There was another crash. I quickly climbed out of bed. Slowly opening my bedroom door, I looked into the hallway, only seeing darkness. A scuffling sound echoed and I realized it was coming from downstairs.
Stumbling through the darkness toward the stairs, I bumped into something.
"Ahh!" The something was Lilli.
"Shhh. What are you doing?" I whispered.
"I heard something. And don’t shush me, you scared me." She whispered back.
Focusing on what she had in her hand, I began to laugh.
"What?" she hissed.
Pointing to the high heeled shoe in her hand, I snorted out another quiet laugh. She smacked my arm but giggled.
"Shut up! It’s the first thing I could get my hands on." A smile still played on her lips.
"What were you going to do with that?" Taking a deep breath, I tried to control my laughter. She smacked me again as we heard the noise return. "Stay here."
"Says the guy who leaves the girl to get killed in her closet by the axe murderer,"
"This isn’t a movie."
"And I’m not some horror flick cliché. I’m not staying up here alone." She moved to my side.
I released a heavy sigh as we headed down the steps. The heat from her body against my back seared my flesh. If I stopped quick enough her body would press against mine. Just the thought made me shiver.
A curse rang out, immediately I recognized the voice. Reaching out, I flipped on a light.
"Shit," James yelled.
"Ah!" Lilli screamed and burrowed into my back, her arms around my waist.
"Jesus Dude, you scared the shit out of me," James complained.
"I scared you?" Disbelief washed through me. "What the hell are you doing here?" I furrowed my brow. "And how did you get in?"
James held up a small silver key chain and smirked.
"That’s only for emergencies, dickhead." I snapped.
Though, I couldn’t be too angry. Lilli still had her arms around my waist and even though she’d removed herself from my back, I could still feel her warmth. Feeling lost in it until her voice pulled me back to the situation at hand.
"Jesus, James, couldn’t you call or something?" Lilli scolded.
James looked us up and down and smirked.
"Why don’t you two just take your little cuddle session upstairs and I’ll crash on the couch?" He chuckled.
Lilli quickly let go and blushed. She, then, looked me over and then down at herself. That was when I, too, realized she was in a simple, tiny, white tank top you could basically see through and ultra thin, super short, plaid boxers. Growling, I pulled myself in front of her so James wouldn’t be able to check her out any longer. I didn’t have to look at him to know he was. I knew the pervert all too well.
"I-I’m going to head back to bed." Lilli quickly ran up the stairs.
Turning, I caught James staring after her.
"Hey!" He snapped his gaze over to me. "Eyes off!"
He smirked and then faked innocence. "What? How can you blame me?" He chuckled and headed to the couch.
"James, why are you here and not at home with Elora? Does she know where you are?"
"No, she doesn’t know where I am. And, I’m sure she doesn’t care right now." He shrugged and plopped down on the couch.
"What did you do?" I sat next to him.
"Nothing. Why do you automatically assume it’s me?"
Running my hand through my hair, I sighed. "Then what the hell is going on?"
"Elora thinks I’m cheating on her." He paused and took in my expression. Anger heated my veins. How could he brag about her being his queen and then have the nerve to cheat?
"I’m not! So don’t ask."
"What makes her think you are?"
"You know how we were working late tonight?" I nodded. "Well, she called around eight to find out when I would be home but I didn’t answer my phone." I nodded and motioned for him to continue.
"Okay, so, after we left the office I stopped with Marcus and had a few drinks at the bar. When I was on my way home, I realized she’d called about four other times and sent like ten text messages. I figured I was close to home so I would just explain when I got there. Instead, she locked me out of the bedroom and we argued through the door for an hour. Then, we argued in the living room for another hour until I said ‘to hell with it’ and left." He sighed heavy.
"What the hell were you thinking and why would she assume you were with another woman?"
"Elora knows about my past indiscretions and well…there was an incident after we married."
I was about to give him the verbal lashing of a lifetime but he stopped me.
"I didn’t sleep with the girl. Elora had arrived at the office one afternoon and walked in on a temp from marketing making an advance. The girl pretty much jumped me while I was working. I begged for her to believe what happened and have worked very hard to get her to trust me."
"I can see why she’s pissed." I said curtly.
"I didn’t do anything!"
"Yeah, but how does she know that when you didn’t answer her?" I raised an eyebrow.