Rock Chick (Rock Chick #1)(126)

“Problem is, you’re so f**king determined to take life by the throat, the only way I can be certain you won’t do it on your own is to force you into a safe house, which’ll mean I could lose you.” He pulled on a white tee and kept talking. “What decision do I make? Keep you alive and piss you off so much you’ll take off or let you risk your life, which, crossing Coxy is a possibility.”

“Lee, if you’d quit ranting and listen to me –”

He turned to me and the look on his face was frightening.

“I’m not ranting.” he said coldly, “I’m very serious.”

I was getting that.

He looked away and started to slam through the drawers again and I stood up on the bed and shouted, “Liam Nightingale, listen to me!”

He turned and looked at my middle, not expecting me to be standing, then his eyes traveled up.

“You don’t want me to use myself as bait, I won’t,” I yelled.

“How do I trust that?” he yelled back.

Now I knew how the little boy who cried wolf felt.

“I promise,” I shouted.

“How do I trust that?” he shouted.

“You just do!” I was back to yelling.

“Do you love me?” He followed suit with the yelling.

“Yes! Of course I love you, you big dope! I’ve loved you since I was five!” I decided to shake it up and this time I screamed.

He took one stride to the bed and leaned a shoulder into my thighs in a body tackle. My upper body fell over his back, lifting my feet from the bed. He pulled my legs around his side and tossed me back on the bed. He grabbed my ankle, yanked me across the bed and then, whoosh, away went the panties I’d just put on. He came down on top of me, his mouth finding mine, his hand between us, working the buttons at his fly.

When he stopped kissing me, his hand had moved and was working between my legs.

“You’re wrong. It isn’t me turnin’ myself inside out, it’s you. You drive me nuts,” he told me.

“Thanks.” It should have been snappy but it was breathy because, I think I may have mentioned earlier, Lee was good with his hands.

“Don’t go after Coxy,” he ordered then kissed me again.

“Okay,” I said, after he finished kissing me.

He reached and grabbed a condom, tearing it open with his teeth because his other hand was busy.

“Lee…”

He was multi-tasking, so he muttered, “Yeah?”

“I won’t leave you, even if you act like an ass**le.”

His head came up and he looked at me, and his eyes, which, until that moment still held a bit of ticked off, went melty-chocolate.

“Christ, Indy.”

I kissed him while I reached between us and guided him inside me. He started moving immediately.

In his ear, really quietly, I whispered, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right where I’ve always wanted to be.”

His mouth moved to mine and he said, “It’s about f**king time.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Splat

Ally, Willie and I were sitting outside Liks Ice Cream Parlour. It was approximately three hundred degrees in the shade but we were still sitting out on the patio because what else do you do when you’re at Liks? Even in December, you at least considered the patio when you went to Liks.

After Lee and my love-in, Willie had come over because he’d pulled Indy Watch for the day.

Lee went to work, Willie and I went to Fortnum’s, and, in the afternoon, Ally and I took Willie to the mall.

We were treating him to a waffle cone because he’d managed to survive an Indy and Ally Do Cherry Creek Shopping Center Experience complete with full-on explorations of Levi’s, Lucky and Diesel and fly-bys through Guess and Urban Outfitters.

After I’d asked Willie how he felt about the tenth pair of Lucky jeans I tried on, he told me he was going to hunt down and murder Terry Wilcox his own damned self.

Hmm.

(I didn’t buy the jeans.)

I was feeling weird because I wasn’t feeling weird about admitting to Lee that I loved him and I thought I should be feeling weird.

Question, what did you do when you got exactly what you always wanted?

Answer, you went shopping with your best friend, then got ice cream.

I was barely keeping up with my melting double dip of dark chocolate with dark chocolate chunks when I heard, “Cool! It’s the Rock Chicks.”

I looked up and stared in total shock at The Kevster and Rosie who were heading our way, both carrying their own double dip waffle cones (you didn’t do a single dip at Liks, it was the law) and looking like they didn’t have a care in the world.

At their approach, Willie stood, handing his cone to Ally.

The Kevster reared back at Willie’s defensive posture and put up a hand, index and middle finger extended.

“Dude. We come in peace.”

“It’s okay, we know them,” I told Willie.

Willie relaxed, slightly.

“I thought you two were in jail,” I said to The Kevster and Rosie, coming to my feet.

“Made bond,” Rosie replied, an “O” of ice cream coating his lips (if I had to guess, by the looks of it, rocky road).

“Who paid your bond?” Ally asked, also on her feet.