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“Oh, come on! It’s like five steps, look.”
My feet took me over to the car just as Claira leaned back on the door, her interest locked on to the spikey-haired idiot sitting in the car’s backseat.
Her fingers fumbled with the oversized fabric falling past her wrists. “I feel bad keeping it. It’s your overshirt, not mine, and it’s not reallythatcold out.” She must have heard me approaching because her gaze turned up to mine. “Oh. Hey, Lee.”
“Hey.” My eyes narrowed as I looked Claira over.Hisovershirt?With the light from inside the car, I could see now how her entire outfit had changed since the last time I’d seen her.
Was that a fucking shark stretched over her chest? It was small and childish, and I had no doubt it belonged to Kai as well.Fuck him.I forced back a growl as I ripped my own shirt straight off my back. “Thanks for bringing Claira back, but I’ve got it covered from here.”
I thrust my shirt out to her, but she folded her arms over her chest, her back going straight and stiff. “Put your clothes back on, Leander.”
I clenched my shirt with a crab claw grip, not bothering to stop my annoyed growl. She’d take his but not mine?
“Don’t you start looking at him, Laverne!” Kai screeched from inside the car. Something slapped the side of the window, and despite my preoccupation, I felt one of my brows lift. Was that a flipper?
“Thanks again, Kai, Barren, Laverne,” Claira said, leveling her head with the car. Silence stretched awkwardly until she cleared her throat. “The food you made really was delicious. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”
“Yeah, we’ll bring something warm and fluffy for you!” Kai said brightly, shooting a thumbs-up out the door. “Sorry again for forgetting a jacket.”
Nervousness coated her laugh, raising her voice an octave. “It’s fine. Make it something simple if you can, okay? Maybe a solid color. No words, no cartoons, just uh, plain, you know? With long sleeves.”
“Simple, got it! I can still see you looking. Head forward, Laverne! Whiskers back. Well, sweet dreams, you two.” As soon as the door pulled shut, Kai looked me over, head shaking, his idiotic face clearly mouthing one word: “shameless.”
The fuck was his problem?
Gravel grated as the car sped off, and Claira turned her focus on me with a slow, comfortable sigh. “Can you believe they’re letting them keep a sea lion in a hotel? They even got Laverne her own room.”
“Yeah? That’s crazy.” My brow rose again. “What’s a sea lion?”
Even in the darkness, I knew her lips had curved into a smile. The thought sent a thrill through me, knowing I’d caused it this time.
“Exactly! I can’t believe Kai brought her all the way to the Atlantic. Like, she just wants to find a new man, and I get that, but a sea lion… the Atlantic…” She shook her hands in the air like she just couldn’t comprehend the logic.
“A new man? Now you’ve really got me confused.” But the most confusing thing of all was Claira’s lighthearted mood. Did she really have such a good time with Barren and Kai? My jaw clenched, my heart refusing to let me ask it out loud.
“So,” she started, taking a small step toward me, “you gonna put your shirt back on, or are you afraid those jagged nipples of yours will slice right through it?”
“What?” I blurted, curious about how jagged my nipples could possibly be. I glanced down, only to be greeted by the cuts the glass shards had left behind.Fuck. Those, she’d already seen, but the angry bruise my father’s boot had left over my ribcage wasn’t something I wanted her to notice.
“Don’t like what you see?” I said coolly, angling my sore ribs out of her vision and sliding my shirt back on. “You didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get clothes back on me the last time I had my shirt off.”
Claira snorted, picking up some sort of sack with straps that was sitting at her feet. “Yeah, well, that hardly counts. You exploded that shirt all over me, and I sure wasn’t going to offer you mine.”
“In fact,” I continued, offering a hand to carry the sack for her, “your hands were all over these jagged nipples back on the boat.”
“Yeah, right,” she huffed, whipping her hair out of the way to pull the pack over one shoulder.
“You changed your hair, huh? Eeltail. Looks good on you.”
Her hand went up to her smooth line of hair, and my teeth grated when I noticed all over again whose clothes she was wearing.Fucking Kai.
“Come on,” I said, sweeping an arm around her hip. “Let’s get back to our bedchamber and get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”
“Oh, so it’sourbedchamber now?” Claira snorted, falling into step beside me. “I still don’t remember agreeing to that. There’s hardly even room for you in there. Two people? I seriously doubt it.”
She had a point, but I wasn’t worried. Excited and eager to try, maybe. But definitely not worried. “Guess we’ll have to stack,” I said, shrugging. “There’s plenty of room floor to ceiling.”
The shy little squeak that comment won me was worth the heat on my face from saying it out loud. Before opening the side door, I dipped down until my lips brushed against the back of her ear. “I’m glad you came back,” I confessed, then pressed a kiss against the part of her neck normally covered by thick waves of hair.
