Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(40)

“My turn.”





Tansy

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Four a.m. Already. Yuck.

Grasping aimlessly, I managed to shoot my phone off the nightstand instead of turning it off.

Trying to be all stealth-like and failing miserable, I found myself on the floor and Etienne out of bed, well before I turned the blasted alarm off.

“Sorry, I was trying not to wake you.” I must’ve been a sight, my foot still tangled in the sheets, my bum square on the floor, and my arm reaching out for the dumb phone.

“And that included throwing yourself on the floor?” He quirked an eyebrow, his body every bit as naked as mine, causing my face to burn as I remembered last night.

Sex was fun, as a rule. Everyone knows that. It’s a given. But the night before... Holy cow. After I had Etienne collapsing on the floor, I assumed it was slumber time, and it still would’ve counted as one of the hottest times I’d ever had with a man. Scratch that—it would’ve been the hottest. But when Etienne stood up, never letting me go, and carried me to the bed before putting his mouth on me and making me scream his name, that was the hotter than anything my mind could begin to concoct.

“No.” I shut the alarm off after finally reaching it. “I threw the phone on the floor. My being here was more tripping than throwing.”

“I can see your tits,” he said as if he were asking for me to pass the salt. He untangled my foot from the sheets, his eyes glues to said boobies.

“So, I can see your bits.” I pointed to his package, which was completely unwrapped and at attention. I liked having that effect on him. “See? We rhyme.”

“Not going to say it again?” He stood, holding his hand out to me. He was being such the gentleman at the same time he was buck naked, sporting a boner, and asking me to say cock. Somehow, it worked on him.

“If I say it all the time, it makes it less special.”

“I say ass all the time.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

“Doesn’t make yours any less fucking spectacular.”

I dropped my phone on the nightstand, not happy to see how much time had passed. Dark and early mornings were the downside to my job.

“Why is your alarm going off in the middle of the night?” he asked, staring at the time on my phone. “Let’s go back to bed. I have some more snuggling to do.” He stepped in closer, and I was completely tempted to say stink it and call my manager and tell her to get her butt in there.

“I have to be at work in an hour.” The responsible side of me took over.

“Why?” He ran his hand down my arm, sending shivers of cold running through me. “You don’t open for another three hours.”

“Fresh baked requires baking fresh. Sort of a prerequisite.”

“Fine. We have time to get ready.”

“I thought you and Justice were meeting at seven to go de-rodent that woman’s swamp. You have time to sleep more.” I pushed him down on the bed playfully, wanting to join him so we could get that snuggling in before work, but not being at my place meant time was a tickin’.

“You’re not going to go to work alone,” he announced as he stood and went to his dresser to pull out clothing.

Yeah, that was not gonna happen.

“Clamp down on that protective possessive whatever this is now. For all we know, Bruno wasn’t going to do anything to me and I go freaked for nothing.”

“A dead dude came and warned you, and Loic said Bruno was acting off,” he continued as if I hadn’t already told him it wasn’t how things were going to play out. He might need to drive me there since his truck was still there, but he was so staying in the car.

“Nope. I’m coming.”

“You came last night.” I waggled my eyebrows, hoping to catch him off guard with my innuendo. “You will have to wait until after work to come again. I have work. Besides, the chances of him being up now are insanely slim.”

“See what you just did?” He scowled with no true emotion to it. Mission accomplished. I’d distracted his possessive backside. “I’m trying to fight with you, and you’re using the boner card.”

“The boner card?”

“Yeah, you gave me a boner, and now my ability to have logical counter arguments is gone.”

Operation get Etienne to quit his bologna—success.

“Good to know. Speaking of knowing, we need to find out who the ghost is.” It had been bugging me that none of the guys had a guess when I broached the topic the night before. “I’d ask him, but Bruno is always there, and I don’t need him knowing what I can do.”

He just stared at me, his mouth open.

“What?”

“Your boobs are distracting.”

Looked like the boner card worked a little too well.

“Gators.” I shook my head in exaggerated exacerbation.

“You like it. Admit it.” He dropped his collected clothes on the bed.

“I admit nothing. I need to go shower for work.”

“What a coincidence. So do I.” Desire wrapped around his voice. I liked where this was going.

“You’re going to go to the swamp. That hardly calls for a shower.” I winked before starting to head to the bathroom.