Page 101 of Carnal Urges
He scoffs. “I know you’ll do whatever the fuck you want, is what I know.”
Something in his tone makes me pause to look at him more closely.
He needs a haircut. And a shave. He was never exactly clean-cut before, but now he looks like he’s been sleeping on someone’s couchfor a month. And that beard of his has gone beyond lumberjack territory and straight into antisocial mountain man who shoots bears for fun.
“How’s the wife, Gray?”
His shocked gaze flashes to mine in the mirror. “Is this you asking me a personal question?”
“You’re thirty percent more of an asshole than usual. Everything okay at home?”
He scowls. “Why does it have to be a problem at home?”
“Because I’m smarter than you are. What’s happened?”
He looks out the window and exhales a hard breath through his nostrils. “She left me for her fucking tennis coach.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Would you like me to kill him?”
“Jesus. Don’t tempt me.”
“It’s on the table. Think about it.”
“Absolutely not.” He pauses. “Unless I change my mind. Which I won’t.”
“Understood. But when you come to your senses, just text me his name and address, and I’ll take care of it.”
He seems touched. “Thank you, Declan. That’s the nicest and the most fucked-up thing anyone has ever said to me. It almost makes up for when you threatened to kill me for insulting your new girlfriend a few minutes back.”
“Don’t mention it.”
I open the door and get out. Walking toward the elevators, I call Kieran. He picks up on the second ring.
“Howya, boss.”
“Did the delivery come yet?”
“Aye.”
“You brought it up?”
“Aye. She answered the door in one of them skimpy workout thingies. Like a full-body leotard, except with the middle missing. Nearly gave me a bloody heart attack.”
I clench my teeth, aggravated at the thought of Kieran seeing Sloane in yoga wear. Though knowing her, she was probably doing all her ridiculous bending and stretching right in front of the bedroom windows for all of Boston to see.
“How did she seem?”
“Whaddya mean?”
“I mean did she seem happy? Sad? What was her mood?”
I hear the shrug in his voice. “The usual. Wonder Woman meets Lucy Ricardo.”
“Lucy Ricardo?”
“The wacky wife from that old black-and-white sitcom on the telly,I Love Lucy.”
I won’t tell Sloane he said that. She’d take it as a huge compliment and adopt Kieran as her loyal sidekick.
