she was lying on G.G.’s hairy chest.
Ildaria had just recalled how she’d got there when H.D. started in licking again. This time he went for her ear, and she grimaced and then groaned, “Stop, H.D.,” as she turned her head back and let it rest on G.G.’s chest again. She simply didn’t have the energy to move yet. H.D. would have to give her a moment, she thought and then glimpsed movement beyond the dog, and tilted her head on G.G.’s chest to see what was behind him. She blinked when she spotted part of a man’s very large, black, dress shoe.
Blinking, she lifted her gaze to the dark gray dress pants above it, and then further to the white shirt and suit jacket, before ending on the handsome face of a stranger with dark hair.
Ildaria had never seen the man before, and had certainly not invited him in. Since G.G. was lying unconscious under her, she knew he hadn’t either. Yet the man had somehow got past her guards and was standing there in her apartment, staring down at her where she lay naked on top of G.G.
Embarrassingly enough it took a moment for all of that to coalesce in Ildaria’s mind in a way that made sense. Once it did, the word that kept repeating through her mind was naked. NAKED. NAKED!
Shrieking like an idiot, Ildaria scrambled to her feet, unintentionally kneeing G.G. in the process, which—while unfortunate—had the positive effect of waking him up. Her big man woke with a shout of pain, and immediately rolled to his side, clutching himself. His feet caught hers at the ankle with the movement and would have knocked her down if the stranger hadn’t caught her arm and helped her stay upright.
Ildaria was about to thank him for the kindness with a blow to the balls, followed by one to the head when the man said, “You must be Ildaria. G.G.’s told us all about you.” He then turned his head and shouted, “I have found them, my love. They are fine.” Turning back then, he smiled faintly and told her, “She tends to worry.”
Ildaria lowered the knee she’d been about to plant in his groin, pretty sure the man wasn’t a threat. The problem was, she had no idea who he was. Some friend of G.G.’s? Then she heard footsteps hurrying up the hall from the bedrooms and glanced that way with curiosity.
“You may want to cover up, dear,” G.G.’s friend said kindly.
Suddenly recalled to her nudity, Ildaria gasped and then scrambled around the island with a squeal of alarm, looking for something to cover herself with. There was nothing. Her pants were a shredded mess on the floor, and she couldn’t immediately spot her bustier, so she grabbed the nearest thing to hand, a tea towel, and held it over her body.
It was a small tea towel. It almost covered her breasts, leaving the outer curve of each boob visible on either side of the towel, but she wasn’t at all confident it reached down to cover her groin. Ildaria was feeling the bottom, trying to see if it did, when three people rushed into the kitchen.
Two women and a man hurried around the island and then stopped abruptly as they took in the scene. Ildaria shifted uncomfortably under their gaping gazes, her own moving over them in return. One woman was a very pretty blonde with blue eyes that matched the summery sky-blue dress she wore. The other had black hair with bright fuchsia tips and was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt. She also bristled with weapons. They were all over her; a knife was strapped to her outer thigh, another knife rested in a holder attached to a belt around her waist, while a gun holster dangled from the same belt on the other side. She was also wearing a chest holster with two guns in it. The man was similarly decked out with weapons. He had dark hair, rugged features, and was of a similar size to G.G. except that he was a couple inches shorter, or perhaps it was just that G.G.’s Mohawk made him seem taller, she acknowledged.
“I love the boots,” the woman with black and fuchsia hair said finally, breaking the silence.
Ildaria closed her eyes on a sigh, her humiliation complete, and then the blonde woman said, “Joshua, get up off the floor. What are you doing down there?” and Ildaria blinked her eyes open again in time to