In A Fix - Mary Calmes Page 0,38
knew I would keep both him and Brig safe, and it was messing with my head. Normally, on a job, nothing tempted me, but everything about him was vulnerable and sexy, and wanting to take care of him was working on me on a very primal level. It wasn’t my usual. Sex had always been calculated, something I wanted but didn’t need. But something was different. Like if I were ever lucky enough to be in bed with Dallas Bauer, leaving him would not be an option. The urge to use a ridiculous word like “mine” had never occurred to me before. But right then, as I slowly lifted my arm and he leaned sideways into me, as I tucked him into my side, the desire to keep him locked into place.
I needed to go home as soon as possible.
Dozing there on the couch, I had a front row seat to Astor walking toward the front door with Nolan in tow, rolling her suitcase behind him and carrying her garment bag. It did not escape my notice that she looked flushed, or that her hair was no longer in the perfect French twist it had been when I left her. She looked tousled, maybe even a bit ravished. It also didn’t escape my notice that Nolan looked the same. When she scanned the room, found me, and lifted her hand, I gestured for her to come.
“So?” I asked as she stood over me, noting how swollen her lips were.
“I…might have miscalculated.”
“Oh?” I asked innocently.
She cleared her throat. “Nolan and I…we’re going to talk on the plane home.”
“Well, good.”
She sucked in a breath.
“You have concerns,” I said flatly.
“Isn’t it terribly bad form to even consider starting a relationship with Brig’s brother?”
“Not if Nolan was the brother you were supposed to be with all along, and you just didn’t realize it until he gave you a kiss that curled your toes.”
She thought about that a moment.
I met her gaze and held it. “Do you have a problem with it, or is it that you care what other people will think?”
She remained quiet.
“If it’s the latter,” I said with a shrug, “they can go to hell. You and Nolan are the only ones who matter.”
She nodded.
I tipped my head at her. “You look like you wouldn’t mind more of the kissing.”
“Yes,” she said, pinking up quickly again—her cheeks, her throat—as she pressed her lips together tightly.
“May I ask a personal, and probably impertinent, question?”
Her shoulders fell. “Yes,” she agreed, and I got a trace of a smile. “Because, somehow or other, I feel like we could be friends.”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
“And so?” she demanded, sounding haughty even after the declaration of intended comradery. “Speak.”
“Has anyone ever kissed you the way Nolan just did?”
She turned to look across the room at Nolan Stanton then, and as soon as he saw that her gaze was on him, the man lit up. His face, his eyes, and it was obvious that she had it, all his interest, all his desire, and all his warm, tender feelings.
“Think about it before you make up your mind.”
Her eyes were back on me. “Yes.”
“Let me give you my number,” I said, which was unlike me. I never invited anyone in. If people wanted to speak to me, they could track me down. Why was I…
Dallas shifted beside me, giving me even more of his weight, his hand slipping around the inside of my thigh, and I felt how tight his grip was, how possessive and claiming.
The shutter of a camera clicked above me, and I realized, as I looked up, that Astor had taken my picture with her phone. She was creating a contact, me, and I couldn’t remember when that had last happened.
“What’s the number?” she prodded me, not glancing up, entirely focused on entering the digits, taking for granted that I would answer. “Hurry up, I have a plane to catch.”
I rattled them off in a daze, and when I lifted my gaze to her, she smiled before she bent and kissed my cheek. Her eyes were on Dallas as she straightened, and she made a purring noise.
“What?” I asked her.
She pointed at him. “That’s trouble right there.” I gave her a slight nod. “But the best kind, and he looks like he needs you.”
I opened my mouth to respond.
“Oh, come on,” she snapped, her perfectly shaped brows furrowing as she waved her hand at him. “You don’t get to dole out the relationship advice to me and not