“I’m fine as long as I get exactly what I want when I want it,” I said with a casual shrug.
“Lies.” The deep full-bodied laugh rumbling in Evander’s chest made me throb. I placed my hand over his heart to capture some of the vibrations. I wanted them to absorb into my blood.
I wanted to absorb every part of him.
“Whatever, Evander. You know nothing.” I wiped a drop of whiskey from his bottom lip with my thumb then licked it away.
“It seems like he knows quite a bit,” Navy pointed out. I didn’t realize until that moment how entangled Evander and I had become. His arm around my waist, my hand on his chest, wiping and then licking the fucking whiskey from his bottom lip…
“You see what I’m seeing, right?” Apollo quizzed, looking at Navy.
“There’s nothing to see,” Evander’s arm dropped from my waist and I missed it. I kept my mouth shut because if Evander and I weren’t in a relationship, there was no need to let anyone in on what was happening between us.
I knew my sister wasn’t stupid. She knew I was fucking my boss but I refused to admit it. Apollo knew too. Evander followed suit and doubled down on the just-friends lie we were floating. Nobody needed to know if it wasn’t serious.
Then why did I have the nagging feeling to lay claim to him and tell both Apollo and Navy that he belonged to me? The possessive swell came out of nowhere. It hovered over me the entire time Evander and I hung out with Navy and Apollo.
Whenever I got the chance to slide my fingers along the back of his hand, I took it. When he spoke to me, I leaned in to grasp his words. I even rested my head on his shoulder for a brief moment when the Jameson hit too hard.
By the end of the night, I was ready to practically shove my sister out the front door and climb Evander like a tree. A tree I could fuck.
“I’m cutting you off,” Evander said once we were alone.
“Cutting me off from what exactly?” I snapped. I prayed he didn’t say he was putting me on dick punishment because I couldn’t handle that shit. I would protest.
“Whiskey. You’re drunk as fuck.”
“I am not,” I pouted, poking my lips out.
Okay…maybe I was.
“Xari, you don’t think I know you by now?” He shot me a look that made my panties melt down my legs.
“You only know what I let you know,” I said, swaying to the side. I was definitely drunk and at the cut-off point.
“I know you’re a brat.” He moved my glass out of reach and set it in the sink.
“So you can drink all you want to cover up the fact that you regret not following your heart but I have to stop because I’m a little tipsy.”
Fuck. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I pursed my lips together and blew out a puff of air through my nose.
“Wow, so you get drunk and the truth comes out, huh?” He shook his head then walked over to me. I smelled his heat. His cologne. His whiskey-and-regret laced words. “Let’s go, trouble.” He scooped me into his strong arms like I weighed nothing then carried me upstairs while I slurred out protests and whined.
“You promised me dick and I promised you I’d play Janet Jackson on Sunshine.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re not doing anything right now though. We’re going to lay here and I’m going to hold you until you fall asleep.” He laid me in his plush bed. My eyes found the ceiling and I stared at it, hoping the room would stop spinning while Evander gingerly undressed me.
“You might have been right about me being drunk,” I told him, stretching a finger into the air.
“Yeah, I know I was right.”
“You’re so fucking arrogant, Freeman.”
“I’m confident,” he countered, a smile hanging on his words. His smile made me smile. It was contagious. “You have the prettiest smile, Xari…” His big warm hand reached up and caressed my dimples.
“So do you. You’re just really fucking hot, Evander. Like, how are you a senator? How?” I lifted my head an inch and noticed I was only in my bra and panties. Damn, he moved fast.
“By force. Not by choice,” he sighed before pulling his shirt from his pants and unbuttoning it. I watched even in my drunken haze and admired the construction of his body.