“What?”
“Being calledcheeky. It’s so much more flatteringthan…say…bossyorimpudentorbrazen.”
“But you’re all of those things too.”
She gave him the evil eye.
“And I love that about you.” She stilled at the l-word, her breath strangling. If he noticed, he didn’t let on, simply said, “Now, shall we go put a stop to the bloodshed?”
“Maybe it’s better if we let them work it out between themselves.” She hoped he couldn’t hear how hoarseher voice sounded.I love that about you.His words tumbled around inside her head, making her dizzy. But he didn’t mean love likelove, right? He meant love likeadmireorrespectorappreciate. “If we hadn’t interrupted them earlier, they might have already given in to each other and then they wouldn’t be arguing right now.”
“Perhaps.” Christian shrugged. “Or perhaps they’d have torn eachother to pieces.”
Emily didn’t like the sound of that, especially since one of her duties as BKI’s office manager was to keep the peace among a bunch of big men with big personalities and even bigger egos.
“Fine,” she huffed. “Let’s go end the war before it turns deadly.”
“Jolly good.” Christian shoved up from the bed, dragging her with him. “And while you’re ending the war, I’ll seeif either of them has a condom.”
Emily had been in the process of wiggling into her panties, but that stopped her. She frowned up at him. “I told you it’s too embarrassing. We’ll have to wait until—”
“It won’t be embarrassing if they haven’t a clue,” he cut in.
“Huh?” She began searching for her bra. “What’s that supposed to mean? How could theynotknow?”
“I’m going to nick theirwallets while you’re distracting them and see if either of them is carrying what we need.”
After donning her bra, she planted her hands on her hips. “You mean, like, pickpocket them?”
It was too dark to be sure, but she thought she saw him wiggle his eyebrows. “Angel isn’t the only one of us with questionable skills.”
“Hmm.” She pursed her lips. “Learned in SAS training or as a child?”
“You heard that bit about me having gotten caught filching bread and HP Sauce from the corner store, yeah? So, what do you think?”
“Right.” She chuckled. “You and me and our misspent youths. We make quite the couple, don’t we?”
She realized what she’d said when Christian didn’t respond, simply stood there in nothing but his jeans, pegging her with a hard, searching stare. They weren’tacouple. They were fuck buddies, coworkers with benefits.
Covering her misstep the best way she knew how, she bent and grabbed her sweatshirt, tugging it over her head and momentarily hiding her face from him. Once she’d brushed her hair back, she was relieved to see he was in the process of pulling on his sweater.
Careful, Em, ol’ girl, she silently coached herself.You can’t say thingslike that, not when this thing the two of you have going is supposed to be casual.
Trouble was…it didn’tfeelcasual. In fact, it felt enormous, overwhelming. Altogether terrifying.
