Shameless - Sybil Bartel Page 0,41

chuckled. “What exactly am I taking? A forced cuddle with a blanket-wrapped smart-mouthed teenager?”

“Shut the fuck up. I’m not a teenager.”

I snorted. “You’re nineteen. Check those last four letters, smart ass.”

She snorted back. “I’ve been living on my own for almost three years in a multimillion-dollar penthouse. I lost my virginity at thirteen to a washed-up thirty-year-old rocker who thought he could get to my father by getting to me. And that was only the first half of that evening’s house party that my father threw on the daily. I was never a teenager. I grew up on my twelfth birthday when the crack whore who birthed me showed up at my party and did her best to overdose in the bathroom while Mr. Sparkles was giving pony rides to famous rock stars’ kids. I held her hair, then shoved my fingers down her throat so no one would have to call 911 before the unicorn cake was served.”

“If you’re looking for sympathy, sweetheart, like I said, wrong tree.” I had no empathy for her poor little rich girl bullshit, but I filed the statement about the piece-of-shit rock star away for later so I could find him and beat the fuck out of him.

Her voice took on an edge. “I’m not looking for a damn thing, especially not from you. I have more money than I can spend in the next hundred years because I’m Leo Amherst’s daughter. There’s no room for teenager in that fact. You check your letters, smart ass.”

“A woman would know better than to pull the stunt you’re pulling right now.” Teenager or not, she had tits and an ass, and my cock had come to life the second her almost naked body pressed into mine, because I was fucking human.

“I’m not pulling anything.” Still curled into me, she didn’t make a single move to retreat. “Be grateful that you have someone willing to get this close to your dickish self.”

I smirked. “Keep calling me names, and I might think you have a thing for me.”

She was quiet a beat, then the edge to her voice disappeared. “You know, I’m not that bad.”

“Don’t fish for compliments, woman,” I warned.

She looked up and gave me a taunting smile. “Now I’m a woman?”

Fuck my life. Young or not, she was pretty as hell with no makeup on. “Get the fuck up and go back to bed.”

“No.” She smiled, then settled her head on my chest again. “Besides, you know you secretly love it.”

Ignoring her last statement, I leaned my head back. “Not a pillow.” Fuck, she smelled good.

“No kidding.” She pushed at me like she was checking fucking tire pressure. “You’re chest is uncomfortable as hell.”

I flexed my pecs. Because I could. “Then go back upstairs.” Where I wouldn’t have to think about her full tits under that blanket.

“Again, no.”

Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face. Then I said what was on my mind, because I was too old and too tired for this bullshit. “You don’t want to fuck, you don’t need me to shoot anyone at the moment, and you’ve got a blanket that’ll keep you warm in this damn blizzard. So why the fuck are you down here?”

It was quick and almost imperceptible through the blanket she had swathed around her, but I caught it. She shivered. Then her voice turned too damn quiet. “Because I don’t want to be there.”

Instinct kicked in, and my head was up before I could blink. Scanning the stairs, the living area and kitchen all in one sweep, I eyed my gun before glancing out the windows. “Where? Upstairs?” There weren’t any threats up there.

The front door and the glass sliders were the weak points. Which was why I was sitting on the couch between the two access points in the first place instead of holed up in the security room where I could see all the cameras. Seconds meant life or death in reaction times, and I wasn’t going to give any fuck out there Vincenzo hired the advantage of even one goddamn second.

So here I sat. In case. Because that was my job.

She shifted against me, dropping her head lower. “Yeah.”

Fighting the instinct to grab her chin and demand her eyes so I could see what the hell was going on with her, I barked out a question. “What’s wrong with upstairs?”

She was quiet a beat too long, and my senses went into overdrive.

Adrenaline kicking at my pulse, I scanned the entryway, the living room,