I spun on my heel and walked over to the front door. I heard a growl come from inside the kitchen mid-walk then I caught sight of it as it emerged.
I glared at the hundred-pound beast. “Did you eat up the contents of the fridge, you fat shite?” I asked, grinning.
He continued to growl at me, but he didn’t move. He was still as he watched me. He was waiting for me to leave the apartment before he walked by.
“Leave him alone!” Keela snapped from behind me.
I laughed as I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. I reached back to grab the handle of the door so I could close it, but it suddenly slammed in my face. I gasped then glared at the door when everyone inside the apartment burst into laughter.
I knew exactly what happened. Storm shut the door with his head to make sure I couldn’t get back into the apartment. The fat fucker always did it.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, you hairy bastard! You’ll never be rid of me! Do you hear me? Never!” I shouted through the door then turned and walked down the hallway of Keela’s building.
I walked down the stairs carefully—I was in six-inch heels, I had to be careful—and exited the building and walked straight to Skull’s black Ford Mondeo that was sitting out front waiting.
“Damn, babe, you look smokin’ hot!” he shouted out the window of the car.
What a romantic.
I snorted and opened the passenger side door of his car and hopped into it. I closed the door, leaned in, and let him kiss my cheek even though he tried for my lips.
“Aideen,” he groaned. “You can’t come out lookin’ like that and not give me a little taste.”
Watch me.
“If you’re good, then you’ll get more than a little taste later.” I grinned as I buckled my seat belt. “Now, shut up and drive the car. I wanna dance already.”
Skull bit down on his lower lip and smirked. “Yes, ma’am.”
I glanced at Skull as he drove and my insides clenched when I took in his attire. He always wore a suit when he went to work—all the bouncers had to wear one since Brandon, Keela’s uncle, took over ownership of Darkness—but he had his jacket hanging in the back of the car and had his white shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows with a couple of buttons open exposing a bit of his chest. It was simple, yet so delicious to look at.
“You want dinner first, or straight to the club?”
“I already ate so straight to Darkness,” I answered without looking in Skull’s direction.
He groaned again, “You kill me when you behave like this.”
I snorted and continued to look out the window as he drove. “Behave like what?”
“Like you couldn’t care less that you’re next to me; it always gets me hard.”
I laughed and glanced at him. “You get turned on when I ignore you?”
“Only when you’re in me presence. It makes me want your undivided attention.”
I smirked and looked forward again. “We’ll see how tonight pans out. You might just get what you’re lookin’ for.”
“I better,” he growled making me smile to myself.
A few moments passed by in comfortable silence, but Skull broke it when he said, “How is Keela doin’?”
I crossed my left leg over my right and rested my hands on my lap. “She’s good, still workin’ hard on her book. She is a perfectionist, and it’s a strength of hers as well as a weakness. She goes over the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb daily but is worried about it not being ‘right.’ Nothin’ anyone tells her will relax her about it, it’s just somethin’ we have to let pan out by itself.”
Skull clicked his tongue. “I hope it all works out for her. She’s a good girl.”
I nodded in agreement. “That she is.”
“Is she still with that Slater lad?” he asked.
I snorted. “You know his name is Alec, and yes, they’re still together. They’re engaged.”
“I refer to them all as a Slater lad.” Skull chuckled then said, “And people who are engaged can still break up, you know.”
I smiled. “Not Keela and Alec, they’re solid. Nothin’ can break them.”
I was certain nothing could anyway.
“Well, that’s great; a solid relationship must be nice.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that a jab at me?”
“At us, not just you,” Skull clarified. “We’re both great together in the bedroom, it’s every other aspect of being in a relationship that we struggle with.”
Ain’t that the truth.
I sighed. “We aren’t goin’ to get back together, and we both know it. This ‘date’ tonight is for a good time and wild sex. You know it, and I know it.”
“I know,” Skull grumbled.
I looked at him and frowned. “Why do you seem sad about it?”
Please don’t say you want us to get back together again.
“I’m not sad about us. I’ve made peace with how we are... I’m just gettin’ too fuckin’ old for one-night stands. I’m thirty-three. Wakin’ up next to nameless women, and sometimes faceless women dependin’ on how hungover I am, is gettin’ old.”
I blinked in surprise. “Really? You don’t like the club bunnies?”