Page 188 of Things We Hide from the Light

“That one’s new,” I noted, leaning down to ruffle her wiry fur.

“Saw it on Amazon,” Nash said, shutting the door and hanging his keys on the hook.

“Are you ever not hard?” I asked, noting the obvious situation in his pants.

His grin was downright evil when he reached for me. “You have a choice.”

“Explain.”

“Either I go down on you here against the door or in the bedroom.” His hands were already reaching for the hem of my dress.

“Wait. Wait. Wait.”

To his credit, he stopped immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“As much as I really,reallywant to take your new, smooth face for a test drive…” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. But I think we need to talk.”

Nash’s lips quirked. “Just what the hell did they put in that wine?”

I shoved my hands into my hair. “Obviously, I’ve been abducted by aliens and replaced with a not-very-convincing clone. But we’ve been too busy orgasming to talk.”

“About what?”

“About the plan to take down Hugo. I was serious when I said I wanted in. And as much as I want in your pants again and again, this is important. Important enough not to let you distract me with your magic penis.”

His eyes went from a blazing intensity to amused. “You’re one of a kind, Angel.”

“Uh-uh, Studly Do-Right. No distracting me with compliments. Rally the troops while I take Piper out.”

“Now?”

I grabbed Piper’s leash from the hook. “Yes. Now,” I said firmly.

I returnedfrom my walk around the block with Piper and a nagging guilty conscience. “Nash? Before everyone gets here, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Nash was hanging Duncan Hugo’s photo on the whiteboard he’d set up next to the table. “What’s wrong?”

I was pretty sure I’d done the right thing, but I had a feeling he might not see it that way. “Okay. So in school after the whole heart-stopping thing, I didn’t really fit in. And besides work, I never really belonged socially.”

He was watching me intently now.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m new at this. I’m new to whatever is going on between us. I’m new to having friends like Naomi and Sloane.”

Nash’s eyes closed slowly and then reopened. He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. “What did you do, Angelina?”

“Just hear me out,” I began. But I was interrupted by a loud knock. Piper went scrambling for Nash.

“It’s nine o’clock on a school night,” Knox complained as I let him in.

“I’ll take Words by the Domesticated Knox Morgan for two hundred, Alex,” I quipped. I was just shutting the door when Lucian appeared in it. “How the hell did you get here so fast?” I asked him.

“I worked remotely from here today.”

“You worked remotely in a suit?”

“Nice earrings,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Why are you being nice to me?”