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Being second in command, well, it left me more freedom to let that shit go. I didn't need to hang on to it, so I didn't.
All I needed was a good fight, a good fuck, or a good workout and the rage always slipped away, not leaving a trace, like it had never been there to begin with.
That was me.
That, apparently, was not Lo.
Which, well, I had already guessed at on my own, but walking up the stairs to see her in her clothes like they were a shield, working hard, looking like her intimidating self (which I found sexy as hell, but that was beside the point)... I knew she was going to do whatever it took to hold onto the anger she felt at me. It wasn't just anger that I left her high and dry either. It was something else, something she wasn't letting me see.
In the end, though, it didn't matter how much she wanted to hold onto it. Eventually, she would give in. And I'd be there. I'd be there and I'd get some answers and I'd get to know who Lo was after all.
When I asked her who the fuck the Damian Crane guy was, it was like I set a bomb off in my house, it was like she was holding herself off from shooting right out of her skin.
“Bad guy, huh?” I asked, going for casual, trying to take that look off her face, that look of absolute, bone-deep fear. Whoever the fuck Damian Crane was, he wasn't just a bad guy. He wasn't just a job. He was a ghost, one of her ghosts.
Finally, finally I had something to go on. Later. Alone.
“It's cool, don't tell me. Not my business. Now why don't you close all that shit down and get your plump ass up in my bed?”
“Plump?” was her immediate reaction, as it was any woman's who didn't realize plump was a damn good thing.
“Yeah, plump. Round. Thick. Bite-able.”
She made a strange snorting noise. “What happened to having to ask for your cock?” she asked, closing her laptop, giving me one of her famous brow raises.
“Oh, darlin', you're still going to have to ask for that. But it wasn't what I had in mind.”
“That's what you always have in mind,” she said, but the bitterness had left her tone and all I heard was teasing.
“True enough,” I shrugged, not offended. It was true. “But right now, I was thinking- movie and sleep.”
“Movie and sleep?” she parroted, looking at me like I suggested an orgy and ritual animal sacrifice.
“Yeah. Movie is your choice. Just not any of those shit vampire/werewolf love story things.”
“I like those vampire/werewolf love story things,” she countered with a smile that almost made me take a step back it was so genuine, open.
“Of course you do,” I smiled back, grabbing one of her romance novels out of her bag and gently tapping her on her forehead with it.
With that, I turned up toward the stairs.
“What are you doing with my book?” she called, but she was walking up with me.
“I dunno. I might find myself in need of some... literary pornography later,” I laughed.
“Gross. Give me my book back,” she said, reaching for it as she climbed the stairs and for the first time, she didn't need to use the rail to help herself up.
“What? You're allowed to use it to get you all warmed up to trip the switch but I'm not...”
“Trip the switch?” she asked, standing beside the bed and grinning.
“Yeah, you know... trip the switch, polish the pearl, diddle the skittle, double click the mouse, circle the wagon...” I trailed off to the sound of her laughter. It was like I remembered it, feminine, tinkling.
“You're ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head.
“You love it,” I shot back, reaching behind my back and hauling off my shirt. I tried not to smile when her mouth parted slightly and her breathing got a little less even. She was right- I'm a cocky fuck. As such, I knew I had a good body. Not huge, I was never the type of man who needed to have muscles so big they couldn't put their arms down to their sides, but I kept shit tight. I reached for my pants as I kicked out of my boots.
My hands had just pushed them off my hips when she swallowed hard. “What are you doing?”
“Shower babe,” I said, moving past her toward the hall again. I was just about to round the curve of the wall and be out of view when I pushed my boxer briefs down and gave her a view of my ass. I didn't have to look to know she was watching. I smiled the rest of the way until I got into the shower, reached down, and dealt with the epic case of blue balls she had me dealing with.
I walked back with a towel slung low on my hips to find her in the bed, changed into one of my tees. I was sure she had something to sleep in inside her bag, but she chose my clothes instead. Whether she realized it or not, it meant something.
“So what movie are we watching?” I asked, going to my closet and finding a pair of black sweats. I turned slightly to the side, ripped off the towel, and slipped into the pants.
“Ah... what?” she asked, shaking her head when the silence dragged on.
“Movie, Lo,” I clarified with a knowing smirk.
“Oh, right. Um. I don't know. Something without violence. I get enough of that shit in my life.”
I nodded, clicked through the on-demand choices, picked the most recent stupid comedy, and put it on. I climbed into my side of the bed, stretching an arm across the back of the pillows.
She half-watched the movie and I could feel her gaze falling on me more than occasionally. “You gonna come over here or what, gorgeous?” I asked, slanting my face toward her, ruffling a bit of her hair with my hand that was resting above her pillow. There was only the barest of seconds before her body shifted and curled into my side. My arm slid down and wrapped around her back, holding her against me. “There you go,” I murmured, leaning down to kiss the top of her hair.
