I shook my head and tried to pull free. “Sorry, I have different plans for the day.”
His arms slid around me. “Honey, it occurs to me from what you asked me earlier that you have the wrong impression about me. Today, I’m gonna show you who I am. Tonight, I’m gonna tell you what I want. Tomorrow, you can make up your mind.”
I blinked at him.
“I’ve known you all my life,” I reminded him.
“You have no fucking clue.”
I stared for a beat and fear, curiosity and elation shivered through me at the promise I saw in his face.
I shook my head. “I have to go to the bookstore, get Tod and Stevie’s car, make macaroni salad.”
“Matt returned your neighbor’s car last night. Ally can go to the Fortnum’s. King Soopers has macaroni salad.”
“No.”
One of his hands slid into my hair and pulled my head back and to the side, exposing my neck. His mouth, all of sudden, was there.
“Yes,” he said against my neck while walking me back to the bed.
“Stop it, you’re crazy! One second you tell me to pack my bags, the next second you’re on me like white on rice.”
The backs of my knees hit the bed and we both went down, him on top of me, his lips on mine. “Gorgeous, give me ten minutes and I’ll be in you.”
At that promise, and him calling me “gorgeous”, an electric spasm went straight through my lower belly and he kissed me and that was it.
I’m a slut. I don’t know what to say, even with the emotional scene, I gave in.
To tell you the whole truth, I wanted him to show me who he was and tell me what he wanted, and I didn’t want to wait another second to find out.
And then the buzzer went. Three quick blasts and then one long one.
Lee stopped kissing me and put his forehead on mine. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s code, urgent, God dammit.” He put his hands on either side of me, pushed up and started to walk away then turned back. “How hot and bothered are you now?”
“On a scale of one to ten?”
His eyes crinkled at the corners and he walked out of the room.
Fucking Lee.
*
I laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling thinking to myself, what was that?
My cell phone was ringing, so I rolled off the bed, grabbed my bag, sat in the chair and saw it was Andrea. Probably calling for a Lee and Indy Sex Update. Boy, was she going to be disappointed.
I answered the phone with, “No, we haven’t done it yet.”
“Uh-oh, I feel bad vibes,” Andrea said.
“We’re on the phone, how can you feel bad vibes?” I asked.
“I’ve known you since you were twelve, I can sense bad vibes.”
So I told her. About Lee, about his getting pissed off and essentially kicking me out, then changing his mind again and the whole, “who I am, what I want, you decide” speech.
Andrea was silent for a moment and then she said, “Well, he’s fighting his reputation. And that man has a reputation. Only boy worse than him was his best friend Eddie, it was like they were in a competition to see who was the worst rutting dawg out there. Can’t be fun to be practically famous for fucking anything that breathes and being able to do so by expending the immense effort of just sending a smile their way. Then, later, you find yourself in a position where you’re serious about a woman who’s known you all your life and knows this fact real well and have to convince her you’re serious.”
Man, Andrea was a mother and she still had a mouth on her.
Still, it was true.
I sat down in the chair and I tried to ignore the fact that my stomach was clenched.
“Do you think he’s serious?”
Andrea was silent for a second. “Are you being funny?”
“Funny ‘ha ha’ or the other kind of funny?” I asked.
“I can’t believe…” Andrea started, “girl, at Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s New Year’s Bash you were there with what’s-his-name…”
Oh Lord, I didn’t remember his name. “Um,” I said, “Brad? Brett?”
“Whatever,” Andrea cut in. “Anyway, when Lee wasn’t looking at you with a look in his eyes that, let’s face it, made every woman in the room breathe heavy, he was looking at Brad-Brett like he wanted to rip his head off.”
“No way!”
“Way.”
Holy shit.
“So yeah, I think he’s serious,” she went on. “And I can’t imagine that Liam Nightingale is the kind of guy who appreciates the woman he’s serious about questioning his seriousness when he’s right in the middle of… you know.”
Holy shit.
Holy, holy, shit, shit, shit.
“Anyway, call me when you actually get around to doing it. I want details.”
Great.
Andrea disconnected and I flipped the phone shut. It rang again immediately.
It was Ally.
I took a deep breath, pretending everything was all right (which it wasn’t) and answered, “What’s up, chickie?”
“Girl, I’ve had half a dozen calls, everyone’s seen Rosie and Duke. We got leads coming out of our ears. We gotta roll.”