Hawk & the Lady - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,44

shot him a knowing look and he only looked at me utterly innocently, like he’d never be so undignified as to laugh at a joke.

I raised my eyebrows slightly and he flashed me his trademark split-second cheeky grin in response. It was the one that made his blue eyes shine infectiously. But it never lasted, reminding me that Chaos wasn’t actually – and never had been – the master of the poker face in this office.

I spared Nico a smile and left the two chuckle-heads behind as I went into my office with the intention to actually get some work done for once in that bloody office.

13

Leah

There was a part of me who enjoyed pointing out how rare an occurrence it was for me to wake up next to a man, and how that rarity was becoming very much a habit. There was another part of me who totally didn’t care.

By the time Patrick and I seemed ready to call it quits of a night, it was late and one or both of us were exhausted. It seemed sensible to just sleepover. Besides, I kept telling myself that it totally bought into the whole fake engaged thing. Not that anyone who mattered – Mother – knew anything about our night-time shenanigans or was going to know anything about the various comings and goings – or lack thereof – between Patrick’s and my houses.

Most mornings, one of us had our arm over the other. That morning, he had his arm on mine and I felt him nuzzle his nose under my ear and press a kiss to my neck.

A girlish giggle stuttered out of me, courtesy of it being my first noise of the morning, and I instinctively retracted.

“Morning,” he said and, not for the first time, I just took a moment to bask in his morning voice. “I didn’t wake you?”

I shook my head and snuggled back into him. “No. I was already waking up.”

“How did you sleep?”

“It’s so weird, I seem to sleep so well on the nights we sleepover,” I said in faux-wonderment.

He chuckled. “Funny that. So do I.”

“Weird.”

“Weird. You think it’s the security of having another person in the house?”

I pretended to think about it. “Yes. I’m sure that’s it. Couldn’t at all be the physical exertion before.”

He laughed and pressed another kiss to my neck. Before he could say anything, his phone buzzed and he turned over to look at it.

“Anything interesting?” I asked, stretching.

“Just Chaos.”

I just realised that, had he been anyone else, that would have been the weirdest statement. “Cool.”

I heard his phone buzz again and he shifted in the bed a little. “You have plans today?” he asked.

I turned my head to look at him, even though he was facing the other way. “Not really. You?”

“I didn’t. Chaos’s just said the boys have decided to go over, if I wanted to join. I said I was still at yours…” The way he left it hanging, I wasn’t exactly sure which direction he was going to take it.

“And…?” I prompted.

“And he said you were welcome to come, too. Full disclosure, my sister will be there.” The implied ‘my sister’s always there’ was left unsaid.

“Is that a warning or a deterrent?” I teased.

He rolled back and bundled me into his arms. “I was aiming for warning.”

“So, you wouldn’t mind if I went and hung out with your friends?”

He shrugged as he brushed his fingers down my cheek. “Not really. I like hanging out with you, and they know what’s happening. It’d just be Bert we’d need to…”

“Navigate,” I suggested.

He nodded. “Yeah. That.”

The idea of hanging out with his friends sounded almost as nice as waking up next to him in the morning. “Well, if you’re up for it, I am.”

He nodded as he searched my eyes. “All right. Let’s do it.”

“How much time do we have?” I asked cheekily.

He paused for a moment like he was pleasantly surprised by that comment. “Few hours probably.”

I wrapped my leg around his hip. “Then we’d best make good use of it.”

And, boy, did we make good use of it.

****

I felt a flutter of uncertainty as we rode the lift up to Kit’s penthouse and I stoically ignored the somewhat dour presence of the staff member.

“You have a good afternoon, Mr Grace,” he said as the lift slowed to a stop.

“Cheers, Donald. You too, man,” Patrick said as he took my hand.

As soon as the doors opened, I was assaulted by noise. But I didn’t have time to wonder