She emits a soft chuckle that warms my whole being. “People would hate us if we went to a concert together.”
“Why’s that?”
The bed jiggles as Luna shifts around. Then there’s a doggy groan, and Pig stretches her legs further into my space, not caring in the least that her paws are digging into my side.
Bed hog.
“Because I would take full advantage of you there.”
I almost swallow my tongue, but Luna keeps talking.
“When you’re only a few inches above five foot, trying to see the stage is a bitch. I’d insist you boost me onto your shoulders so I could get a better seat. Which would turn us into a giant two-person monster with you doing whatever obnoxious screaming you do. The ultimate concert menace.”
A weird laugh-groan spills out of me at her description. I can imagine what a ridiculous sight we’d make. But, fuck, I can also fantasize about exactly what it’d be like to have Luna’s strong thighs cradling my head.
Like earlier tonight.
We spend the next hour exchanging concert stories, our tales punctuated with yawns until, eventually, we both pass out.
And neither of us ends up going to bed mad.
But the next morning, my bed is empty of both dog and wife.
CHAPTER 42
LUNA
“Can I just say, your husband is adorable?” Violet grins at me over her zip-tied hands.
“Less chatting, more breaking free.” I sit cross-legged next to her, eyes on my stopwatch. I intentionally do not look at the brown-bag lunch Charlie packed me that sits on the bench across the room. Definitely not noticing how he used a heart instead of anAwhen he wrote my name on it. “The point is to get faster, not more casual about this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Violet mutters under her breath as she slips off her bracelet that’s actually a cord made of extremely strong fiber. She toes off her shoe, loops the cord around her big toe, grabs the other end with her teeth, and proceeds to saw through her binding.
A moment later, the plastic snaps.
“Ta-da!” Violet returns her deceptively useful jewelry to her wrist.
“Good. Next time, you’re going to do it blindfolded.”
She puffs out a sigh, as if exasperated with my lessons. I know her pouting is all an act, rising from the dramatic part of her personality. Violet is the one who hired me.
Our phone call from a few months back sits clear in my memory.
“My brother has a security guard living up my ass.” I heard the annoyance in every bitten word. “And not in a sexy way. He thinks this guy is some cyborg Superman who will defend me from all evil. But I won’t put all my eggs in his Terminator basket. I need to be able to save myself.”
Said security guard lingers along the wall, leaning back against the concrete like he’s the most important support beam in the place. Manuel’s face is a blank mask, scanning the private gym I’ve booked for our session as if he expects gang members to jump out of every nook at any second.
Not that I fault him for his level of alert. Better to be overly watchful than slacking off in his line of business.
Still, I don’t miss the way his attention inevitably comes back to Violet, tracing over her form.
Is he checking after her well-being with that full-body scan? Or could that be a spark of longing?
Even as I try stifling my curiosity, I wonder if Manuel volunteered for this position. I guess unrequited love could be an added motivator to keeping your charge safe.
If anyone threatened Charlie, I’d dig their still-beating heart from their chest.
Not that I love the man or anything.
