As I wrangled my breathing under control, I smiled, hoping that the next time, I would have their permission. Not only to watch but to participate.
19
Rule
“So, I was thinking maybe we couldgrab dinner,” Laikyn said when I walked into the house the following evening.
I hadn’t even made it three steps into the room when she was on her feet, moving toward me.
“Dinner?”
She nodded.
“Where’s Jinx?”
She shrugged.
“He’s not home yet?”
She shook her head.
“Is there a problem with your voice box, too?” I asked, staring at her as she stared at me.
It was the first time I’d laid eyes on her since I found her and Jinx in bed together. Last night, when I came home, she’d been working in her studio. After a momentary lapse in self-restraint when I’d fucked Jinx on the back patio, I’d skipped dinner and headed to my bedroom. I never knew when she came in, and she’d still been asleep this morning when I left for work.
A small, coy grin pulled at the corners of her mouth. “Nope.”
She said nothing else, so I took that to mean she was waiting for me to make a decision.
It was obvious she had something on her mind, but with Laikyn, baiting her to reveal it before she was ready was a risky endeavor. God only knew what would come out of her mouth. Considering I was still a bit shaky from recent events, I decided to bypass that test of patience for the time being.
“Fine. We’ll go to dinner.” I let my gaze rake her from head to toe, ensuring she didn’t miss the suggestion. She looked good. Really good. The kind of good that made a man hungry for something that wasn’t food. With her short flared black skirt, an oversized cream-white sweater, and black leather boots, she made it difficult to see the appeal of calories.
I decided last night that I was going to stop holding back. From Laikyn or from Jinx. I had no idea how this was going to play out, but I was tired of walking on eggshells. I had to accept that something had changed with Laikyn’s presence, even if I wasn’t ready to acknowledge it. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t willing to let the two of them have all the fun.
“Did you have somewhere in mind?”
“Yep.”
That was all she said before she hurried to her room, leaving me staring after her, wondering what she was up to.
An hour and a half later, we were walking along the water’s edge.
“You know, you could’ve just asked me to bring you to the beach,” I told Laikyn.
Granted, I probably should’ve figured it out when she returned from her room wearing flip-flops instead of boots. They didn’t have quite the same impact, but the woman was still hot as fuck. Even more so now that the flip-flops were dangling from her fingers and her feet were bare.
“And you would’ve brought me? No questions asked?” She regarded me closely as though expecting me to lie.
“Yes.”
She shrugged. “In this case, you got a hamburger out of it.”
True.
“What’s on your mind, Laikyn?” I prompted when it was apparent she was going to pretend there wasn’t something she wanted to ask me. I’d sensed it since we got in the car. Every so often, she would open her mouth but close it just as quickly.
And while we ate, I lost count of how many times she set her barely eaten burger down, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and regarded me with determination only to falter at the last second. Because of that, she’d hardly finished half her dinner.
