It seemed every few months someone came home missing a limb, or hearing from those damn roadside bombs.
I nibbled my lower lip and studied him.
“What?” He smiled, stepping toward me in that white shirt that was still stained from his mouthing.
I plucked at the stain, drawing the material out for his inspection. I stifled a pleased grunt, stretched to my tiptoes and stole a kiss.
“Come on, let me get you home.” He smiled, though he held my hip captive.
I hissed at the idea.
“Can you drop me off at the club?”
I couldn’t help the laugh that clipped from me with how fast his expression fell.
“I want my roommates to believe I got some night gigs. If they see me coming home with a man, they’re gonna think I’m prostituting. That’s against the house agreement.”
“You have a no whoring agreement?”
“We do. She does. Only one of us has a name on the list, so she makes the rules, technically.”
“Gotcha.” He nodded and noisily sucked his teeth like he was contemplating a proposal. “Alright, listen. I’ll drop you off at the club, and I’ll help you hold the illusion so that you don’t have to look for work or anything. If you agree that these pretend nightshifts are spent with me.”
“Date nights? I’m gonna expect flowers next time.”
“What kind?”
The fact that he asked rather than just bullshitting me with an answer left me blinking up at him with a stupid smile.
He was right, I needed to get home before I got too invested in what could still prove to be a one-night stand.
“I like lilies and roses, and you can meet me at the waffle spot with them in two days.”
His grip lightened and he nodded, before sealing the deal with a deep, lingering kiss that I wanted to get lost in, as much as I knew better than to allow myself to.
Chapter Seventeen
Welcome Home
Anthony
I never knew driving away from a person could be so hard, but man, did I hate leaving her. I stopped in Raymond to refuel and checked the messages while I stretched my legs and smoked a cigarette on the edge of the parking lot when I finished.
She wasn’t lying about them messages. Fucking hell.
I scrolled the list of senders, surprised that she hadn’t opened all of them. I decided to start with Mak.
Apparently, he’d messaged me back ten minutes after I sent the lie about Daisy and I being in an argument.
09:16 She’s here now. It ain’t pretty.
23:00 You’re crazier than I thought you were. You better answer that man.
I squinted, swiped out of his message and returned to the list. I didn’t bother opening the messages from Daisy. It said therewere fourteen of them, and they were not bold, which meant they had been opened. If it were an emergency, Crystal would have surely said so.
Easy was next in line.
13:16 What the hell did I come home to? Why is Daisy worked up?
