Page 102 of Duty and Desire
“Thank you, honey.”
“You need to stop it, baby,” he said, going soft.
She nodded, a lot and fast. “Right. Right. All professional.”
Like she could pull that off.
But at least she’d have a mind.
And after that…
He’d let himself think of what was after that when it was actuallyafter.
“I’ll make popcorn,” she said.
“I’ll do a perimeter check.”
She smiled huge at him.
Huge and happy.
So…
Right.
When all was said and done, he might come out a winner for once, or he might be ground to dust.
But he knew right then it didn’t matter which way that broke.
Just as long and as much as humanly possible in the meantime, Mo had a shot to make Lottie happy.
CHAPTER 7
INCREMENTAL
Lottie
The lights went dark.
I rushed off the stage and Mo was there, throwing my robe over my shoulders.
He smelled good. Clean. Like soap and man.
He’d had his shower and was back to me before my set ended.
I wanted to pounce on him.
Instead, I shoved my hands through the arms and barely had my fingers to the sides to pull the robe closed before his big hand had a powerful grip on my upper arm and he was practically dragging me down the steps to the side hall.
It was Tuesday night.
Suffice it to say, Mo knowing where it was heading between us after the threat was over, and me knowing where this was going, we were impatient for it to get done.
But Mo being all that was Mo, his impatience, like everything else about him, manifested itself in much larger ways.
The man was a ticking time bomb.
This partly had to do with him wanting to get to know me better, and it was hard (very hard) to try to keep things casual, keep a distance, be professional, when we were together twenty-four hours a day.
