Page 74 of Bared

The same way he couldn’t sweep his head down too quickly or push his mouth against hers with enough urgency.

And then add his lusty moan to hers.

And then twirl his thirsty tongue along hers.

And fill his spread hands with her luscious curves. The gorgeous swells of her hips. The enticing globes of her ass. Where to next? He needed to feel more. He needed to feel it naked…

“Brickham.”

Her sigh, vibrating the stubble along his jaw, betrayed that her thoughts were damn near on the same page. Thank fuck.

“Yeah, Pixie?” he rasped. “What do you want? Tell me.”

She sighed again. The sound hit him like an angel singing Mozart. Christ, what she did to him, even with simple air running past her lips…

There was more music now. But it wasn’t her next sigh. It wasn’t even close.

Just as quickly, the French pop song snippet ended. Brick nuzzled his lips to his sprite’s ear, hoping all she wanted to hear were angelic trumpets as well.

The tinny cell phone song started again.

Goddammit.

“Oh! That is my phone!” she exclaimed.

Brick groused the curse aloud this time but loosened his embrace and let her step free. Correction: she bolted free before sprinting into the next room. Along the way, she muttered something to herself. Not cuss words. Brick could recognize that much.

He should have tried harder to figure it out.

Because it was too late to do anything once he latched on to exactly what she whispered so excitedly, over and over again.

“It is him. It is him. Oh, Paipanne, you are truly calling me!”

Chapter Eleven

Once she located her burner cell phone, still tucked away in the crossbody bag she had tossed onto the kitchen counter, Jayd traded her excited mantra for a pained huff.

“Another text,” she mumbled, though a fresh thrill jumped up her pulse as she opened the message from Louis LaBarre. In the meantime, Brickham emerged from the bedroom—with no extra thrills to be had in his demeanor.

“What does he want?”

She crunched a full frown. “Perhaps to be spoken of without a growl before a person has even met him?”

Her scowl could not compete with Brickham’s. For now, she would let him have the win. She did grasp his point of view, after all. To him, her quest to connect with LaBarre had nearly landed her in a pile of garbage, losing her virginity to the likes of Gervais or Remy. And Creator have mercy, she had no legitimate stand there. He was right. Her enthusiasm had made her careless and then reckless. She was not about to chug that double shot of stupidity again.

But he had no way of knowing that. That was blatantly clear by his frown, which he had clearly borrowed from an eighteenth-century vampire hunter. But his tone was closer to civil as he prompted, “What. Does. He. Want?”

Jayd could not help a small smile as she read the message.

My beautiful fille, my deepest apologies.

I had an unavoidable business matter,

and it ran late. I am beside myself with

grief to have missed you, my darling daughter!

She turned the device, showing the message directly to Brick. “Wow. Beside himself, huh?” His snort was soft but derisive. “Well, that makes everything just fine, doesn’t it?”