Page 72 of Brew
“What can I do for you at this ridiculous hour?”
He takes a second before he says, “I was worried about you.”
After we heard Pipes banging on the door, we quickly got dressed and I high-tailed it. I really hope Pipes didn’t say anything, not that I think he would, but this is a lot to process without the girls finding out.
“You needn’t be. I’m fine.”
Another long pause. “Fine?”
“What’s wrong with fine?”
“I just fucked you into oblivion, and you’refine?”
Even though his words shock me, I can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of me. “You’re offended by that? Jeez.”
“Clearly, I didn’t do my job very well,” he mutters.
“You did your job perfectly.”
“So why are you awake at two am?”
“Why are you?” I challenge.
“Like I said, I was worried. You left abruptly.”
“We got sprung.”
“What are we like teenagers?”
“I’m sureyouwere doing things like that as a teenager, but I definitely wasn’t.”
“Let me guess, you had your nose stuck in a book?”
“Something like that,” I say, because he isn’t far from the truth. “What about you, were you a good student?”
“I think you know the answer to that.” I hear the chuckle in his voice, and I am once again reminded of how much I like it.
“You could just be saying that,” I muse. “Maybe you were secretly a scholar, and you just don’t want to tell me in case it ruins your reputation.”
Silence. Then he laughs.Reallylaughs.
If I thought I liked it when he smiled, it’s got nothing on his laugh.
“I think I’m a little old to be worrying about my reputation, Sparky,” he says, amusement still in his tone.
“Do you really have to call me that?
“Why not? It’s cute.”
Brew thinks I’m cute? I never would’ve thoughtcutewas in his vocabulary. I guess I’m learning new things about him every day.
“You know you can go back to sleep and stop worrying about me,” I say. “People have sex all the time and the world doesn’t fall down on them.”
“Is that what you think is going to happen?” He doesn’t sound like he’s mocking me, so that’s a relief, but I still feel a little silly.
“You have to understand, where I come from and what I know doesn’t include what we just did.” I close my eyes, taking slow, silent breaths. “What we did is only permitted by…”
“By what?”
