“You can be done, but I’m not. So we’re gonna explore this and see where it leads until we both make a decision we agree on about where it’s heading.”
Oh crap.
Now he was giving me the macho alpha bossy shit.
“Zano, I—”
“Shut it.”
My back snapped straight. “Don’t you tell me to shut it, Ren Zano.”
I watched his shadowy head shake before he stated, “Baby, you’re gorgeous. The way you wear a dress is goddamned foreplay. The way you give me everything and nothing, making you a challenge only a real man would accept, is all kinds of hot. The way you give as good as you get in bed, totally unselfish at the same time phenomenally greedy… fuck,” he growled, and I felt that growl straight in my happy place. “You’re the best I’ve ever had, Ally. Bar none. And the way you love, stubborn, tough, unshakable, is unbelievably fuckin’ beautiful. And still you’re a serious pain in my ass. But I found, not havin’ you, I got off on the pain. I missed it. So I’m takin’ it back and we’ll see how it goes.”
“I know how it’ll go,” I returned. “Nowhere. We’re done, Zano.”
“Tell me you haven’t missed what we had,” he demanded.
I clamped my mouth shut, because even for self-preservation’s sake, I couldn’t utter that colossal of a lie and I was totally down with lying if the situation warranted it (or when it didn’t and I just needed to save my own hide).
He knew it, damn it all to hell, and I knew he did when he whispered, “Come here, Ally.”
I put my hands on my hips and stated, “If you want to rewind and start up again, I’ll consider it. But, pointing out, we’re rewinding, not rewriting. We’re fuck buddies, Zano. We enjoy each other. You go your way. I go mine.”
“We were never fuck buddies, Ally.”
I wished.
I also rolled my eyes.
“Now come here,” he went on.
I rolled my eyes back to hm.
“Tell me, exactly, why it is I have to walk the three feet that separates us?” I asked.
He was on me in a flash, which meant I was in his arms, plastered to his body. He had one hand in my hair cupping the back of my head, holding it steady for whatever he wanted to do to me.
Great.
That was on me. I’d challenged the alpha and there I was.
I knew better.
One could say I was seriously off my game tonight.
God!
And he felt good. So freaking good. Hard with his heat burning into me.
He was also in a suit.
I was screwed.
“Do you agree to fuck buddies?” I pressed, even as my hands lifted to his biceps and felt the rich material of his suit jacket.
Nice.
“Absolutely not,” he replied, right before he dropped his head and I felt his lips on my neck.
Very nice.
“Zano, we should get this straight before we start this up again,” I told him, even as my hands slid up his arms to his shoulders then around his neck.
His lips slid to my lips and he invited, “You make your plays, Ally. I’ll make mine. And we’ll see where this is gonna lead.”
Unfortunately, that sounded all kinds of fun.
And dangerous.
Both things I liked.
Too much.
Crap.
“I know where it’s gonna lead,” I retorted.
Suddenly I felt my stomach drop, my lungs evacuate all oxygen and my heart skip a beat.
This was because I also felt his lips smile against mine right before he said, with great authority, “So do I.”
My inner thighs quivered and my happy place got really happy.
Then Ren quit messing around and kissed me.
After that, he really quit messing around and did a lot of other things to me.
And I was right.
It was all kinds of fun.
It was also dangerous.
And I loved every fucking second.
Chapter Six
Fuck Buddies Give Christmas Presents?
Rock Chick Rewind
Christmas Eve …
Ren’s voice came in my ear me. “Jesus, you’re shitfaced at your brother’s wedding.”
I turned my eyes to see him close. So close, as I turned, he had to pull slightly away.
But he pulled away only slightly.
We were at Roxie and Hank’s wedding. Do not ask me why Roxie invited Ren to her wedding. Though, truth be told, even though it seemed to go against all the laws of the universe (or at least my universe, save, of course, being fuck buddies with Ren), somehow along the way the Rock Chick tribe had gotten tight with all the Zanos. But I didn’t think they were that tight.
All I knew was that Tod said any wedding needed all the hot guys it could get because love was in the air during a wedding and the girl who caught the bouquet needed something to dream about. And Ren was undeniably a hot guy you could dream about.
By the way, when Roxie tossed her bouquet, I was doing tequila shooters at the bar.
Therefore I was feeling very happy and this didn’t only have to do with the tequila shooters. It had to do with the fact that my big brother and my good friend were all kinds of happy.
What I was not was shitfaced.
And I decided to inform Ren of this fact.
“I’m far from shitfaced, Zano.”
“You’re hammered,” he returned
Hammered was not shitfaced. I was a bartender and lived the life of a rock star, I would know. I had studied the levels of insobriety both practically and observationally. Hammered was three steps down from shitfaced. There was smashed, blotto, and wasted to get through. I had at least six tequila shooters to go before I got even close to shitfaced.
I did not take the time to educate Ren about this.
Instead, I decided to get annoyed (as was my wont around Ren) and narrowed my eyes at him.
As was his wont, that was to say totally oblivious to my dangerous eye narrowing, he stated, “We have to talk.”
We “had to talk” a lot. Ren’s Talks were becoming part of our everyday repertoire. Though it should be noted that talking with Ren and talking with Ren were two different things.
We talked when we ate together at his place, or takeout at mine, before we fucked each other’s brains out. We also talked while I ate the breakfasts Ren cooked for me (his place) or he ate the toast I toasted for him (my place) before we both tackled our days.
We talked when Ren got whiff of some case I was on and didn’t like it. These Talks occurred after a fight about the same thing which led to no-holds-barred sex, sleeping tangled up in each other and after we woke up and were in bed.
But I could tell by the tone of his voice this was not a talk but a Talk.
I knew from details received from the Rock Chicks that they, too, had Talks with their badasses. Jet called them Eddie Chats. Roxie called the ones she had with Hank Conversations.
These talks always centered around the respective badass wanting his Rock Chick to bend to his will in some way. And they were usually successful in getting what they wanted though it wasn’t always the talking that got them what they wanted. They tended to shift tactics and the way they did got them what they wanted. It also gave the Rock Chick what she wanted so although she bitched, she didn’t quibble.
Ren’s Talks were different. He shifted tactics during the preceding fight to end it by initiating mind-blowing sex and could shift tactics during the Talk but only when the Talk degenerated into a Fight. And although Ren’s Talks happened frequently, they always happened at the same time in the same place and he never got what he wanted.