My phone rang, and I held my hand up to my friends.Pleasebehim.
“Can you come to the lobby?” Jake asked, the frustration in his voice unmistakable. “They won’t letmeup.”
“They won’t let youup?Why?”
“I don’t know, Casey. They just said you had to comedownhere.”
“Weird. Okay, I’mcoming.”
I hurried to the elevator, wondering who would prevent him from coming up. It wasn’t like we had tight security or anything. Hearing a swishing sound, I looked up to find a dinosaur bounding down the hallway. It was one of those blow-up kinds that swayed and bounced as it moved. So randomly ridiculous, I couldn’t help but laugh. The dinosaur stopped directly beside me, apparently never having received the company memo on sexual harassment and personal space. Neither one of us spoke as I focused on the lit up button on the elevator. I could feel him staring at me. Great, I had to get in the elevator with thisthing.
“How’s it going, sweet stuff?” T-Rex finally spoke, and damned if he didn’t have just the right amount of prehistoricswagger.
“I’m good. Nicecostume.”
He nodded, and his whole body moved with him. I shook my head, but there was no hiding my amusement. Dino took that as his cue to up his game by taking another side step toward me and trying to touch me with those stubby armsofhis.
“Okay, let me stop you there, bud,” I said, moving away. “I’m a single species kindofgirl.”
T-Rex laughed, and I jerked my head up, recognizing itinstantly.
“Jake?”
Dino swamped me like he was in the middle of a mosh pit, those ridiculous stumps for arms everywhere as I squealed and dipped away. Loud kissing sounds accompanied the bobbing head against my neck and I was nearly screaming in laughter when several of my coworkers flooded into thehallway.
One guy looked ready to attack, so I pushed Jake off, still giggling, and said, “It’s okay. We’remarried.”
There were all sorts of different reactions coming from my would-be saviors. First and foremost, relief. These were accountants, after all. The last thing any of them wanted was a chance to prove their manhood. Relief, however, was quickly replaced with surprise when those in the hallway realized just who was under the dinosaurcostume.
“Sorry about the noise. He just surprised me. We’ll beinsoon.”
As the crowd dispersed, I pulled Jake around thecorner.
“Let me at them,” he joked, swinging his arms aroundhelplessly.
“I can’t believe you,” I said, zipping him out of the costume. “You weren’t stuck in traffic at all,wereyou?”
“This is LA – of course I was stuck in traffic, just not for as long as I led you to believe,” Jake said, then stopped to look at mycostume.
“What are you,anyway?”
“I’m the jelly to your peanut butter,remember?”
“Oh, Jesus, you look like a homicide victim who totallybledout.”
“I like that better than the other suggestions making therounds.”
I pulled his peanut butter costume out of my bag and slipped it over his head. Still half in his dinosaur suit, Jake was a hilarious sight. He swiveled his hips in a strip tease move until the rest of the T-Rex fell to theground.
“You know if you wanted to go as a dinosaur, Jake, you could’ve justasked.”
“Since when do I have to ask my wife’s permission to dress in prehistoric garb? I don’t remember that being inourvows.”
That face. His smirk. I grabbed him and planted a kiss on thosedelectablelips.
“It was in the fine print,” I said. “You might havemissedit.”
“Uh-huh,” he said into the hollows of my open mouth as he kicked the kiss up a notch. Catching sight of the unmistakable fire in his eyes, I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck at the exact moment his tongue dipped between my lips. This was the way he’d been since arriving home a few days ago… randy as all hell. And despite what my costume suggested about my time of the month, I was clearly in heat. It took nothing but a sexy tilt of his head to turn me on; or in this case, a slice of bread slathered in peanut butter. There was just something about the way he wanted me, with such intensity and steam, that turned me into a quivering mess at the flip of aswitch.
