I nodded, letting him have his space but feeling disappointment running through me like acid. I dipped my chin and pressed my face into his throat so he wouldn’t see it.
“Maybe,” he said from above me, “if you break up with me on Saturday, I might tel you on Friday.” My body went stil .
“Though, I’m thinkin’, I’l tel you on Saturday if you break up with me on Sunday.”
My head tipped back and he was grinning down at me.
My eyes narrowed on him. “Crowe.”
“Shut up Jules.”
“Don’t tel me –”
His lips touched mine. “Shut up,” he said quietly. “Go to sleep.”
I tried to force my way out of his arms but they went ultra-tight and he kept me where I was.
“You’re very annoying,” I told his throat.
He didn’t answer.
“I’m stil breaking up with you on Friday,” I went on.
“No you aren’t.”
I went silent.
Whatever.
I tried to hold a grudge but I was too tired, his body was too warm and I’d had two orgasms. A grudge was physical y and mental y impossible.
Instead my body relaxed, my mind went blank and I fel asleep.
*
I was dead asleep when I felt Vance tense then move swiftly. He’d been pressed against my back and I felt the cool air when his body came away from mine. I turned, got up on an elbow and watched Boo go flying off the bed just as Vance vanished over the side.
I came up to a seated position, confused, then my breath caught in my throat when I heard a knock on the backdoor, it opened, the alarm started beeping its warning and Nick cal ed, “Jules?”
“Hey Nick!” I yel ed immediately and rol ed forward, taking the sheet with me. I twisted to the side, yanking the sheet around me frantic now for a different reason. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, missed the steps and went flying.
I would have landed likely painful y on al fours but Vance caught me at the last minute with an arm around my waist. I doubled over his arm with an “oof”. He pul ed my torso up and set me on my feet, his arm stil around me, my back to his front.
Throughout al of this, Nick kept talking while he punched in my alarm code and walked through the kitchen. “I thought I’d treat the birthday girl to coffee and a muffin. What do you say to –”
He stopped talking when he hit the doorway to the hal and caught sight of Vance and me. Then he came to a dead halt.
Oh crap.
I real y hoped that Vance had some clothes on even though I did not, just the sheet, somewhere during the second round last night I’d lost my nightgown.
Um…
How embarrassing was this?
“Nick –” I started.
He didn’t miss a beat. “Vance can come too.”
“Nick.”
“We’l go to Fortnum’s. I hear they have a great new coffee guy,” Nick continued.
I nodded, deciding to pretend I was dressed, life was cool and I wasn’t caught by the only father I remembered standing in an advanced state of undress in the arms of…
whatever Vance was to me.
“That sounds good,” I said.
“Vance?” Nick’s eyes went over my shoulder.
“Yeah,” Vance said.
“Great. Just knock on my door when you two are ready.” He turned to leave and I sagged against Vance’s body.
Then he turned back and I went ramrod straight again.
I heard Vance’s quiet laughter in my ear and I kept my face perfectly composed and my body stil so as not to turn around and gouge his eyes out.
“Just to say… I’l be a little more cautious next time.
Don’t want to get shot in the ass walking into my niece’s kitchen.”
Behind his glasses, Nick was laughing too.
The men in my life, I wanted to murder them al (except Roam and Sniff but they weren’t men yet, they were boys – when they became men I was sure they’d get scratched on to Jules Hit List just because men on the whole were vastly annoying and they wouldn’t be able to help themselves).
Then before I could say anything, Nick was gone.
The minute I heard the door close, I whirled on Vance and I saw that luckily he had his jeans on. Unfortunately, he had his gun in his hand.
I ignored his gun and the sight of his chest (very hard to ignore, seriously) and clipped, “What’s funny now?” Instead of answering, he snatched me into his arms and kissed me, ful -on, ful tongue. Even in a snit, I had to admit, it was delicious.
When he lifted his head, he said in his silky voice,
“Happy birthday, Princess.”
Um…
Wow.
He looked at me with sexy eyes and said, “Let’s take a shower.”
I could do a shower. I could do a lot of things after a
“happy birthday” like that.
He let me go and twisted to put the gun on the side of the bed platform by the mattress.
And that’s when I saw his back.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
He came back around to me but my eyes didn’t move from the space where I’d seen it even though I was now staring at his chest.
“Jules?” I heard Vance cal .