Page 74 of Dead Serious with Benefits
“A broken clock is right twice a day, and a cold-hearted bitch is bound to find some warmth for her son at least once a year,” Will intoned from up front, making Ward laugh.
“Are you alright?” Ward asked me softly, and I glanced toward Will and then shrugged. “A simple answer will suffice; we’ll talk more later.”
“I’m okay, for the most part,” I admitted apologetically. “And...thank you.”
“For?”
“You know.”
“Shutting my mother up?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you’re welcome. It’s not often I get the chance to shut her down so roughly, and it was rather nice actually.”
“She didn’t doubt you when you told her about the gas.”
“You caught that, did you?” he said with a humorless smile. “Yes, sometimes she actually listens to me and believes me. If I put in the effort, I could sit down and codify which parts of my judgment she’s willing to trust and which she casts in doubt. I’ve never tried, though, and I see no reason to,” he said with a frown.
I watched him fight to make sense of his mother, something I suspected he’d done before. He had probably even told himself repeatedly that there was no point in trying to make sense of her, that her motivations would always be foreign to him, even when he grasped pieces here and there. I could point out that he was like her but also wildly different. And that he would never understand her because, unlike her, he held onto his heart rather than locking it away in ice and stone.
Instead, I just stared at him, sitting in my shirt and jeans that were slightly too tight. He didn’t look the part of a playboy today. In fact, he looked like a man who played football in high school and hadn’t gone to seed in the intervening years. His hair wasn’tnicely put together, his clothes were plain, and he lacked any glamor or glitz. He was just...him.
“I see you eyeballing me,” he said, his frown disappearing, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Warmth pooled in my gut as I watched the smirk that threatened to undo me. It would probably be a bad idea to mention I was incredibly fond of his little smirks. I wasn’t delusional enough not to realize that he was a cocky man who was more than aware of his looks and money, and what effect they had on other people. And yet that didn’t stop me being attracted to him for an instant.
“I was thinking,” I began as I glanced at the front seat. Oh, this was a terrible idea, but the idea had formed in my head, and I couldn’t put the cream back into the udder.
“I would caution against doing something so reckless,” he said with a snort. “But you tend to have some interesting ideas. So what did you have in mind?”
I scooted closer, our hips bumping as I leaned against his shoulder, and earned a surprised look. “I was thinking I’m glad you weren’t in that fire. And that you don’t give yourself enough credit for your good heart.”
Will grunted from up front. “And here I thought it was going to get interesting, not sentimental.”
“Then put in your ear buds and let the man speak,” Ward told him in a growl.
“You know that’s illegal, right?”
“So is buying drugs from your boss, but you do it anyway. Put them in and quit ruining the moment.”
“Fine, fine,” Will grumbled, fumbling with a case when he came to a light and jammed the buds into his ears. “When you figure out what we’re supposed to be doing, just give me a holler...or a tap. Whatever.”
“Nosy ass,” Ward grumbled and stopped when my hand slid over his thigh and onto his groin. “And here I thought you were being sentimental.”
“I was, and I meant what I said. About being grateful, thankful, and the credit you don’t give yourself.”
“Mm, those things seem slightly different while you’re...feeling me.”
“Well, yes, I suppose they do. Should I stop?”
“God no, I want to see where this is heading.”
“Let me guess...it’s interesting.”
“Absolutely.”
Snorting, I undid the button to his jeans and carefully brought down the zipper. I knew better than to look at the front of the SUV; that kind of movement would probably set off Will’s alarm, and he would grow curious. I, too, was curious to see if I could get away without being spotted. I’d never done something like that when someone else was so close and could easily spot what was going on, but...that was the effect Ward had on me.
