His apartment seemed small and strangely bare. There were no pictures, photos, or little in the way of ornaments. Things people usually gathered to decorate their living spaces.
We rushed Charlotte to the bathroom. Angelo actually put her on the toilet before leaving and closing the door behind him.
“He’s a gentleman, he is,” Charlotte said as pee gushed out of her. “You couldn’t do better than him. If I were you, I would seduce him. Oh, what a relief it is to relieve yourself. Where are we anyway?”
“We’re in Angelo’s apartment.”
“Right. Do you mind if I just had a little nap here? Just for a bit,” she said. Before I could do anything, she slipped down to the floor, closed her eyes and promptly fell asleep.
I tried to pull her to her feet, but asleep, she was a dead weight. Eventually, I gave up and went out to find Angelo.
He sat on his couch with the news on, but I suspected he wasn’t paying much attention to it.
“Angelo,” I called softly. I loved calling out his name, and I did it in a way that sounded breathy, hoping it would torment him even a little.
He turned and looked at me, his face deliberately expressionless.
“I need a little help with Charlotte. I can’t get her off the floor.”
He got up and we went to the bathroom in silence. Effortlessly, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Got all your things?” he asked.
My eyebrows rose when I realized he planned to go straight to the car and take us back home. “Can we just let her rest for a few minutes on your bed before we return?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed. “Why?”
I threw my hands up. “Because I want to talk to you for five minutes.”
“Talk?” he repeated.
“Yes, for five freaking minutes.”
“It’s a bad idea.”
“What’s your point?”
“I know you think it’s fun and everything to keep having sex with me, but you have no idea how dangerous a game you are playing.”
“Stop being so damn big-headed. I don’t want to have sex with you.” Okay, I was lying about not wanting to have sex with him, but I really did just want to spend some time with him, away from my house where I had to always pretend he was just another bodyguard. Even if nothing more could happen between us, I just wanted to bask in his presence a bit instead of being so afraid to even meet his eyes for the fear that someone would notice.
“Could have fooled me,” he muttered as he walked away from the bathroom.
To my relief, he went into his bedroom and lay Charlotte on the bed. The room was lit only by the light pouring in from the corridor, but I could see it was just as bare as the rest of the apartment. A bed, a nightstand. A cupboard.
He straightened and turned to me. “All right. Talk.”
Somehow, standing in his bedroom made my stomach tighten.
He had taken his jacket off and had on a fitted black tee-shirt and dark slacks.
The man made me drool. “Can we talk in the living room?”
It was dark, but I’m sure he shrugged.
Without a word, I turned around and led the way to the living room. I could hear him following behind me. When I reached the middle of the open plan space, I turned back.
He stood lounging against the doorway.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” I apologized.
He shrugged. “That’s not necessary.”
I forced a smile. It was clear he intended to make this as difficult as possible. I never was good at squeezing blood from stone. I took a deep breath. “‘Do you have anything I can eat? I’m a little hungry.”
“Don’t have much in my fridge, but I can make you a grilled cheese sandwich. The bread might be a bit stale though.”
I’d never heard better words. I grinned from ear to ear. “That would be fantastic. I love stale bread and grilled cheese.”
He gave me a disbelieving look and headed towards the kitchen area.
He moved in a quick sure way around his kitchen. A few minutes later, he was moving the bread around in the pan, his hair brushing softly against his shoulders.
I watched the way the broadness of his torso flowed into the leanest of hips. He was driving me crazy. I wanted to be on my knees … sucking him off. I knew he would never make the first move, but I also knew he wouldn’t reject me. So I shut my pride off and walked towards him.
His shoulders tensed as he turned the stove off and moved the pan out of the way to one of the back burners.
I almost smiled. Of course, he knew I was approaching and he knew the kind of trouble I was bringing too. I circled my arms around his lean waist.