Part 4 (1/2)
Protestations arose-until the last of what she'd said finally sank in. ”Relocate?” He strangled on the word.
Bra.s.siness returning, she grinned and patted his jaw. ”Yup. I quit my job, dumped a guy, and canceled the lease on my apartment. I'm moving into your neck of the woods.”
Lucius clutched his heart. He pretended dread, when really all he cared about was that she'd rid herself of his compet.i.tion. She didn't need any old flames-not when he intended to be her new love.
Yeah, she claimed to be uninterested. But he'd change her mind about that. How, he didn't know, but he'd make it happen. He had to.
Because deep down, he knew he'd fallen in love with her from day one. Now he had to work on keeping her around...forever.
Twenty minutes later, Lucius should have been dead asleep. Exhaustion dragged at him, but instead of nodding off, he thought about Bethany sleeping in the bedroom just a few feet away.
Had she skinned off those jeans again, so that she wore only the s.h.i.+rt and s.e.xy panties? Was she thinking about him? His stomach tightened at the thought.
She'd be warm. And soft.
And probably grouchy, but he could live with that. h.e.l.l, after so many fawning women, her grouchiness turned him on.
Frustrated on several levels, he put an arm over his eyes and groaned raggedly. He might be tired, but the old John Henry was wide awake.
A moment later, the bedroom door opened, startling him. He dropped his arm and rose to one elbow to stare at Bethany.
For endless seconds, they watched each other.
Finally, she asked, ”What are you groaning about?”
Not bothering to censor his thoughts, he said, ”I'm h.o.r.n.y.”
Her gaze dipped down his body to where a b.o.n.e.r tented the sheet. She did some serious staring.
He got a little harder.
”Oh,” she finally said.
He groaned again. ”Your sister must be a s.a.d.i.s.t. She had to know how I'd react to all this.”
”This?”
”You. The proximity of you. My thoughts of you. My l.u.s.ting for you.”
She touched her mouth with one hand and shook her head. ”No, she's not real clued in to guys.”
”But you are?”
She laughed, but with hurt, not humor. ”No, I'm worse than she is.”
”Because some idiot boyfriend did you wrong?”
One shoulder lifted.
”The guy you dumped to come here?”
”He wasn't even really a boyfriend, just someone I dated a few times. He wanted to use me to get to Marci. I was dumb enough to think he was interested in me. Luckily I figured out the truth early on.” Her gaze remained south of his face.
”It's not going to do tricks, ya know.”
”What's that?”
”My d.i.c.k.” Her gaze shot up to meet his. ”Sorry to disappoint you, but that's as big as it gets, and without some action from you, not much more is going to happen, no matter how long you stare.”
She sucked in a furious, embarra.s.sed breath while turning bright red-hot. ”You're...”
”Really turned on. And sort of p.i.s.sed at this jerk who misled you. And a little worried about Hero. But yeah, mostly turned on.”
She looked around, probably for something to throw at him.
Lucius took pity on her. ”Go back to bed, Bethany. I'll try to suffer in silence.”
”Good idea.”
What, his suffering? Before she could shut the door, Lucius said, ”But Bethany?”
She kept her back to him. ”What?”
”I won't ever lie to you. You'll always know exactly what I'm thinking-”
”Which is part of the problem!”
”-and exactly who I'm interested in.”
She hesitated, her back rigid, her breathing deep. Then she gave one quick nod and muttered, ”Thanks.”
”My pleasure, and yours if you ever decide you're interested.”
This time, Bethany groaned. She started to walk away, but hesitated. ”Lucius?”
”Yeah?”
”I'm far from disappointed.”
”Is that right?”
She cleared her throat. ”If you were any bigger, well...Never mind.” She dashed inside the bedroom and closed the door with a firm click.
A few seconds later, smiling from ear to ear, Lucius settled back down on the couch. He'd only been teasing her about being disappointed. h.e.l.l, he knew he wasn't lacking in that area-but it was cute that she wanted to rea.s.sure him.
He chuckled, and despite his state of unrelieved arousal, fell into a deep sleep that led to erotic dreams. Of Bethany.