The motherfucker was wheezing.
I could hear the laughter in his tone. In his fucking eyes.
I met his gaze and lifted my shoulders. “I don’t know, I just… panicked,” I told him.
His palm covered his mouth, and I couldn’t hear it, but I knew he was laughing.
Somehow, I forced myself to look at The Primordial, atAlana, while ignoring the idiot cracking up more by the second, and said, “I’m so sorry, ma’am.”
Oh boy.
Alex’s fucking body was shaking.
I hated him sometimes. I swear.
But the powerful, beautiful woman shook her head, her expression still so friendly and kind. “It’s all right, but you can call me Alana.”
Shit. “I’ll try,” I whispered. She’d given me permission to call her by herfirst name. That made me scream inside a little.
Her smile was angelic, I swear.
I gulped again and focused on the man still laughing. Son of a bitch. “I heard voices, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
Alex’s head rose. He was grinning. “Everything is fine.” His eyes were twinkling.
I was glad someone could enjoy my humiliation. Was he drunk? Was that something he was capable of?
Alex leaned back, away from his sister, and spread his legs wider. “They came by to talk to me about the cartel,” he said.
I smiled mildly like I wasn’t in shock and started to take a step back before he held his hand out.
I guess it was second nature that I took it and took a step closer to him.
His face… his face went from mocking to just… soft. Open. Different from just about every other look he’d ever given me.
And I knew I’d screwed up. “You wanted the multi-tool, didn’t you?”
He lied to me. He flat-out fucking lied to me, and I knew when he said, just so, so seriously, “No.”
I tried to take a step back, but he didn’t let me.
Instead, Alex pulled me toward him, just fast enough that I couldn’t stop myself, turning me at the same rate until he tugged me down onto his lap. Sitting me up high on one of his thighs like I belonged there or something. One of those muscular arms wrapped around my lower back, and I knew I wasn’t imagining that he was holding me down on him, like he knew I was going to try and get away from sheer humiliation.
My spine went straighter than it had ever gone before.
We sat right next to each other all the time. Laid beside each other so many times by that point it meant nothing. We’d slept in the same bed a lot.
What was sitting on a lap? He’d said touch was important. I’d seen him be physical with others. With me too, I could admit.
Even though I’d been wrong about what he’d wanted.
But I still whispered, “Are you drunk?”
What had to be his palm settled low on my back near my hip. His free hand he set on his other leg. “Alcohol doesn’t do anything to me.”
“Then why…?”
“We can argue about it later.”
