Willing Captive(39)

Not trusting myself to speak without throwing up, I cringe and nod. For a moment, he looks concerned. He frowns. “Not speaking to me or still feeling ill?”

I motion with my finger that it’s the last one and he relaxes. Walking past me over to the microwave, he says, “Nothing a little aspirin and oatmeal won’t fix.”

Surprised at the nice gesture, I watch as he makes my breakfast.

I pick at it for a while. Halfway through it, my appetite returns with a vengeance and I wolf down the rest of it. I take the two aspirin he’s brought me and ask, “Where is everyone?”

Nox grins, “Working. Well, Rock is looking after Boo.”

Immediately concerned, I demand a little too loudly, “What happened to Boo?”

He chuckles, “Shit. You don’t even remember.” Then he explains, “Well, you drank about five or six shots of tequila all on your own.” I cringe at the word tequila and cover my mouth. “Then you said it was no fun drinking alone and begged Boo to drink with you. She decided she would because she has the morning off. So you and Boo had yourselves a private party. Drinking, dancing on tables, and coming onto every single one of my men that was in the house.”

I gasp loudly, “No. No way! You’re lying.”

He raises his eyebrows, pushes his phone towards me and dares me to take it.

I shrink into myself. “You recorded me, didn’t you?” He nods. “I made an ass of myself, didn’t I?” He nods again, his expression strangely soft. “Okay, I believe you. Delete the video…please.”

Taking his phone, he plays around with it for a while. “Sure you don’t wanna see the part where you told me I was cooler than the Hoff?”

I gasp again, disgusted at myself. “What? That’s ridiculous! I’m sorry, Nox, that was just mean.” Nox’s smile spreads wide. “No one’s cooler than David Hasselhoff! I mean, c’mon, it’s the Hoff!” Shaking my head, I widen my eyes to show him just how crazy that thought was.

Nox blinks. Once, twice, then leans his head back and roars with laughter. And even though it hurts my ears and rattles my brain, I smile. That laugh…I think it could be described as fallen angel song. As well as panty wetting.

Rough, raw laughter.

Sigh.

Playing with my spoon in my empty bowl, I don’t dare look at him when I ask, “So I came onto all your guys?”

Nox is suddenly quiet. I look up to find him glaring holes into my skull. He nods. “Yep. Don’t need that distraction with my men, Lily.”

Seriously apologetic, I cringe once more. I think that makes forty-seven just this morning. “I’m sorry, Nox. Seems I get a bit friendly when I’m hammered.”

He snorts, “Friendly? You stuck your tongue into Matthew’s ear like you were licking a sucker!”

My face flushes crimson and I squeak, “You’re shitting me!”

He shakes his head forlornly. “Nope. ’Fraid not, little one. Friendly? No. Frisky. Yeah. A whole lotta frisky.”

Fuck my life!

Crossing my arms onto the table, I lower my head onto them and say a muffled, “What else did I do?”

Nox chuckles. Something about that chuckle I don’t like. I know I’m not going to like what I hear. “Well, you- uh- you sort of kissed me. Twice.” He says quietly.

Oh my fu-. This just gets better and better.

My face flushes brighter than red and I lift my face. Nox wiggles his brows at me looking all too pleased with himself, and I can’t help but laugh at my own stupidity. “Well, that sucks. My first kiss and I can’t even remember it. Figures. Was I bad?”

Nox’s smile falls right off his face. He looks stunned. Leaning forward over the table, he stares at me wide-eyed. “Never been kissed? What do you mean never been kissed?”

Oh man. Me and my big mouth.

Trying to shake it off, I shrug. “No big deal. I didn’t exactly have a lot of opportunities to meet people, namely guys living under the lock and key of my father now, did I? Just one of those things. So I guess I sucked at it, huh?”

Nox frowns, leans back and away from me. He looks up as if in thought. “No. Not bad. A little sloppy. But I couldn’t really judge because I stopped you both times after a few seconds. And I was tempted to take a photo of you molesting me as blackmail material, but I didn’t…because I’m a gentleman.”

At the gentleman part of his mini rant, I burst into laughter and it hurts my entire dehydrated and hungover body. “You are so not a gentleman, Nox! Whatever made you think that? You’re like anti-gentleman. You’re rough and scary and downright mean sometimes. You’re jaggedman not gentleman!” I guffaw.

He scowls at me but doesn’t say a thing. Immediately, I feel like an ass and try to soften the blow that I didn’t expect would strike him. “Look, it’s probably just because of the job you do. I’m sure you can be a gentleman if you tried, Nox. Really.”

Someone stumbles into the kitchen. We both look over at Boo who looks worse than I did this morning. Nox opens his mouth to say something, but she cuts him off with a swipe of her hand. “No.”

Boo glares at me. “God, you suck. Remind me never to drink with you again. You’re like a freakin’ bottomless pit. You just kept guzzling.”