Her tongue slid over her lips. Were they always that red? She was so fucking gorgeous, I thought my eyes must be deceiving me. How could anyone this beautiful, this sweet, give a shit about me? I didn't know, but for some reason she did.
"What do you recommend for someone bigger than me?" she asked.
"If you have nothing else, this is worth a try," I said, shrugging against the discomfort of the fabric on my skin. "Before it gets to this, though, you should try to run."
She nodded. "That sounds like good advice."
She opened her mouth to add something, but we both jumped at the sound of pounding at the door.
CHAPTER 4
SABLE
I let the tie slide from around Woody's neck and held it in my hand as if I had some way of using it against whoever was knocking.
I expected Woody to smirk, but instead he said, "Stay here."
He grabbed a different gun off the shelf, turned off the safety and stalked over to the door. His entire body was rigid with tension as he peered through the peephole. He swore softly, his shoulders relaxing slightly, before he unlocked the door and slid it open.
"There you both are," Leif said cheerfully.
"Yes, we are. Did you want something?" Woody asked, not stepping aside to let Leif in.
"I wanted to see how the lessons are coming along," Leif said. He placed his hand on Woody's chest and pushed him aside to move past and into the room. "Looks like I'm interrupting something." Leif eyed the tie in my hand.
"We were practicing strangling people," I said. "In theory, anyway. Do you want to see?" I held up my hands.
"Do I want you to wrap that around my neck? Hell yeah, I do." He hurried forward and turned his back to me, giving me a boyish grin over his shoulder.
I exchanged looks and shrugs with Woody before looping the tie around Leif's neck and pulling slightly, not enough to actually strangle him. Of course.
"You're good at this," Leif said." I've always been into a bit of light choking."
"Of course you have," Woody said.
"Because I'm kinky?" Leif asked.
"Because you're the kind of guy who would die of strangulation." Woody closed and locked the door again.
"Thank you, Nostradamus," Leif said sarcastically. "Tell me, how are you going to die?"
"I can't decide," Woody said. "I might die of boredom listening to you talking about paint samples. If I'm lucky, I'll die in bed, fucking our woman." His eyes darkened as he regarded me.
"No offense, but that sounds traumatic." I gave a little shudder. Being mid-fuck only to find your partner had… No thank you.
I carefully removed the tie from around Leif's neck and tossed it onto the counter beside us.
"It'll be more expected when we're a hundred years old." Woody stepped over to the coffee maker and pulled a couple of cups out of the cabinet below it. One was bright pink. The other yellow with the words 'judgy as fuck' on the front.
Which one belonged to who?
"You really expect us to live that long?" I asked. I wanted to think we would, especially under the current circumstances.
"We'll live to a hundred or die trying," Woody said, adding sugar to the pink cup before handing it to me.
"That's pretty much how it works," Leif said, taking the 'judgy as fuck' cup before Woody could.
Woody glared at him. "You good there?"
