A pina colada on the ice cream sundae of her escape.
Nice it would have been. Safe andnice.
Exchanging gazes, she kissed him. Light, gentle, and with a touch of determination because she was going to enjoy the hell out of this night.
Chapter 14
Linx
“Your clothes from last night are still on the end of the bed in the guest room.” Linx opened the door from the garage to the butler’s pantry. Yes, he had one of those. No, he did not have a butler. Yes, he thought, the name was more than a little pretentious.
The room was still sorta neat. Mostly a bunch of extra granite counters and glass-paned cupboards that remained empty even after he’d moved in. He’d had nothing to put in them, even if he had wanted to use the space.
Becca finger combed her wrecked hair, which was unnecessary because he had every intention of messing it up again as soon as they hit his bedroom at the top of the stairs. Perhaps even before. They could take a detour on the sofa.
Come to think of it, if he did things right, she wouldn’t need the clothes either.
Linx’s now one-sleeved Metallica tee was long enough it covered the wet spot left on waistband of his jeans. He hadn’t come like that in his pants since he was a teenager. Might as well crown him Mr. Momentum. With Becca, he had no restraint at all.
“Is there someone here?” Becca asked as they entered the kitchen.
The lights were on the low dimmer setting, and the television broadcast from the living room sounded like CNN.
He rapped a beat on the edge of the counter. “Nope. Lights and TV are for Gibson.”
The lights stayed on a timer for the cat. The television was on one of those timer things, too, to keep Gibson company when Linx wasn’t around. Mostly, he left it on the news to enrich Gib’s mind. He, however, had a handy app on his phone he used to turn it off and on. Gibs hadn’t chewed through those wires. Yet.
He sometimes fucked with his cat and changed the channel randomly while he was out. Figured if Gibs had opposable thumbs, he’d do the same, so it was fair game.
He used the app to turn up the rest of the lights in the house. Then he changed the television channel, just because he could.
“Are you hungry?” He started toward the fridge. His body needed at least a few minutes before it would be ready to go again. He wasn’t exactly twenty-four anymore. Hell, he still had stamina, he just needed five minutes and a sandwich before he would be ready for round two.
“The goddamn thing keeps switching to C-SPAN. I swear the thing is possessed,” a deep male voice said from his living room.
Linx stalled mid-step. Every molecule of his body paused like he’d clicked that button on the app.
Thatvoice sounded like his dad.
No. No. No. Not a family visit. Not tonight.
Eyes closed, he sent up a mental request to any higher power currently available that his family not cock block him. Higher powers probably didn’t handle things like that, though.
“You’re hitting the channel changer. Stop sitting on it, and it won’t do that.”Fuuuck, that was his mom. Definitely his mom.
He scrubbed his hand over his face, scratching at the way-past five o’clock shadow that grew from his jaw.
“Someone’s here,” Becca whispered, gripping the now-bare biceps of his sleeveless arm.
“It’s my folks.” He glared at the arched doorway that led from the kitchen to the living room, calculating whether he could get Becca back to the car with no one noticing.
“Your parents?” Becca’s eyes bugged. Massive. As big as the bucket of water that was being tossed on their night. She went back to finger combing her hair. Faster this time.
Good call, since she looked like she’d just had almost-car-sex with him. He glanced to his jeans. Then to his sleeveless arm.
Shit.
He pulled at the hem of his tee.
