His hands went to his pants and started to unbutton. He wasn’t going to strip in front of me, was he? His eyes never moved from me and I realized that was exactly what he was going to do. I snapped my eyes shut again.
“You could’ve switched rooms with Mother,” he said, teasingly reminding me of my loss by default.
I should’ve told him to room with Mother.
I flipped on to my other side, facing away from him. “I’m martyring myself for the greater good of the housemates.”
The bed shifted with his weight. My eyes were wide open again as I sprang up into a seated position. “You’re really going to sleep in here? On this bed? What about that air mattress I saw you bring in from the garage?”
He settled onto his side, still shirtless with a good expanse of skin showing above the blanket that only came to his waist. I hadn’t watched him strip off his pants but I was certain he had only underwear left on, at best.
“That was for someone else. I don’t need an air mattress. I’ve got a nice comfortable bed.” He fluffed the pillow before he positioned it behind his head, looking a little too good for comfort. How was I supposed to sleep next to him?
“This isn’t a good idea.”
He wasn’t even looking at me anymore but lying there with his eyes closed as if on the brink of drifting off. “Where did you think I was going to sleep? You knew we were roomies,” he said.
“The floor.”
His eyes popped back open. It was better when he hadn’t been looking at me. “I didn’t sleep on the floor during the stone age. I’m not planning on starting now.” He turned on his side, his arm grazing my hip. “We’re both adults. There’s no reason we can’t share a bed.” His fingers grazed the side of my thigh through the blanket. “It’s not like we haven’t before.”
“This isn’t very nice of you.”
“I did apologize in advance,” he said, without an ounce of atonement in his voice. “And I also pulled back yesterday when you were all green lights and thumbs up.”
“I was…”
His brows shot up and he dared me to deny it.
“You sir, would never survive as a southern gentleman.”
“But someone likes me anyway.” He sang the words in a perfectly mocking melody.
I should leave just to show him.
We had a full house and I didn’t want to make a scene. Then again, would a scene really be that big of a deal with this crew?
The idea of them all hashing this over at the breakfast table, not even caring if I could hear them or not, kept me quiet. It wasn’t like I was living with a bunch of beings who would use any discretion. They’d use the opportunity to take a vote on whether I should or shouldn’t, maybe start a box pool on when I’d give in and hang it on the fridge.
Then there was Mother. I’d rather deal with his teasing than have him near her.
The worst was he knew I wanted him, and he knew how good looking he was. It was written on every line of his relaxed position and the tiniest upturn of his lips. He reeked of self-confidence, and it should have made him annoying but somehow lent to his appeal.
The odds were stacked against me. I probably would succumb at some point. I knew it and after what he’d said, he did too.
But it wouldn’t be tonight, if only for the sole purpose of keeping his ego in check. I closed my eyes and lay back down, flopping over and turning my back to him again. I’d just pretend he wasn’t there.
I lay there for an hour before I admitted that it wasn’t mentally possible for me. I couldn’t pretend he wasn’t there. How was I supposed to sleep like that?
To make it worse, I was fairly certain he was sleeping, which irritated me further. Thirty minutes after that realization, his arm snaked around my waist and he pulled me back, flush against him.
“Fate?” I whispered, trying to determine whether he was moving around in his sleep. Please, please, let him be sleeping. I had to make it through tonight for the good of the world. No one should have an ego larger than his.
“Do you always wear this much to bed?” His voice was deep and husky and vibrated through me, sending tingles everywhere.
He was not only awake but speaking to me and admitting it. Now what? “Murphy has the AC down to sixty. I get cold. What are you doing?” I asked as I started to stretch in a strategic way that, if all went right, would gain me an inch or two of separation. Somehow, he ended up fitting closer to me. Hips to hips, the back of my legs to the front of his. I’d managed to stretch myself right into an official spoon.
“Helping you sleep.” His breath tickled my ear and I could hear the smile on his face.
“By spooning me?” Full body contact was not going to put me to sleep.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes. One Mississippi, two Mississippi… Maybe sheep would work better.
“It’s not helping.”
“Fifteen minutes.” His arm didn’t budge and the heat that poured off of him was starting to feel really good, dangerously so.
“This is not going to help me.”
“Shhh.”
This was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever agreed to but since his arm wasn’t loosening, it was either get into a fully fledged battle and wake up the whole house or give him his fifteen. If I didn’t, I’d practically guarantee a pool hanging on the kitchen wall by coffee time tomorrow. It wasn’t like it felt bad.
The stiffness leaving me, he took it a step further as his leg nudged in between mine, dislocating my own and pushing it forward while his took its place.
“You’re pushing it.”
“Not the way I’d like to be.”
I threw my arm over my head, knowing I’d lose this fight and closed my eyes, counting down the minutes.
I awoke four hours later in a cold sweat, in the same position I’d fallen asleep, with Fate’s body wrapped around me.
“Karma?” His arm tightened around me and I didn’t try to pull away. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just a lousy dream.” I’d woken in the middle of a nightmare. I’d been standing in the warehouse again, watching Kitty’s fingers being broken, but this time I’d also seen what they had done to her legs. I’d never had an image attached to that atrocity before.
In my dream, one of the men I’d seen with Malokin had stabbed me in the hip. It was the throbbing of the tattoo leaking into my dream and I was almost grateful to the pain for interrupting it.
“You want to talk?” Fate wasn’t smiling anymore.
“No.” I just wanted to forget, the dream and the pain, but I couldn’t. I shivered, in spite of the warmth of the blanket and his arm rubbed mine in response.
“It’ll fade,” he said. “The memories.”
“The past will but what about the future?” It wasn’t getting better; it was getting worse. Things were spinning out of control, again.
“Eventually, everything passes. The good and the bad.”
I turned my head back over my shoulder and I shouldn’t have. There was a look in his eyes, a concern I couldn’t possibly miss and every caution or worry faded as I looked into his eyes.
His eyes shifted to my lips and I looked away quickly. One full day. I had to make it at least an entire twenty-four hours resisting Fate or I wouldn’t be able to live with his ego.
Chapter Fourteen
“You killed my men.” Malokin’s voice, sounding guttural and nothing close to human, shook the walls of the house.
I was jumping to my feet before I was fully awake and thankful for the sweatpants and t-shirt I’d worn to bed.
“Stay put.” Fate had beaten me out of the bed and was already at the door.
I grabbed the gun I’d left on the side table and ran out right after him.
Everyone in the house was heading into the living room, colliding in the predawn darkness. Luck was wearing a flimsy red thing that I guess would be considered lingerie. Mother had on some flowing diaphanous white ordeal that practically fluttered around her as she walked.