The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) - J. R. Ward Page 0,143

the temperature much, but was bright enough to make her take out her Ray-Bans.

Getting in her VW, she was not surprised that Bryant didn’t come after her—no doubt he was onto the next dinner date crisis. Or maybe he was checking his hair in his private bathroom. Or who the heck knew what he was doing. One thing she did know? It wasn’t going to have anything to do with her.

It never had been about her, at least not on his side. And the stuff he’d said about Bill? That was just a self-protective reflex because she was a good lackey and he didn’t want her slipping away.

But as she’d said, there would be another. No doubt.

As Jo drove off, she looked at the real estate office in her rearview and thought of Bill and his cousin Troy. They were nice enough guys, but not really anything that truly caught her eye.

When was she going to meet a real man?

Whatever. She needed to find a job, and then there was the whole vampire thing to spin her wheels about.

Taking out her phone, she called Bill. “I’m heading out to the farm now if you want to meet me.”

“You ready to turn in?”

At the sound of Rhage’s voice, Mary jerked on the sofa, kicking the blanket that had been pulled over her legs onto the floor. Sitting up, she glanced around the billiards room, and then looked at Rhage, who was leaning over her.

“I fell asleep. Where did everyone go? Is the tournament over?”

He nodded as he sat on the coffee table and balanced his pool cue on his forefinger. “Butch won. The bastard. He and V just headed to the Pit.”

With a big yawn, she pushed her hair back. The massive T.V. over the fireplace was muted, some kind of Steven Seagal throwback movie from the early nineties showing him punching out a bunch of guys on a city street.

“I think that was what was on when I crashed,” she said idly as she pointed to the screen

“Actually, that was three movies ago.” Rhage stroked her cheek. “This is a different one, but don’t feel bad. They all look the same. You going to let me carry you up?”

“I can make it myself.”

“I know.” He put the cue aside and offered her a hand. “The question is, will you stop me from picking you up?”

She smiled. “No.”

Rhage drew her off the sofa, and the next thing she knew, she was in his strong arms and he was striding in between the pool tables. Out in the foyer, she yawned again and got comfy for the trip.

“You are too good to me,” she murmured.

“Not even by half.”

Up on the second floor, he stopped in front of the closed door of their room, and she bent down and opened the way in for them. With no effort at all, he took her over to the bed and laid her out on her side of the mattress.

“Can you brush my teeth for me?” she asked. “That is the real question.”

“You got it.”

As he went to turn away, she laughed. “That was a rhetorical.”

“I was going to bring you your brush and a glass of water.” He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “Unless you’re determined to make it to the sink?”

Boy, he was a fantastic-looking male specimen, she thought as she measured his enormous shoulders and bulging arms, his flat stomach and lean pelvis, those long, powerful legs. And then there was that blond hair, those brilliant Bahamian blue eyes, that bone structure that seemed drawn by a master artist as opposed to something that had been born into this world.

“Mary?”

“Just admiring the view.”

“Oh?” He pivoted and flashed his ass. “You like?”

“Very much. How ’bout you take that shirt off for me?”

Glancing over his shoulder, he narrowed his eyes. “Are you coming on to me?”

“Why, yes, I believe I am.”

He turned back around, grabbed the front of his muscle shirt, and growled, “Say please first.”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease—”

Riiiiiiip. And then his bare chest was on display, all that musculature throwing shadows in the dim light from the lamp on the bureau.

Rhage moved his hand down between his legs, gripping the hard length that had made a very serious appearance in the front of his leathers. “You want to see something else?” he drawled.

“Yes,” she breathed.

His fingers were slow on the button fly, teasing her as he revealed his erection inch by inch until it popped free and jutted straight out at