Page 60 of The Check Down

“I’m right here, babe.” He leans forward so he can see me around Paige and thumbs the back seat. “Yours is in back.”

I don’t correct him, and it feels right. Sheismine.

When I open the back door, Brynn shields her eyes from the glow of the streetlight. “Hey, you.” Her smile is flirty and tipsy, enticing my mouth to curve in a grin.

I peer around her to find Carlos’s girlfriend Gina passed out in the seat behind Beau. “Let’s get you upstairs, ma’am. You’re going to be hurting in the morning.”

“Pssh.” She flips her hair over her shoulder. “I’m not…I’m notthatdrunk.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I’m. Not. Thankyouverymuch.”

“Let’s go, champ.”

She swings her long boot-covered legs out of the car. Damn. I’m glad I wasn’t home when she left because I’d have gone full alpha male and demanded that she change. Not that I’d have any right, regardless of our relationship status, but there’s no way I could have stopped myself at the sight of her in this short button-front corduroy skirt. She’d tell me to fuck off—rightly so—and we’d have our first fight before we even hard-launched this thing.

Once she’s got both feet on the ground, I slam the car door and wave goodbye to Beau and Paige, who starts to lower the window again. Halfway down, the window raises again, and she frowns in confusion. With a chuckle, Beau reverses onto the street.

Just as we begin our trek to the building, Brynn almost crumples to the ground like a shaky newborn foal. “Careful with those sea legs, there.”

“I can walk. Watch.” She’s only taken a single wobbly step when she clutches my arm to steady herself.

We make it a few more feet before her ankle buckles in the tall boots, and then she’s giggling so hard she doubles over. At this rate, we’ll be out here all damn night.

“Fuck this.”

When I swing her up into my arms, bridal style, she gives a little yelp, but she loops her arms around my neck. I inhale herscent—that sweet yet floral fragrance that follows wherever she goes, mixed with a hint of alcohol and sweat—and hold it in my lungs.

She rakes her nails through my short hair, sending a heady shiver down my spine. “I like your hair,” she murmurs.

“I like your hair, too.”

Humming, she buries her nose in the crook of my neck and inhales.

This time, it’s my knees that almost give out.

“You always smell so good.”

I collect myself and chuckle, the sound making my chest vibrate. “You always smell so good, too.”

She pulls back to make eye contact. “Ooh.” She smiles, her eyes at half-mast. “I like this game. Compliment tit for tat.”

“Please don’t saytit, professor.” The warmth and weight of her body already have me walking a razor’s edge.

She giggles, a fucking adorable lilting sound I could become addicted to. Then her lips brush against my ear, her words breathy bursts of heat that threaten to bring me to my knees completely. “Feel free to compliment my tits anytime.”

“Shit.” My groin grows rock hard.

“You don’t think they’re nice?” She lowers her chin to examine her chest.

I swear if I don’t get us up these stairs soon, I’m going to combust.

“Niceis not the word I’d use. They’re fucking fantastic.” What I don’t confess? That I’m dying to get my hands on them.

She lifts her chin and smiles, satisfied.

When I jostle her a bit to toe off my shoes at the top of the stairs, her eyes widen and she rolls her lips, then breathes an exhale through her mouth.

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