Page 11 of Wild Card

Then, like she’s trying to prove a point that she’s unbothered by all of this, she steps out of the dress and piles it on top of my clothes, taking them off the chair.

“I’ll just put these in the dryer.”

She turns back to offer me a half smile and my eyes fall to her bra. A sight that nearly takes me out cold. Because her bra is see-through lace. Both of her pale peach nipples are hard little beads that are pressing against the fabric and her lacy underwear is leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

“Fuck,” I mutter and avert my eyes to the ceiling.

“What?”

“Your bra or lack thereof.” I shake my head, closing my eyes.

“Oh. I forgot it was this one,” she mumbles.

“So yeah, Carter’s a fucking idiot for missing out on that.”

She lets out a small, amused laugh. “I didn’t wear it for him.”

“Who did you wear it for then?”

I know it can’t be me. She didn’t even know she’d see me tonight, but fuck I wish it was.

“Me. I wanted to feel nice. I didn’t expect anyone else to see. Sorry.”

“Do not fucking apologize for that. You look fucking gorgeous. Cold, but gorgeous.” I grin and open my eyes when she stays quiet. She’s still standing there, holding our clothes, and looking at me.

I take a step forward, closing the short distance between us, and run my hand up the side of her arm. I lean forward because I’m close, so close to giving in to temptation and kissing my way down her throat and over the curve of her breast. Peeling back the edge of the bra, so I can take one of her nipples in my mouth and warm her up.

“You’re so cold,” she whispers, her lashes lowering as her eyes run over my body.

I slide my hand under her chin, tilting it up and staring down at her plush pink lips that part just the slightest bit under my watch.

“We’re working on fixing that, right?”

Her lashes flutter because she knows what I’m asking.

“Right,” she says softly.

I lean in to kiss her neck, my lips achingly close when the kettle whistles, and she jolts back. She blinks like she’s come out of a daze.

“Right.I’m going to put these in the dryer.” She presses the wet clothes closer to her body and takes a step back. “Could you take the kettle off the heat?”

SEVEN

Scarlett

I hurryoff to put our clothes in the dryer and put distance between Tobias and me. I have no idea what the hell is happening tonight. My brain is struggling to keep up, and it’s still muddled from the cold. I can’t tell if he actually wants me or if this is some sort of pity thing on his part because of the multiple times he’s had to come to my rescue in one day. Maybe he thinks he needs to save me from my dry spell too.

I put the clothes in the dryer and turn it on to a low cycle, leaning my head against the door of the stacked machine for a moment before I turn back toward the kitchen. I pause for a second, briefly considering putting clothes on, but then I don’t want to seem like a coward. Plus he’s seen me half naked already, so in for a penny and all that.

When I get back to the kitchen he’s opening the cabinets looking for mugs, and I smile at him in his underwear rooting through the cupboards. Watching his tight ass flex in his boxer briefs. Ones that are plastered against his skin thanks to the rain, giving me a view that I’m going to mentally catalog for later.

“It’s the one on the far right.”

He looks back and grins at me before he moves to it and pulls out two mugs. He holds them in his hands for a minute, reading them, and then cracks up.

I’m thankful for my punny taste in mugs for once because it breaks the tension between us and relaxes the knot that’s been building in my neck since our clothes came off. I grab the tea bags and place one in each.

“You want to make a tea bagging joke too?”