Hot Under His Collar - Andie J. Christopher Page 0,92
when “young lady” started getting thrown around. He’d counseled enough families dealing with misanthropic teen behavior to know that “young lady” was a harbinger of doom. Not to even get into the fact that Sasha was an adult.
But he didn’t know what to do because he didn’t know what he should do. Should he say something to her mother, who was totally out of line and crossing all boundaries, or let Sasha handle it herself?
They were both still sitting under the covers. Both still naked.
Sasha pointed at her mother. “Would you get out so that we can get dressed?” When her mother didn’t move, she added, “Please.”
Her mother didn’t respond verbally, but walked out of the room, her heels clicking against the wooden floor. As soon as she left the room, Sasha shot out of bed and closed the door behind her. He didn’t even get to enjoy the view because she pulled on a robe immediately.
When she turned to him, he couldn’t help the probably dumb-looking smile on his face when she couldn’t help checking him out. It made him glad that he’d been very physically active in the name of health for the last decade. He was happy she liked to look at him.
But that happiness was short-lived. Apparently, she remembered that her parents were out in the other room and had caught them naked in bed.
“Why do they have keys?” He had keys to his father’s house and his brother’s apartment for safety reasons. But he would never use them without permission and prior warning—especially in Chris’s case. He never knew what he would find.
Sasha looked down and crossed her arms. He didn’t want to risk his new relationship by saying it, but she looked like her mother when she did that. “Well, technically, they do own the place.”
That made what they’d done the night before seem dirtier and somehow more illicit. Like they were teenagers, and he’d snuck into her room last night. He didn’t hate that thought, and he realized he might have a more subversive streak than he’d previously thought. Or maybe that was just Sasha’s influence on him.
They’d still crossed a boundary by entering their daughter’s home at—he glanced at his watch on the bedside table—eight in the morning on a Sunday. “Okay—”
“Listen, I need you to let me do the talking.” Sasha started pacing in front of the door as he got out of bed and looked for something to put on. Shit. All of his clothes were strewn around the apartment. And those were the only clothes he had until he packed up his things at the rectory.
Sasha noticed his problem and found him another robe. It was pink and way too small, but the too-short baby-blue pajama pants she found him really added to the look.
“I’m not sure what their game is, and we don’t have time to talk strategy, so I’m going to need you to pay close attention to the words coming out of my mouth, and closer attention to the look on my face. I’ll try to position us so that I can signal you if you’re saying too much or too little. But if Moira heads for the liquor cabinet, all bets are off.”
Patrick was totally bewildered. His family wasn’t chock-full of talkers, but there were no mixed messages, and he certainly had never needed to strategize in order to get out of a conversation with them alive.
“Is it always like this with your family?”
She gave him a pointed look that said he was obviously new here. “You need to pick this up quick. I’m sorry about it, but it’s just part of the package.”
He stepped closer to her then and gave her a hug. She stood there stiffly for a moment. “We don’t have time for this.”
Instead of letting her go, he rubbed up and down her back until she relaxed. “I just want to help, and I obviously don’t have the manual on your family, but I need you to let me help.”
She pulled back and he looked down at her. Usually so put-together and competent, she looked lost. “I’m glad you’re here, and I’d hoped that you wouldn’t have to deal with them for a while.”
“Are you ashamed of—this?”
Their whole relationship was so locked up in the taboo of how it had started and how she got off on it that he wondered for a moment if it had only been about the sex. Maybe, now that he was free to be with