A honey badger . . .
Yeah, that’s the vicious little killer.
I’m pretty sure if I told her that right now, she’d rip my sac off and feed it to me.Slowly.
Maybe if I didn’t know her as well as I do, that would sound kinda hot.
Instead, my balls shrivel up and crawl back inside my body where they’re safe.
She looks around, her eyes narrowing with each pass of the small room, like if she glares hard enough, maybe it’ll grow. Fuck. Nothing’s growing with that look plastered on her face. “It’s not that bad, Ace.”
I mean, come on. It’s just one night. It’ll do.
Big windows overlooking the city.
Soft lighting.
A couch that would look better with Ashton bent over it, that perfect ass in the air, and my handprint bright red and glowing on one cheek.Yeah... now that’s a pretty picture. Or maybe it would be if she didn’t look like she was ready to eviscerate me.
Total honey badger energy.
“One. Bed . . .” she seethes.
Maybe I shouldn’t grin, but I’ve never had much sense of self-preservation.
Pissing off this woman is just too much fun to stop now.
I drop our bags to the floor with a flourish. “Don’t look so murdery. It’s just one night.”
“Murdery?” Her fists clench at her sides.
“What? It’s a word,” I shrug out of my coat, enjoying the way her eyes catch on my chest and choose to ignore the fact she’s probably plotting my death and looking for the best place to stab me as I toss the coat to the couch.
The one this woman will abso-fucking-lutely not be bent over later tonight.
Pain in the ass or not, we have a history. One that’s complicated. She’s also my younger brother’s best friend. I’m bigger and stronger, but he’s got a mean streak a mile wide and access to prescription drugs and a scalpel. I try not to piss him off, especially not now that he’s living in my house. I guess my sense of self-preservation kicks in occasionally.
Ashton turns slowly. Her brown eyes, flecked with gold the color of warm honey, flick back to the bed like it’s covered in snakes. And. She. Hates. Snakes. “You failed to mention it only had one bed.”
I hum low in my throat, getting tired of her shit attitude. “Well, let me get right to apologizing, your royal highness.I wasn’t exactly worrying about how many beds the room I managed to get for myself had when I was flirting with an eighty-five-year-old airport worker with blue fucking hair, just to get the damn room. But hey—guess what... There’s only one bed. Consider yourself told.”
I watch the rise and fall of her chest as her fury grows until I’m expecting steam to blow out of her ears. “Tell me you’re sleeping on the floor.”
I glance down at the carpet with a wicked grin. Plush, but I’m not taking a black light to it, all the same. “Tell me you’ve lost your damn mind.”
Pretty sure she’s contemplating throwing one of those magnums of champagne at my head. Not that I’m worried. I’ve got great reflexes. “I’m not sharing a bed with you, Murphy.”
“Relax,” I lick my lips and consider telling her she can sleep on the couch if she wants before I think better of it. “It’s a queen. Your feet aren’t the ones that’ll be hanging off the thing all night. But hey, we could build a pillow wall between us. Very mature. Very platonic. Very 80s sitcom.”
Oh shit.
That’s not a good look.
“Relax...” Her pink cheeks turn a violent shade of red as her eyes take on a wild flash. Fuck, Mom always said don’t tell a pissed-off woman to relax unless you want to see her go nuclear. Oops. “Relaxed took a back seat when I got the call that my mother,saint that she is, was in yet another car accident.”
She rips open the chocolates and throws one in her mouth. “This time with enough drugs in her system and in her car to not only get another DUI—something I hadn’t realized you could get when your license was already suspended,” she tells me over a mouthful of chocolate she hasn’t bothered to chew yet. “But also to be charged with possession with intent to distribute. Relaxedleaped off the fucking cliff before I even got to the airport and died somewhere between delayed and canceled.”
Ashton drops the chocolate and one of the bottles to the couch and holds the other bottle between her knees as she tries to pop the cork.
