Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(39)

“Hey, you owe me.” He waved the already half-eaten apple over his shoulder. “You kept throwing my supper out on the ground.”

He entered the bathroom first and flipped on a light, only to stop dead in the doorway. I was about to lecture him on how unhealthy it was to drink his supper, but he held up a finger and announced, “You have roommates.”

Wondering how he’d come up with that assumption, I glanced past him into the bathroom, but it looked the same as always to me, makeup and bathroom products everywhere.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Sasha and Tyla.”

“The tall one and the short one who were at the party tonight, booty grinding you?”

“Yes, why?” I shook my head, confused.

He shrugged. “I just figured you’d never leave a bathroom this messy. A bedroom, maybe. A bathroom, no.”

I scowled and almost told him he did not know me that well, but damn, it was kind of the truth. How the f*ck did he know me that well?

“Bet I can figure out which room is yours.” He stepped past me and entered the next doorway down the line. “Oh. Well, that was easy.”

He’d already flipped on the light when I entered after him. He stood only a few feet inside my room and gazed around at all my walls, or rather at the multitude of dream catchers I had hanging everywhere. After wandering to the closest one, he flicked a hanging feather with his finger and glanced back at me. “Which one was the first your dad bought you?”

I kept eye contact with him as I moved toward the bed and pointed out the only one hanging directly above my headboard. “This one.”

He nodded, smiling affectionately as he stared at it. “That one’s your favorite.”

Of course, he’d figured that out. I watched his face as he studied every little detail of that dream catcher, and I quietly murmured, “Yeah. It is.”

He slipped his attention to me. His chocolate brown eyes held so much sadness and longing that I was a split second from going to him when he turned away suddenly and exited the room.

I drew in a deep breath and pressed my hand to my diaphragm before stepping into the hallway too. I didn’t follow him into Sasha’s or Tyla’s quarters and he didn’t stay in them long, just checked for intruders, but I did wait just outside the door to meet him when he was done being a nice, thoughtful guy and making sure I was safe.

“See,” I told him, holding up both hands. “No ex-husband lurking about.”

He shook his head. “Nope. No ex-husbands.”

“Yeah, so…I guess you need this back now.” I reluctantly began to remove his jacket.

“Sure,” he said, “unless you wanted to keep it a while and sleep with it until you’ve worn my smell out of it.”

My mouth snapped open as I gasped. “Ugh. You…jerk. I was not sniffing your damn jacket.” I slapped it against his chest, which only made him chuckle.

“I didn’t suggest that you had already. Why? Had you?”

“No,” I snapped, only to scowl and mutter, “shut up.”

The bastard only laughed harder before he brought it to his own nose. “Damn,” he murmured, lowering it again. “I actually hoped it’d smell more like you when I got it back.”

I had this sudden acute vision of him leaning over me while I was stretched out and naked on a bed, while he sniffed every inch of my body. And my hormones flipped to arousal so fast I was tempted to squeeze my thighs together.

“You like my scent.” I’d started it out as a question, but it ended up sounding more like a statement of awe. But holy shit, knowing he liked my scent as much as I liked his was f*cking intoxicating.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, glancing down at me because I was suddenly close enough that he had to look down, which made me realize I’d just drifted right up into his personal space. And I wanted to drift even closer. “I like everything about you, baby doll.”

Yeah, I was going to drift even closer.

When his breathing changed and his chest moved as he sucked in oxygen, I knew he was as far gone as I was. I stared up at him, my skin practically buzzing with the need to feel him against me. My gaze coasted to his hair, which I wanted to clutch so bad, then to his lips that had parted and looked dewy moist as if he’d just licked them.

When I sank near, he mirrored me, shifting in as well. My eyelashes fluttered.

He drew in an audible breath, then said, “If you’re going to kiss me again, try not to mention my brother this time, okay?”

And bam. I was done.

Jerking backward, I gaped at him in horror. “You *.”

He shrugged as he slipped on his coat. “Hey, I was just setting ground rules. That was kind of a mood breaker for me the first time.”

I hugged myself, feeling humiliated and small. Unable to look him in the eye, I muttered, “Maybe you should just go.”

He nodded. “Yeah, maybe I should.”

But as soon as he turned away, a pounding came from the front of the apartment. When I heard the familiar muted shout of my ex, I grabbed Colton’s arm tight.

“Shit.”

He glanced at me, his eyes squinted as he listened to Shaun holler my name and claim he knew I was here. “Is that him?”

I nodded silently, my heart thumping a million miles per minute.