my search, I push up from the bed and toss the remaining contents of the bag aside.
Eager to put some space between us.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, lips curving to a teasing smile as she slides over to the spot I just vacated. “Afraid you might catch cooties, if you sit next to me?”
It’s the way my body reacts around this woman that bothers me. As if I’ve lost control over myself.
“Maybe I should’ve stayed with Luc tonight. I’m certain he’d be a much warmer host.”
Case in point. The way my hand balls into a tight fist at my side, I’m certain my cousin would be laid out flat with my fist in his face, if he were standing in the room, clueless as ever. And I don’t even feel bad about that thought. “I can arrange that, if you’d prefer.” The words practically arrive on a hiss through my teeth.
After giving me a onceover, she smiles and leans back on the bed, her wet hair dripping over her skin and onto my duvet cover. She’s studying me the same way I’m studying her. It’s probably stamped across my forehead how badly I want to fuck this woman, in spite of my newly developed reservations. “Nah. I’m comfortable here. So, where do you want me?”
A loaded question. Against every wall in the place is my answer, but I don’t tell her that.
“You can have my bed.”
“Where will you sleep?”
“I’ve some work to finish up. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“That doesn’t feel right. You should have your bed. I’ll take the couch.”
“No.”
“I spent the last week sleeping on the floor of an abandoned house. Trust me, your fancy leather couch is going to feel amazing.”
The moment the words tumble from her lips, an unbidden, albeit welcomed, image of her eyes rolled back in ecstasy slips through my mind, and I don’t even realize I’m gnawing on my own tongue until the coppery tang of blood fills my mouth. Every word that spills from those pouty lips of hers is an unwitting invitation for sex.
Or perhaps not so unwitting.
“I’ll sleep on the couch. You sleep in the bed. That’s the arrangement.”
“The arrangement. How ceremonious of you.” After a sharp mocking salute, she smiles. “Aye, Captain. Or do I call you the Big Bad Wolf?”
“Where did you hear that name?”
“A couple of people. Is it because you pick up unsuspecting women who camp out in abandoned houses in the woods, er …”
“I believe I already explained that this is an unusual circumstance.”
“Well, if you try anything, just know that I may be knifeless at the moment, thanks to you, but I am definitely not helpless.”
“Given you’ve attempted to seduce me a few times tonight, try what, exactly?”
“Donning a granny nightgown and glasses and attempting to feed me to your crocodile, for one.”
“Alligator. And the only one donning anything grannie is you, with those panties.” Capping the visual of her in said panties, I turn toward the door and leave the room before I can act on the urges she’s stirred inside of me. No idea how the hell this girl managed to weasel her way past my ordinarily steel defenses. Once I’ve decided not to fuck someone, it’s fairly easy to avoid the need to fuck them. Except this one, it seems. “Good night, Miss James.”
“Goodnight, Captain Wolfie.”
The glance I shoot back at her is rife with enough apathy that she lowers her gaze, obviously hiding a smile. She reaches into the pocket of the shorts she wore earlier, the ones she carried out of the bathroom, and pulls out a baggie of pills, dumping a few into her palm.
I stride back toward her. “No drugs while you’re staying here.”
“What? These? They’re sleeping pills.”
“Hand ‘em over.”
Before I can snag them from her, she slips the baggie up into the bottom of the towel and sets her hand over it. “No way I’m handing these over. I need them to sleep.”
A flick of my fingers, and goddamn her rebellious headshake that spikes my blood. “Now.”
“No. I’m serious. Aside from weed on occasion, I don’t do drugs. Not like that. I promise.”
“Newsflash. Sleeping pills are drugs, chère. Now let me see them before I’m forced to strip search you. And I can assure you, that won’t be pleasant.”
“You want them? Get them yourself.” Hands set on either side of her, she spreads her legs just enough to show the baggie tucked between those slender thighs. This girl is a piece of work. An irritatingly beautiful piece