Page 94 of Mark my Words

“Alright,” Chase interrupted, gesturing to the door. “Break it up. Our ride is here. Get your asses out that door.”

I slowed down as Chase and Evan walked out the door, grasping Kristine’s elbow as I leaned toward her. “Happy now?” I laughed.

Her answering grin was adorable, her eyes bright. She’d enjoyed fake fighting with me. “It’ll work.”

She smirked and turned her nose up once we got to the Uber van, glaring at me as she climbed into the front seat.

Chase and I chatted as we headed toward the first brewery where the tour Adrian and Isobel had booked for us would begin. It was the least he could do for all the drama our arrival in Denver had caused. Kristine had calmed down, but no one else needed to know that being roommates wasn’t quite the ordeal she’d played it out to be initially.

The tour kept Chase and Evan occupied, their flirtations distracting Chase from her fixation on Kristine and me. When we got to the last brewery, the four of us grabbed a table, and the conversation was much less stilted than before.

“Oh, come on,” Kristine laughed loudly as she set her sights on Evan. “You’re telling me that you’d never used sex toys until you met Chase? I find that hard to believe.”

I didn’t find it hard to believe. She’d only interacted with Evan once he was dating Chase. The timid man I’d met a few years ago was a shadow of who he was now. After hearing about his history from Adrian, I could see that Chase had completely shaken up his world.

“It’s always the quiet ones that are really freaks behind closed doors,” I teased, squeezing the hand that’d ended up on my knee underneath the table.

“You speak from experience, Spammy?” Kristine’s eyebrows rose, a challenge in her eyes as she ran her foot up the back of my calf. My cheeks heated a little at the blatant look of lust, and I leaned across the table, licking my lips.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“In your dreams, pretty boy,” she breathed, grabbing my hand and pulling it into her lap, forcing me to scoot closer to the table. The heat coming from between her legs was overwhelming, and I had a feeling if I pressed my fingers closer, I could feel how wet she was beneath her thin leggings.

Chase and Evan talked about taking a tour at a hotel nearby as Kristine released my hand, groaning dramatically as she pulled out her phone. “Ugh. Actually, Is just filled my inbox with pages to proof.”

My lips pinched shut as I fought the urge to blurt out that I would be happy to fill her box with something. She angrily tapped at the screen of her phone, and mine vibrated in my pocket as she made her excuses to head back to the hotel.

Standing from the booth, I placed my hand on Kristine’s back, enjoying how she leaned toward me. “Want some help? Two sets of eyes might help you get through it faster.”

“We’ll see you two nauseating lovebirds later,” Kristine sighed loudly and stood from the table.

When we reached the sidewalk outside the brewery, Kristine giggled, looking over at me as she bumped her shoulder into mine. “Not bad, Sam. I think they bought it.”

“What can I say?” I chuckled. “You make it easy to pretend to be irritated.”

“Well, thank you. I appreciate the assist. If they got any touchier in there, I may have vomited in my mouth.”

The hand resting on her back slipped around her waist, pulling her into my side as we quickly walked down the street toward our waiting Uber. “They weren’t the only ones getting touchy in there.”

“Shut it,” she growled, placing her hand in the center of my chest. She’d never admit it, but she’d been the one who’d initiated touching me under the table, only a foot away from the people we were supposedly hiding our relationship from.

KRISTINE

DEN

“Ugh.”

Sam’s head immediately swiveled in my direction as I groaned. I knew he’d been watching me out of the corner of his eye after we returned to the room, waiting for me to talk to him. The mixed signals I was throwing out left and right had been giving me whiplash, but I really did need to get work done tonight. Our flirtation from earlier was pushed to the back burner as soon as we got back. I’d pulled out my laptop and tried to get back to work, my slightly intoxicated brain having difficulty focusing.

This manuscript sample was ridiculous. He had no idea how easy he had it with the other sample we’d been given from the fantasy editors. The one they’d sent me from romance was...rough.

I understood that they were using the samples to gauge our editing skills, no matter the quality of the work, but who came up with this shit? It was dreadful. There was absolutely no way this was from a book that Isobel was considering.

Adrian probably could have written something better in terms of smuttiness, even with his chauvinistic views of the world. That in itself was a terrifying thought.

I scanned the passage again, trying to ignore Sam’s staring, but I couldn’t help cringing as I read some of the more...descriptive...language.

He plunged his love lance into the depths of her cavernous pleasure pool.

---