Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(50)

Lifting the bottle up seeing as how it was now empty, I got up and moved to where there wasn’t a puddle of water. “Nothing to forgive, baby. Can you forgive me?”

There was a thud from the other side of the door, and then she gave me what I wanted to hear. Well…ish. “There’s nothing to forgive, Da…oh my God, did you put water under the door?”

Bursting out laughing, I listened to her moving around the cell in a panic as she tried to find a towel. It took her a good five minutes to get her pants off and settle down, something which she yelled at me, and once the noises stopped, I took a trip down memory lane. “You gonna go out on a date with me, baby?”

Either she was feel nostalgic too, or she was really pissed that she was stuck wearing soaked panties, because she snapped, “No.”

We both knew I could play this game better than she could, so with a loud sigh, I got up and opened the window on her door. “You sure?”

Glaring at me from where she was sitting on the cot in her cell, she shook her head. “No way.”

Not saying another word, I winked and closed the window and started walking away, whistling loudly. Over the sound of her yelling profanities at me, I heard Jarrod singing November Rain and was hit by the perfection of the song at this moment. Sure we weren’t in November, but Tabby and I hadn’t done anything the right way so far so it fit us. Plus, it was Mom’s favorite group, and he’d had no way of knowing that.

As I walked out of the door, I heard Tabby yell at Jarrod, “I freaking love this song. Keep singing!”

My crazy fireball.

Tabby





Forty-three minutes later…

I was ready when he opened the door fully and launched myself at him.

“What the f…” he muttered before I cut him off by slamming my mouth down on his. And it was an actual slam because I’d underestimated the speed that I’d be going at when I hit him and hadn’t thought about the impact it would have when I lowered my head at the same time to kiss him.

Still, he took it like a champ and didn’t pull away, far from it. Instead, he supported me with an arm under my ass and one around my back, and moved us so that my back was against the wall as he took over the kiss.

Lifting his head, he looked down at me smiling. “Is that a yes?”

Laughing at his question, I tried to kiss him again, but he kept moving his head out of the way. “Yes, you big monkey shit. Now will you kiss me again?”

And he did. With Jarrod singing Livin’ on the Edge by Aerosmith in the cell next door to the one he’d locked me in. Again.





Chapter Thirteen





DB





Crashing through the door of Tabby’s house with her wrapped around me, I almost tripped over something in front of the door.

Blinking down at it, I made out what looked like one of those Garfield things people stuck on the windows of their cars back in the eighties, the things that looked like the poor cartoon character had been roadkill. “What the fuck?”

“What?” she asked and then looked down at where I was looking in the dark. “Oh, I got a new friend. One of my students dogs had him, and he was the runt of the litter so no one wanted him.”

A low groan left the animal lying flat on the floor with its legs splayed out around it. Searching for the light switch with my left hand, I kept my eyes on it not knowing what to expect when I finally found it and turned them on. She’d said it was a dog, but was it actually a dog? With Tabby, it was best to always expect the unexpected, and for all I knew, it could be a damn goat. Finally finding it, I flipped the switch and blinked as my eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light. When they did, I took in the tan and white lump with legs, and moved my head trying to see which end was the top and which was the bottom.

“He’s an English Bulldog,” Tabby said, wiggling to be letdown. When I lowered her, she walked over and picked it up, laughing at the groan that came out of it. “We called him Law.”

Not moving my eyes off it, mainly because I still couldn’t figure out if she was holding it the right way round seeing as how both ends looked identical, I repeated the name. “Law.”

“Yeah, he reminded me of you, so I had to choose something fitting.”

Now that got my attention. Pointing at it with a finger, I made sure I sounded as disgusted as I felt when I asked, “That reminds you of me?”

Nodding happily, she lifted it up in the air and I finally saw that she was indeed holding it the right way when a stubby tail poked out. How she could tell them apart without making a point of finding the tail was a mystery. “He’s serious and grumpy, but when he gets to playing he goes at it full hog.”

I’m not sure I liked that comparison to myself.

“Oh, there’s another new addition to the household around here too. She keeps Law on his feet, which is probably why he was lying by the door.”

Warily looking around the floor for another one, I raised an eyebrow when I didn’t see anything. “You sure you’ve got a second one?”

Walking deeper into the room, she put the lump back down on the floor and I watched as he waddled a couple of feet away from her and then just slumped down again. “Oh yeah, she’s definitely around. She likes the higher up places instead of the floor or furniture.”