before scooping up my hand in his. “I wouldn’t dream of it. It was already on the cloud anyway.”
A growl starts in my chest and slips past my throat. “You are something else.”
He winks and squeezes my hand. “Ready to go home now?”
“Yes.”
30
The Fifth Drink
Desmond
It’s just past eleven when I walk Maggie upstairs to our adjacent condos. Almost as soon as we got into my van at the wedding site, she fell asleep, giving me far too much time to steal glances at the woman in the pink-and-gold dress. Now she seems awake and as vibrant as ever.
“Thank you for the ride.” She’s playing with her keys as her eyes shine back on mine, and I don’t want her to leave me.
“Always. But you know,” I say with a smile and tilt of my head, “one of these days you’re going to have to get yourself a ride of your own.”
She shrugs. “I don’t need one when I have you.” She flashes those pearly white teeth at me and turns toward her door to unlock it. “Plus, I’d have to get my license first.”
“What?” I cough out the word with my laugh, and she just shrugs before pushing open her door. “Wait.” I jump forward until I’m halfway between her door and mine. “I was going to have a drink and maybe light a fire and turn on a movie.” I take a breath, realizing how desperate I sound. “Why don’t you come over for a minute?”
“Um,” she says, looking at her door and then at me.
“I did only have three at the wedding,” I remind her with a grin. “Join me?” Then I cringe as I remember how fast asleep she was in the van. “Unless you’re too tired and just want to go to bed.” I take a step back, trying to lessen the blow of disappointment before it hits.
“I’ll come in for one drink.” She looks down and then lets out a breathy laugh. “I should probably change first. Give me thirty minutes?”
Jesus, if my heart was dead, her words were enough to jump-start it back to life. “Yeah, okay.” I keep my response as nonchalant as possible, not wanting to sway her decision a single bit.
As soon as the door shuts behind her, I’m tearing into my condo, ripping off my shirt, and unbuttoning my pants. With a quick glance around, I breathe out a sigh of relief that I’m not a sloppy son of a bitch. Everything is mostly clean besides a stack of unopened mail on my kitchen island, a few dishes I quickly place into the dishwasher, and my unmade bed, which I fix up in a few minutes. Then I light the fire and turn on the surround-sound speakers to play my custom country playlist. A light soundtrack to the night will be perfect.
When I finish all of the above, I have twenty minutes left to change. Or maybe I should shower.
Before I can decide, there’s a faint knock at my door. With a quick glance at the digital clock on my microwave, I start to think I heard her wrong. I swear she said to give her thirty.
I jog from my bedroom to the front door and yank it open. “That was fast—oh.” I trip over my words, expecting to see Maggie dressed in sweats and ready for our nightcap. Disappointment settles over me when I notice she’s still dressed in her outfit from tonight. I’m expecting her to tell me that coming over will be a bad idea and that she’s changed her mind, but then I catch the way she’s looking back at me with a bashful smile.
She lets out a light laugh as her eyes bulge at my chest. Then she quickly turns away. “This is embarrassing, but Monica kind of helped me put this dress on, and…” Her voice trails off as she turns around. “I can’t reach.”
My eyes follow the line of long metal teeth that starts between her shoulder blades and runs down to the middle of her ass. Her gentle curves draw the shape of an hourglass from her ribs to her waist and then to her hips. I don’t even realize I’ve completely gone still from her request until she throws me a glance over her shoulder.
She catches me in my stare, and her brows draw together. “Do you mind unzipping me?”
I clear my throat and step forward, trying to keep my head from spinning before I pass out from the closeness of