A very physical thing.
“Are we going again?” I asked nonchalantly, hoping not to let on that my entire body was too tired and too sore.
Lucian sighed. “Much as it pains me to admit, Pixie, you’ve bested me. I’m going to need an ice pack, a bucket of ibuprofen, and a four-hour nap if you want one last last time.”
“Loser,” I muttered into his neck. “I’m ready to go again.”
“Liar.”
He tugged on my hair until I looked up at him.
“Okay. Fine. I’m back to being nauseated by the thought of sex with you,” I teased.
“So we’re officially done then?” His face was once again guarded. It was somehow worse after having seen him in so many shields-down, orgasmic moments.
I shrugged one shoulder. “I guess so. I suppose I could feed you before I send you packing.”
As if on cue, Lucian’s stomach rumbled.
I feigned a gasp. “I didn’t know vampires got hungry.”
He lunged for me, his teeth grazing my neck. “Hold still, you snack-size human.”
I gasped with laughter and collapsed against him again. Playful Lucian was an entirely new creature to me. Like Edward after Bella had discovered his secret in Twilight. Only I hadn’t discovered Lucian’s secret. I’d just had a whole lot of sex with him.
His hands gentled on me. “You have a beautiful laugh.”
I sat up again and frowned. “Okay. You’re officially delirious. Come on. I need lunch and electrolytes since you dehydrated me via my vagina.”
“My cock is sore. As in the-day-after-leg-day-at-the-gym sore,” he complained as we crawled out of bed.
I pulled on a blue bathrobe with daisies while Lucian yanked on his underwear. He frowned down at his dress shirt. It was missing a few buttons and had a questionable wet spot on the sleeve.
“Hold on.” I limped into my closet and found the sweatshirt I was looking for. “Here,” I said, tossing it to him.
He caught it and his frown turned into a scowl. “Whose is this?” he asked, holding up the extra-extra-large Penn State hoodie.
“Mine now,” I said.
“Whose was it?”
“An old boyfriend. We dated for a couple of months after I graduated college and was working in Hagerstown. He was a social studies teacher.”
“Blake.” He said the name like it was an insult.
I raised an eyebrow. “You know, Unfucked Sloane would be giving you shit for knowing my ex-boyfriend’s name from fifteen years ago. But Well-Fucked Sloane is too tired and hungry to start a fight.”
He threw the sweatshirt back to me. “I’m not wearing this.”
“You’re missing out. It’s comfortable and it’ll fit you.”
Lucian picked up his ruined dress shirt and stubbornly shoved his arms through the sleeves. “You probably think of him every time you wear it.”
“Fondly,” I said, not above adding just a few drops of lighter fluid to the flames. “Come on. I’m starving.”
We made quite the picture, stumbling and limping our way down the back stairs into the kitchen.
Meow Meow glared judgmentally from her perch on a pot holder in the middle of the island. The tip of her tail twitched.
“That’s incredibly unhygienic,” Lucian observed.
“Good thing you don’t plan to spend any time in this house, because every flat surface has probably come into contact with cat butt,” I said, ruffling her ears before opening the refrigerator door.
“What’s it’s name?”
“Her name is Meow Meow.”
“That’s an unimaginative name.”
“Her official name is Lady Meowington,” I said, opening the cheese drawer.
“That’s worse. I’m horrified. You’re terrible at naming things.”
“Cats name themselves. You start with an official name, and it devolves over the years until you find something they actually respond to. Lady Meowington here only responds to Meow Meow or ‘Hey, asshole.’” I glanced up and found Lucian eyeing the cat while she devoted herself to cleaning her belly.
Meow Meow was a furry lump of disdain. My one-night stand, however, in his underwear and open shirt with his tousled hair and sleepy eyes, was absolutely delectable. I’d known he was good-looking. Devastatingly handsome even. But I’d never allowed myself to really look.
Now that I had? I was going to need some alcohol with my post-sex snack.
I held up two blocks of cheese. “How do you feel about grilled cheese?”
Lucian grimaced. “You eat like a child.”
“I’m going to make you the best damned grilled cheese you’ve ever had, and then I’m going to allow you to rub my feet while groveling for my forgiveness.”
“A little more pressure on the arch, servant,” I ordered.
Lucian’s strong thumbs dug deeper on the sole of my foot. “Your feet are so small. How do you walk on these things?”
“You’re so weird after a sex marathon and grilled cheese.” I took another victorious bite of my buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwich of awesomeness. Lucian’s plate was empty. He’d inhaled his sandwich with gusto and was shooting longing looks at my second half.
With an eye roll, I tore the half into two pieces and handed him one.
He dropped my foot in his lap and dove in.
We’d set up camp in the family room off the kitchen at the back of the house to eat and watch Night Court reruns. I said it was because the TV was bigger, but really it was because I didn’t want anyone catching a glimpse of Lucian Rollins through my front windows and broadcasting it to the entire town. Sharing this catastrophe with anyone was not an option.
As Bull delivered a punch line to Judge Harold T. Stone, I heard a dramatic thud behind us. I tilted my head on the cushion and spied the cat’s hulking fluff prance across the console table against the couch.
“What is it doing?” Lucian demanded, swiveling his head.
“She is trying to make you uncomfortable.”
Meow Meow sat directly behind him and stared at the back of his head. “It’s working.”
“She doesn’t really like people,” I explained. “Mom and I are the only ones who can pet her. Dad was the only one she’d let pick her up, and that was only if he stood still.”
“I feel her eyes boring into the back of my head,” he complained, shifting closer to me on the cushion. His bare thigh rested snugly against my knee, his shoulder a comforting weight against mine. Couples did this. Had sex on a Sunday morning and then snuggled up on the couch with junk food to watch old favorites.
We were not a couple. We were a mistake. A hot, sexy, mind-melting mistake.
“Just ignore her. She’s so lazy she’d never go out of her way to jump on your head just to bite and claw your face off,” I promised cheerily.
“That’s comforting,” he said dryly.
I took Lucian’s empty plate and placed it on the table behind me. Meow Meow gave the back of Lucian’s head one last scowl before sauntering over to investigate the crumbs. Satisfied that what we were eating was subpar, she heaved herself to the floor and wandered off.
Lucian slung his arm over the back of the couch behind me.
Was Lucian Rollins snuggling with me? Had I given him a concussion when I’d accidentally banged his head against the headboard while riding him?
The studio audience dissolved into hysterics over Dan Fielding’s flirtation with Christine Sullivan. This was so normal. So not us. So exactly what I wanted…with a different man, of course, and with a couple of kids thrown into the mix. Lucian had always wanted something different. I couldn’t help but wonder if all those things he’d wanted—the wealth, the power, the ability to crush enemies with a flick of his wrist—were just a replacement for what he thought he could never have.
“Your father loved this episode,” Lucian mused as I attacked the last quarter of my grilled cheese.
“He did,” I agreed, stacking my empty plate on his. “Now that your penis has invaded my vagina on multiple occasions, I think you should tell me why you’re so close to my parents. Oh God.” I sat up straighter. “You didn’t have an affair with my mom, did you?”
“I did not have an affair with your mother,” he said dryly.