Page 45 of Liar & Champion
“I didn’t know there were seasons in home health care.”
“Yeah, I don’t do that all the time, just when things are slow in other areas.”
“And the self-defense training? When do you do that?”
“It’s ongoing. I actually usually have that at my place. Just a small group of?—”
I cut him off with a kiss, as hard as I could kiss him without hurting myself, which wasn’t very, and what I got in return was the sweetest thing, like we weren’t in public and like Nix couldn’t resist me if he tried.
When I pulled away, feeling self-conscious and also really crazily happy and depressed at the same time, I beamed brightly. “Cool. You’ll have to show me the schedule so I don’t hang my underwear in the living room to dry on your group days. You’d better go rescue the mayor, and I guess I’ll order in for dinner. You don’t have to babysit me, and neither does the brick wall.”
He smiled easily. “Tom’s not doing anything else today. He’d feel better if he was watching out for you after he ruined our time together.” That’s what I got for bringing out Nix’s overprotective streak so he’d marry me. He was going to protect me. No sense fighting the inevitable.
“Well, I’d hate for Tom to be bored.” I kissed his cheek and then grabbed the nearest phone. “Go on, now. I’ll see you tonight.”
He nodded, but he didn’t let go of me for another long moment while he studied me, drinking me in like he wanted to make it last a long time. It’s like he thought I might drop dead at any time and this was our last sure thing.
“I’ll come home as soon as possible.” He gave me one last kiss and then walked out, sliding through the ogling tourists like he didn’t see them. Once he was on the street, he vanished while I watched, my heart going with him. How was this possibly going to work? No idea, but I was going to try to enjoy it however long it lasted.
Chapter Fifteen
CHAMPION
Ihated walking away from my wife. It was good for me to walk away, because even out there in public, that moment she’d kissed me, my mind went blank except for that taste, that sweetness, and I’d wanted to carry her into the back room and find a locking door. I wanted her. No, that wasn’t the correct encapsulation of the concept. I needed her with a building urgency that wasn’t slightly mitigated by her easy acceptance of a marriage without sex. Every single thing she did, every single word she said, all fed into my need to make her mine, and give her everything she’d never had before, including all the flowers, all the dancing, all the sweetness she could possibly handle. And pleasure. I needed her pleasure even more than I needed mine. She was made for delight, for fun, for long mornings in bed with the sun shining on her perfect body. But the thought of hurting her, even for a moment, I couldn’t stomach it. There had to be a way to manage the process without hurting her. I’d do research. But how could I take her virginity when we were only going to be married for six months, when I couldn’t offer her my heart? I had no heart. I’d made sure to cut it out of me a long time ago so no one had anything tomanipulate, but Sunshine didn’t know that, and when I was with her, I forgot how heartless I was, too.
The truth is, I was smitten. She wasn’t the Las Vegas ideal, but she was mine. Except that she was a virgin. I was still freaking out about that, deep inside where hopefully she couldn’t see it.
She was too sweet. What if she really was just the sweetest, softest, best person alive? And I’d brought her to Las Vegas? I’d have to come to clean to her about my whole livelihood, because there was no way she wouldn’t see me on a billboard with my shirt off and think I was a stripper or something. She really should have run a background check on me before marrying me. She shouldn’t be that careless with her safety. My wife.
Tom had slipped me an extra phone as I left, so I could log into my account and then see all the messages, all the videos, all the chaos and mess that I hadn’t missed while I’d been kissing my Kitten out of her socks. None of this mattered. Why wasn’t I still with my wife? I could have told Tom to leave, but Tom was the least intrusive one on the team. If Trix came after me in her assault vehicle, it would probably give Kitten a heart attack. What was I doing with such a soft woman? My team would scare her to death.
I called Daniel, because that was the first step into straightening out all the messes. He picked up after one ring.
“Cousin. Where did you disappear to? Is everything okay?”
“Well,” I drawled, “That depends what you mean by that word. Dupre shot me, but Kitten does neat stitches, so I suppose okay works. That’s Sunshine Ray Wilson to you. We’re officially together. The arrangement’s going to last six months to both of our mutual satisfaction. Inform the Crocodile, if you’d be so kind. I don’t want her personally involved with Kitten. She’s skittish.”
There was silence on the other end for a few beats. “And Dupre, did he hurt her?”
“I already told you he hurt her last time, but you didn’t seem to care. When he shot me, he didn’t hurt her physically, just psychologically, but not as bad as when he sent her poetry. At least she doesn’t speak French, so she just had to be appalled by the lingerie. It was pretty classy, I guess. Pity. Will probably turn her off lingerie for good.” Burning rage went through me at the memory of her eyes when she remembered Dupre while she was with me wearing the sweetest nothings you could imagine. Smiley faces were clearly her preferred motif. Odd for a stoic, but perfect for her. And me. She’d tasted so good, but the uncertainty in her eyes, and then the fear…
Daniel said, “She’ll just have to lounge around naked. Sad day. She told you she doesn’t speak French? French is a sign of good breeding. I didn’t expect you to choose the down-to-earth option. I take it that she wasn’t a virgin after all.”
“Her breeding is fine,” I said and then had a flashback of her looking up at me like I was the only thing in the world. I cleared my throat. I wasn’t going to talk about her virginity with a psycho like my cousin. “Pass that along to the Crocodile, if you’d be so kind. Are you personally busy? I need a full report on Michael Dupre.”
“I’m not allowed anywhere near him. I almost killed him four times.”
“Almost? I didn’t know you were so tepid when it comes to these things.” Seriously, he killed with a great deal of absolute conviction that gave him a terrifying reputation, even at his age.
“Yeah, he’s hard to kill. Super babies can be frustratingly resilient. He comes from a mutated strain that I thought would kill him off, but sadly, no. Just makes him more unbalanced.”
“He’s a serum baby?” I ran a hand through my hair. “Of course he is. That’s useful information. Can he be controlled byhis family’s alliances with the House of Beasts, or will he show up at some point even knowing who my mother is?”
“There are several strains of the serum that lead to death.”
I frowned and a random guy caught my gaze and tripped until I replaced my expression with an easy smile. “That wasn’t an answer. I haven’t ever had to worry about them because the psychos are dead.”
He laughed, and there was something extra unbalanced about it. “Heaven forbid you worry, Nix Death-Hammer.” Now he was being mean.
