Page 64 of Whiskey Splash

He grins at me triumphantly.

“No more yelling out my name?” he teases, brushing his thumb against my lip.

I squirm, twisting away from him and rolling toward the window to grab a piece of paper and a pen. I scribble something on it and hand it to him.

“Interesting,” he says, as I hand him the note. “Afraid of what you might say, huh?” I nudge him with my shoulder and he laughs from his throat. “You realize sometimes you say the wildest and most delicious things.” He turns his lips to my ear and lowers his voice. “And you’re prophetic too. I’m particularly fond of the one where you came on my—”

“Desmond!” I growl at him through clenched teeth.

“Oh yes, there she is!” He twists away from me, sitting up before I can knock him out of the bed. “Easily flustered and unable to contain herself from calling out my name.”

His smile is way too smug as he lifts the note I wrote and flips it over to read it. He reads it out loud: “Why are you here Desmond?” He shifts to look down at me below him and his eyes soften. “You haven’t figured that out yet?”

Our eyes lock and the gold sparking in his gaze makes my stomach flip flop.

It’s just heat, I tell myself. Desire and nothing else. A pure biological connection zipping through the air between us.

He lifts an eyebrow like he’s waiting for me to admit that I want to tear off my comforter and wrestle him to the ground in my ripe, un-showered filth. I shrug instead, playing innocent, not letting my stupid mouth get the better of me and allowing it to say something he’ll inevitably twist around.

His cheek feathers with amusement as he reaches over me for the pen, deliberately leaning the weight of his body against me to get it. He starts to write something on the back of the paper, and I twist, trying to see what he’s jotting down. Only, he slips out of the bed and stands up, walking several feet away from the bedframe as he finishes what he’s writing.

I hold my hand out when he’s done and he smiles.

“Eager aren’t we,” he teases, but then he steps forward and grabs my hand, pulling me up toward him with the miles of comforter around me and all. He wraps an arm around my back, squishing us together and holding us face to face. His gold eyes sparkle as he tucks the note into the blanket right under my chin. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says softly, his eyes flicking to my mouth. “And uh—”

He’s too warm, too perfectly beautiful, his powerful arms holding me upright and enveloped. I feel weightless and lightheaded, his lips too close for—

“Be sure to brush your teeth, Esme!”

My eyes cut up to his and they sparkle, victorious, well aware of what he just did. I growl at him through my closed lips, decidedly making sure I don’t open my mouth, because, yes, I probably have Loch Ness monster breath. He smirks, knowing exactly what I’m doing. Then, he plants a quick kiss on my forehead and lets go of me, walking out of my room and leaving me dizzy.

“What?!” I wheeze, trying to walk after him, but I’m too tangled in all the sheets that I trip over my own feet!

He waves back at me as he opens my front door, then points down his shirt, indicating the paper he tucked into the blanket under my chin. I scramble to find it, digging into the comforter, but when I look up with the paper in my fingers, Desmond is gone.

The paper says:

Ever been on a film set? 7:30 am. I’ll pick you up.

He wants to take me to his film shoot? Like to hang out? Like another date?

When I look up, Arie is standing in my eyeline between my room and the front door, that evil red mouth of hers curled up into a devilish grin.

“You do realize I look like a mental patient right now!” I snap at my sister and she laughs. “You couldn’t have told me to shower, or brush my hair, or—”

“And he still asked you out again, even in your mummified queen-of-the-damned outfit, now didn’t he?”

I glare at her, trying to peel off the sweat-covered blankets.

“Uh, huh,” Arie says triumphantly. “You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t say thank you!”

“Nope,” my sister says, holding up a finger. “I wasn’t talking to you.” She points down below my waistline. “I was talking to your vagina who just realized Desmond Pike is totally into you, even when you look like a mental patient. What was it you were denying earlier about out-of-this-world-chemistry?”

“It’s not—”

“No no no!” Arie interrupts, hands on her hips. “The jig is up. It doesn’t matter how many excuses you try to use. It doesn’t matter how many incredulous looks you want to toss my way! Go into the bathroom and take a look in the mirror if you don’t believe me. The reality is Desmond Pike wants you and he wants you bad! So, get with the program girl and saddle up, because Desmond Pike wants to take you for a pony ride!”

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