Page 40 of Bad Medicine
I didn’t even plan on learning her name; our evening was about to be purely transactional. She’d hang off of me in the way I needed her to for the moment, maybe provide a little no-strings fun at the end of the night, and I’d slide her and her girls some free drinks until they headed back to Boston or Miami or wherever the fuck they were from.
Everyone wins.
Shit like that was easy.
A woman like Mia was a complication I didn’t need; the last few hours had proven that without question.
Better to leave well enough alone.
Slinging my arm around the blond’s shoulder, I turned us to head back to the bar, doing my damnedest to pretend that it was where I wanted to be heading.
Chapter seventeen
Mia
“Mom!Mom!Mooooooom!”
Taking a deep breath, I searched, lifting the couch cushions one more time, hoping that my keys would somehow magically appear.
“Jasper, please baby,” I pleaded, not looking at him as I replaced the cushions and headed for the front closet. “Mommy just needs a second.”
And a nap.
And a bath.
And a vacation.
“But it’s time to go!” he wailed as I reached my hand into each of the shoes in front of me, thinking maybe my keys had fallen into them at some point. “We’re gonna miss all da candies.”
Turning from my great shoe inspection, I spotted Jasper sitting glumly on the stairs, chin in his hand, as he watched me search. He looked stinking adorable with his fuzzy white tiger costume, the whiskers I had painted on his face earlier only slightly smudged but still visible. I doubted I looked quite as cute in my red blazer and mini top hat, but Halloween was supposed to be about the kids, so I wasn’t too concerned.
“There will be plenty of candy, Jas, but we can’t go anywhere if I don’t find my keys.”
“Uhhhh!” he sighed in the overly dramatic way that only a five-year-old could manage. “But dis is taking forever.”
“Tell me about it, kid,” I muttered, closing the closet and blowing out my own frustrated breath. Why could I never keep track of my freaking keys? I was eyeing up the couch again, wondering if I had really checked all the crevices when there was a knock on the door.
“Trick or treat!” came the enthusiastic shout, although I could already tell that this was no kid. Opening the door, I smiled as I took in Linny, her face painted a ghastly white and standing out starkly against her Grim Reaper hooded robe.
“Linny!” Jasper squealed, momentarily distracted from his whining by the sight of her. Rushing up to give her a hug, Jasper pulled back, confusion in his eyes. “What are you supposed to be? Dead?”
“You bet,” she replied, then added under her breath, “Just like your mommy’s sex life.”
“Linny!” I scolded. “Cut it out.”
“What?” she asked innocently. “Tell me I’m wrong.” I frowned deeper, knowing I couldn’t disagree with her; it had been a ridiculously long time since I’d been with a man.
Well, not really, I guessed, if I was counting the insanely hot encounter I’d had with Rocco at the hospital a few weeks ago.
Good grief, that man. I still got goosebumps when I thought about it, about the way he had made me feel so beautiful while at the same time whispering filthy words in my ear. I’d lost track of the number of times I had replayed those moments, the way I had practically purred for him while he worked his magic on my body.
I had also managed to create quite a few scenarios of what could have happened if I wasn’t such a damn coward.
Because that’s what I had decided in the weeks since I had last seen him: that the only thing that had stopped me from taking what Rocco had offered was fear.
I knew he didn’t want anything more from me than sex, but my panic took over and I could see nothing but danger.
For me and for Jasper.
