Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(110)

Without thinking what I was doing, I started in on my drink-making experiment. It was almost habit these days; I wanted to come up with my own alcoholic drink so bad I’d been determined to concoct the perfect brew.

When Colton came up behind me, I’d just finished my first try.

I glanced over my shoulder. “How’s she doing?”

He shrugged. “Shitty.” Then he wrapped his arms around my waist before setting his chin on my shoulder to watch as I took a sip of the first batch.

Only to gag and spit half of it back into my glass. “Oh God, that’s disgusting.”

“What’re you making?” he asked curiously.

“Nothing. I don’t know. I’ve been trying to come up with some new, awesome drink mix that’s all my own, and they always—and I mean always—suck.”

“I thought that was something you only did with Brandt when you guys were working together.”

I glanced back at him, my eyebrows raised in surprise. “No. I mean, sure, he’s helped me try to come up with something. But I honestly do it all the time, with or without him.”

“So it wasn’t something special between you two? Good to know.” Colton slipped the cup from my hand, gingerly took a sip, and winced. “God…damn,” he uttered, scraping his tongue against the top of his teeth as if desperate to get the taste off. Then he snagged a napkin and literally tried wiping the flavor away. “What the hell was in that shit?”

I pouted, a little hurt he couldn’t even pretend to like my creation. But then my shoulders sagged. “Honestly, I don’t even remember. But I’ve tried every mix imaginable, and they either end up already existing, or they suck…bad.”

“Oh, baby doll,” he murmured sympathetically. “No, no, no. You’re going about this all wrong. Here.” He turned me around, gripped my hips and propped me up on the kitchen counter facing him.

I liked where this was going.

“First of all, we’re dumping this.” He overturned my glass, letting the rest of the contents spill out into the sink. I sent up a quick prayer that it didn’t cause any kind of toxic, glowy green gas in the sewers and morph baby turtles into human-sized ninjas or anything.

No, wait. That would be cool. But, damn, that had already been done too. Pooh.

“Now…” Colton set his hands on my thighs, the heat from his palms feeling delicious as it soaked through my yoga pants. “Close your eyes.”

Really, really liking where this was going, I did, tipping my face up, you know, just in case he wanted to do something to that area with, say, his lips, maybe.

His breath wafted across my cheek, and my body stirred.

“Drain your mind,” he instructed, his voice husky and low.

Instead of draining, my mind filled…every sense overflowing with nothing but him.

Preferring this to a drained mind, I tightened my lips and said, “Okay.”

He chuckled as if he knew exactly what I wanted him to do but wanted to tease me first. “Think of every favorite flavor you have. Food, drink, whatever. Then mix them together and imagine them combined in a single beverage.”

I opened my eyes and met his curious brown gaze. “So you’re saying I should chop you up into pieces and put you in a drink? That’s kind of sadistic, don’t you think?”

“Ah, baby doll.” Sweeping in, he kissed me, his hands confident and warm as they ran down my back and clutched my ass. “You sure know how to make me feel loved.”

“You are,” I assured him. “Completely.” Wanting to thank him for the kindness he’d just paid my friend, I buried my fingers in his hair and tugged him forward, nipping at his mouth, then kissing him deeply.

“Oh, hell no!” Sasha squawked, screeching to a stop as she entered the kitchen. “Jesus, Juli. No sex on the kitchen counters, ’kay?”

Mortified, I buried my face in Colton’s shirt and muffled out a wincing, “Sorry.”

“I was just inspiring her to create a really awesome drink,” Colton answered, making Sasha snicker and back out of the kitchen.

“Well, then. I’ll leave you to it. Just hurry it up. Ty’s getting restless.”

I pushed Colton back so I could slide off the counters. He backed away, taking my hands as I landed on my feet. “I need to get back to this alcohol-making duty someone assigned me to.”

He winked and kissed my forehead. “I’ll stop inspiring you, then.”

And he strolled back out of the kitchen. I watched his ass in his jeans until he disappeared, soaking up the last bit of inspiration I could before, wham, an idea really did hit me.

Chocolate-covered strawberries were my favorite thing on earth. I hurried to pull a carton of strawberries from the refrigerator, then chocolate syrup, and some whipped topping. Raiding the cabinets, I found some rum and Kahlua and put my mixer to work.

A minute later, I was carrying a tray full of three drinks into the living room, where Chad had crept out of hiding and was sitting in the chair farthest away from the couch where Tyla was. She remained curled up between Sasha and Colton, who had an arm draped around her shoulders.

“The alcohol is here!” I announced, grinning brightly.

Sasha and Tyla immediately took their glasses, and when Colton reached for the third, I sent him an arch look and half pulled away. “That one’s mine. You’re not twenty-one, remember?”