With a warm and throaty chuckle, he scooped her up, and she suddenly found herself on his lap. “It’s okay. I happen to like the song.” Her lip trembled. He tilted her head up with a gentle knuckle under her chin. The pad of histhumb brushed along her bottom lip. “Who are you going to the party with?” he asked quietly.
“My friend Allie and her wife, Violet.”
“Will that douchebag be there?”
She averted her gaze, searching the room for those damn ankle boots. The rumble in his voice turned into a gritty hoarseness. “Krista?”
She found her boots and slipped off his lap to go and step into them. Her brain was so easily muddled when he was touching her. “It’ll be fine. There’ll be a bunch of people there. Cops, don’t forget. I’ll just avoid him and stay close to Allie. Plus, everyone knows I’m pregnant now. It’s the talk of the station.”
Ignoring her again, he pushed past her with a low and beastly growl, leaving the room. And she thought she was moody. One minute he was the nicest, sweetest, most incredible guy, and then the next, he was a grumbling, growling bear with more animal sounds than words. He could be such an ass.
She went about fixing her hair, getting frustrated once again and nearly taking the scissors to it, it could be so uncooperative. But in the end, she managed to wrestle it into a ponytail behind her and gel down the top. Though she knew by the time she got home later that night, there’d be a halo of red fuzzies around her head.
Applying minimal makeup, because she’d never really been the makeup kind of girl to begin with, Krista grabbed her black wool coat and red scarf and then headed for the front door.
“I’ll drive.”
She spun around in the hallway and nearly fell into the wall. The man looked delicious. No, delicious was the wrong word. Hmm, sexy as ever-loving fuck? Yeah, that seemed about right. Dressed up in a pair of ass-hugging black dress pants and a forest green sweater, the collar of a charcoal dress shirt peeking out at the top, and sporting just a hint of a beard, the man was drop-dead fucking stunning. And still, even all ready to go out for the evening, he practically oozed danger, control and power.
He took up the whole damn hallway, and that smell, oh dear lord, that smell: Old leather and citrus musk wafted up her nose, making her horny pregnant lady hormones leap into overdrive. He tossed on his black leather jacket, but she just continued to gawk at him. She couldn’t stop herself. Panties instantly wet, and her nipples went diamond hard.
“We going? Or would you prefer to just stand there and eye-fuck me all night long?” he asked, a hint of humor in his tone.
She shook her head. “Excuse me?” Still not able to get over how damn good he looked.
“I’m going with you. As your date. You look beautiful, by the way.” He made his way past her, down the steps to the foyer, grabbed his keys from the bowl, slipped into his black loafers and opened the door.
“I didn’t invite you, you know,” she finally said, wondering if he knew where the party was and not completely sure she was ready to volunteer the information. He’d been so sweet earlier, comforting her and wiping away her tears, and yet now the bossy, broody hard Hart was back, and she couldn’t get a read on him. He’d just invited himself to her work party, insinuated himself into her evening.
He grunted. “I know.”
She still wasn’t ready to go down without at least a little bit of a fight. “So maybe you’re not allowed to come.”
He shot her an impatient side-eye. “I found your tickets to the party on your nightstand. You bought two tickets several months ago. People are allowed to bring their significant others.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Well, you’re not my significant other.”
“That’s right, I’m not. I’m the father of your child, your roommate, and your fuck buddy. I think we’re more than justsignificantto each other at this point, wouldn’t you say? And I want to see this douchebag who’s been harassing you for myself. Size him up. Maybe if he knows you’re with me, he’ll back off. Mightbe as simple as standing next to you looking all big and scary.”
She snorted. “Big and scary … ”
A smirk jiggled on his lips. “You don’t think I’m big and scary?”
Sitting up tall, she shook her head. “No, as a matter of fact I don’t. I think youwantpeople to thinkyou’re big and scary, but in reality, you’re just a big mushy teddy bear. It’s easier to be scary and keep people at arm’s length than let your guard down and let them get to know you.”
Where the hell did she just pull that from? His jaw clenched, and a tension muscle began to tick just below his ear. But he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at her. Instead he opened the front door for her and waited until she walked out into the cool December night.
“Do you know where you’re going?” she asked with a huff, the seat warmers doing an impeccable job of melting her butt until it was wonderfully tingly.
“Eagle’s Lodge Resort, no?”
Damn it. “Do you even like parties?”
“No.”
“Well, then, why are you coming if you don’t like parties?”
The resort was in sight, and the idea of having Brock and Myles in the same room made the butterflies in her belly flutter around in an unmitigated frenzy of panic, like a storm was coming and there wasn’t enough shelter for them all to hide in.
