Page 29 of Degrees of Control

If you weren’t firing with fuck-hormones you’d have had the sense to order a fucking pizza.

Still, what could he do now? Throw her out? The window for that opportunity had definitely closed. They’d have to go to dinner, eat quickly, and then James would make sure it never happened again.

When he wandered into the lounge room in fresh jeans and a shirt, she was sitting on his sofa, naked and looking at her phone. The sight of her breasts lit up by the screen made his cock throb. She looked up, a slight flush spreading across her cheeks. “Oh, hey, sorry, I’ll get dressed.” She threw on her purple dress and flashed him a smile. “All done.”

The red marks on her back hadn’t faded and their ugliness brought her pretty features into relief. Dark hair, bright eyes, smooth skin. Charlotte looked like a fairy princess from the books his niece liked. He’d belted down a fairy and rode her sweet fairy pussy while he called her a slut.

I am going to hell.

He took her hand and they strode to the car park in silence. When they approached his truck, James went around to the passenger side and held the door open for her.

“This is yours?” she asked, gesturing toward his black GMC Sierra.

“Yup.”

“Is it big enough?”

James stared at her. What the fuck did people drive in Australia? Bulldozers?

“I mean, what if a petrol tanker falls off a cliff face, how will you tow it to safety?”

He frowned down at her, unable to tell if she was being serious or not. Then her innocent act cracked and she burst into peals of laughter.

James turned away, resisting the urge to smile. “Anyone ever tell you it’s sad to laugh at your own jokes, Charlotte?”

“What possible reason could you have for owning a car this big? Do you have a secret family?”

“It’s a truck and it was a gift.”

“From who, a military compound? Wait, are you GI Joe?” She framed his face with her fingers. “Blond. Aloof. Yes, it all makes sense now. Tell me, Mr. Joe, what is your latest mission?”

“Get in, woman.”

Still snickering, Charlotte clambered into her seat. James got in and turned the engine over, his mind on the deep scratch he’d found on the bonnet this afternoon. He loved his truck and when he’d first seen it, he’d damn near punched a hole in a wall.

I’ll service it this weekend, see if I can buff it out, fucking thing’s brand-new, can’t believe anyone had the balls to do that in the company car park—

The realization that Charlotte was studying his expression cut through his pissed off thoughts. “What?” he said, more aggressively than he intended.

“Sorry if you didn’t like me making fun of you. It’s an Australian thing. You don’t know how strange it is to have friends who don’t make fun of me.”

“Why would they make fun of you?”

“Because I’m a hippy, vegan nutcase. Everyone’s so polite about it, it makes me nervous.”

“You want me to make fun of you?”

“Don’t go too crazy. You hold all my secrets in your big GI Joe hands.”

James couldn’t help it, he smiled. Charlotte was the strangest girl he’d spent time with lately. Not because she was weird or supremely kinky, but because sweetness seemed to pour from her skin like molasses. She’d known he was irritated and she’d tried to make him smile. And it hadworked.

James shook his head, half expecting magic dust to fall out of his hair. He could see why Sophia was so protective of her. The girl was too cute for her own good.

They pulled up at the Red Emperor and walked inside.

Charlotte looked around at the packed tables nervously. “It looks pretty full…”

“Don’t worry about it, darlin’.”

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