“Let him?” she asked. “Since when do we police what people wear?”
“He was practically naked,” I insisted.
“We were all practically naked at the waterfall the other day. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s summertime in the South.”
“That dress was… suggestive,” I said.
“What did it suggest to you, Cipher?”
“Itsuggestedthat Kitten is a thirsty little thot.”
She laughed long and hard at that.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded.
“I’ve just never seen you like this. You’re really tied up in knots about him, aren’t you?”
“Artemis, come on, you know it ain’t right.”
“What isn’t right?”
“Kitten looking all sexy. I think he’s trying to seduce me.”
She laughed again and when she’d finally sobered up, she said, “Life is short. You know that better than anyone else. You blink and another one of your friends or family is gone. Why not enjoy what we have when we have it?”
“Is that what you and Macon are doing?”
She looked me dead in the eyes. “Yep,” she said, making the word pop.
I really had no response to that. We should all be living life like there was no tomorrow. Often, there wasn’t.
I passed off the night-vision goggles and left her to it. Inside the house, everyone was asleep already on the living room floor. They must have dragged the mattresses from the bedrooms and made camp downstairs so everyone could be together, which was smart. Kitten was curled up on one of the beds with his cat, still wearing that scandalous slip of a dress, which was now hiked up around his waist, revealing matching silk panties that barely covered his little bubble butt.
There was no way I could sleep next to him with what he was wearing. I’d pop a blood vessel. My balls would literally explode.
“Where are you going?” he asked, sitting up and yawning. His hair was messy. One of the straps slid off his shoulder, framing a collarbone that looked smooth as satin. I bit the inside of my cheek.
“I didn’t want to wake you,” I said as I took off my boot.
“I made room for you.” He patted the empty spot beside him and waited for me to join him there. The material of his dress was so clingy that I could see the nub of one nipple pressing against it. My gaze zeroed in on it like a target while my mouth went dry.
“I don’t think I can sleep there with the way you’re dressed.”
He glanced down as if just remembering he looked like a goddamned wet dream. “You don’t like it?” he asked, pulling out the doe-eyed routine.
Breathe, Cipher. Deep breaths.
“I mean, it’s fine.”
“I wore it for you.” The little scamp smiled and dragged his hand along the slip’s satin hem.
“Joshua,” I warned, using his given name to make a point.
His lips pursed and his eyes widened in mock astonishment. “Uh oh, am I in trouble again, dad?”
“This…” I motioned between us, “is not happening.”
He frowned, and with his charms, I’d bet he wasn’t used to the word, no.
