Page 84 of Bite Marks

“Are you coming?” she asked with a suggestive crook of her finger.

I turned before she could catch the way my eyes widened and collected plates from the cupboard.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I stopped at the coat rack and collected the box from my jacket pocket, balancing it on the plates on the way back to the living room.

Curiosity glittered in Vi’s dark eyes. “What’s that?”

I set the plates and takeout on the table before taking the box in my hands, twirling it nervously.

“Last night…” I started with a cringe at the memory of how it ended as I sat beside her.She scooted closer, her body heat like a brand to my left side. “I planned on giving you this. I know for your generation it’s not so important—the, er…courting.”

I licked my suddenly dry lips, my gaze firmly on hers even as my throat tightened with nerves, begging me to look anywhere else.

There is no way she is going to say yes.

Fucking and dating are two totally different things, Ren, you fool.

I steeled myself for rejection, tripping over my words. “But it is for me. So, would you like… er… would you bewillingto?—"

“Be your girlfriend?” Vi asked, the deliciously soft rasp of her voice igniting a fire in my stomach that scorched the butterflies rioting in it to death.

I nodded tightly, more of a jerk of my head than anything else. “I would be honored if you’d be willing…”Stop rambling, I admonished myself. “Yes.”

She shifted, and my breath came in a sharp inhale. It was too much too soon. She was going to laugh me out of her apartment.

Her heart rate skyrocketed, but I couldn’t tell if it was nerves or anger.

“I should probably tell you that Elsie and I had accidental voyeuristic sex in front of Dana last night.”

“I—What?” A surprised bark of laughter escaped me, half incredulous. “When did you have time?”

I smelled her arousal last night when she returned from her break. But we’d been so slammed, and then well… What happened,happened…

Jealousy that Dana’d been the one to get to watch hit me like a freight train.

She ran her hands over her face, a blush colouring her cheeks in uneven splotches.

“At the club, in Dana’s office, during lunch. She surprised me with this lingerie?—”

“It doesn’t bother me if you see other people, Pet. I know that you know I am involved with Elsie and Juniper.” I bit back another laugh at the embarrassed look she flashed between her fingers. “If you desire to have relationships with any of the others, I have no problem with that.”

“So it’s cool if Elsie and I?—?”

“Yes, it’scool,” I teased, stressing the last word. “And Dana, and any one of us you may want to explore a connection with. So long as you know that you also want to be with me.”

She smiled, grabbing my face in her hands and leaning forward to kiss me hard. “Then, yes,” she murmured against my lips. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”

Relief flooded me, and I grinned, turning my face to nip at her fingertips playfully. “This is for you.”

“You didn’t need to get me a present, you know.”

“I know, I wanted to. Besides, I couldn’t let Elsie show me up, could I?”

“You knew?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Not about you fucking in Dana’s office in front of her, no. But about her gift?” My eyes flashed, a predatory smirkspreading across my face. “Who do you think helped her pick it out? I think it should’ve been me who got to watch nstead of Dana. It would’ve been more fair.”

She pressed a kiss to my cheek and took the proffered package. I expected her to tear through the paper like Elsie, half feral and overly eager, but she flipped the box over and carefully peeled the pink paper at the taped edges. I dropped my arm around her shoulders as she removed the paper in one piece, flipping the light blue box back over and lifting the lid.

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