Page 72 of Not A Chance

“Nice try. Give it one more go, and then I’ll take you home, okay?” He gently detangled his arm from my death grip as he spoke.

Damn it. He didn’t fall for my charm. That was the trouble with knowing someone from childhood—they knew all your tricks, even if we hadn’t seen each other in years.

“Fine.” I steeled myself for another fall. Trying to keep my knees from locking straight again, I pushed myself a few inches forward before looking back at Theo. “But you are taking Giz out for her walk for me when we get home.” I jabbed a finger in his direction to let him know I was serious.

Unfortunately, my arm threw me off-balance, and I fell on my ass.

Again.

“This is your fault.” I glared at Theo in the mirror, switching between staring at the beginnings of a bruise that was bigger than both my hands that had started to form on the lower-right side of my ass cheek and continued around to the top side of my thigh. The dark red mark had already started to turn purple.

Theo, down to his boxers and a T-shirt, leaned against the headboard of my bed. Giz was lying next to his thigh, both having just come back from their walk while I got ready to shower. His gaze, firmly fixed on the bare skin of my ass that was revealed by my thong, darted quickly up to mine before returning to my backside.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting. But as long as your beautiful ass cheeks are in front of me, I can’t think of anything else but getting my hands on them.” He licked his lips, and his stare became more intense.

I grabbed the sides of my thong and pulled it by the sides outand away from my bruised flesh. Just to fuck with him, I bent over almost until my fingertips touched my toes and stepped out of the flimsy black silk one foot at a time. I widened my legs when I removed the garment from each leg. I made sure to show him the full menu I had on offer. Too bad he wouldn’t be dining at this restaurant tonight.

“God-fucking-damnit-shit!” The pained curses rolled off Theo’s tongue like they were one word he was groaning instead of many. “Rocky, what are you doing to me?” His tone turned growly. Mmm, my favorite.

I stuck my ass out for his maximum viewing pleasure as I slowly brought myself back to standing. Once I was upright, I met his eyes in the mirror. A glance at his groin showed his dark navy boxers tenting obscenely as he gripped the base of his now rigid length over the fabric.

He reached over to my side of the bed with his free hand and put my pillow in front of Giz, who was so little that she was hidden completely.

“Jesus, Rocky. She is just a baby. We can’t expose her to this kind of thing.” He gestured to my now hidden pup behind the white pillow, sweeping his hand toward his erection and then to my bare ass. “Just let me put her in her bed in the living room and…”

I made an exaggerated O shape with my mouth, bringing my hands to my bra, the only remaining piece of clothing I had on. I turned to face him while reaching around behind my back to release the clasp.

The bra fell to the ground with my other clothing. Theo made another low sound in his throat and put his arms on the bed to push himself up.

“I’m just going to grab a shower. You know, get as much hot water on these sore spots as possible.” I gestured to my ass. “No needto move Giz. You just relax, and I’ll be back in a bit tosleep.” I channeled my inner cartoon villain.

If he thought he was getting lucky tonight after bruise-a-palooza, he had another thing coming. As in, a matching set of blue balls. Not the kind of coming he had in mind.

A laugh escaped me when he flopped back onto the side of the bed he seemed to have claimed and earned himself a startled little growl from Giz.

I heard his petulant whisper as I crossed the threshold into the ensuite.

“Sorry, baby girl. I didn’t mean to scare you. You’re okay. But your mommy is super mean, did you know that?”

Unfortunately, the potential of taking a cooking class together never materialized. Indie and I had managed only a handful of days and nights together, never mind knocking anything else off her list, for the remainder of the month. Never had I felt the demands of my career more than those thirty days.

Now, in mid-December, I was home for a couple of days and actually sitting in Indie’s apartment in the daylight hours. It felt like a luxury.

With Gizmo on my lap (or a partial section of one thigh, for all the space she took up), I watched Indie open the blinds in her apartment with a huff.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I hadn’t pressed her on how hard the last month had been for her in our newly minted relationship, afraid that her answer would be that she missed me a lot less than I did her.

She glared at the window again and turned around, crossing her arms. The gray sky of the December morning framed her in its murky light.

She walked up to the counter and picked up a mug before putting it down again and pointing her finger at me.

“Here’s what I want to know.” Uh-oh. What had I done? I did the panic search of my brain to see if I’d annoyed her by doing any of her pet peeves recently. Towels on the floor? Nope. Spending too much money on dog toys when Giz only liked to knock over empty plastic water bottles with her paw? Nope (mostly, anyway). Toilet seat up? Nope.

“It’s December in Canada, right?” I nodded, even though I wasn’t following. Indie slapped her hands down on the counter. “Then, tell me. Where the hell is the snow?”

Her mouth formed an adorable little frown as she glanced out the window again. Oh, god, she was cute. My Rocky was mad because she’d expected it to be winter already.

It seemed to take her a moment to realize that her tone sounded like an eight-year-old wanting a snow day off school, and she mumbled, “Ugh. Never mind,” and moved over to the coffee machine to prepare coffee I wasn’t sure she wanted.

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