I smirked. “When my mouth is running and your hand is tingling is when you like me best.”
The smirk became a fully formed, shit-eating grin across my teasing lips.
On cue, sunset eyes fell right to it.
Except this time, James didn’t fight the twitch to the corner of his mouth. He let it run free, using my smile as an example to mirror.
“Devilish.” A rare rhythm of laughter upended his voice as attractive lines curved into his cheeks. “Fucking devilish.”
I threw my head back to the clear blue sky, carefree laughter singing freely as the pressure holding tight in my chest untangled. It scattered into the rest of my body like ripe leaves whipped from their branches by the wind, dispersing across a wider landscape. Now, instead of a rooted pressure digging against my sternum, every inch of me tingled as I laughed and laughed and couldn’t believe I was still laughing.
I only stopped when a familiar voice erupted from behind me.
“That laugh is a thing of goddamn magic, Red.”
A clipped gasp leapt up my throat as I twisted toward the voice, jaw falling to the concrete floor.
“Demitri?”
He nodded his dark head of hair gently and came closer, doing a noticeable scan down the length of me and completely ignoring James.
My occasional fuck buddy and full-time weapons smuggler was entirely unphased by the presence of one of the F.B.I’s finest sitting right across from me.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked, taking my foot back from where it was on James.
Immediately, like shockingly fast, a pang of regret resonated around my ribcage.
My head tipped back as Demitri stopped at the back of my chair, dark eyebrows scribbling together.
“You don’t remember texting me?”
Uhhh.“When?”
“Last night.”
Shit.
No. No, I did not remember.
On the side of my face, James’ glare was a palpable point of heat. “What did I say?”
Demitri let a moment rest before answering, twisting my champagne-filled gut around his silence. Coffee brown eyes searched mine, full lips pulling apart.
“That you did a bad thing.”
How fucking specific of me.
Gulping, I swiped my tongue over my lips that were suddenly parched. “Sounds about right.”
Demitri still hadn’t offered his attention anywhere but at me while mine was split between him and James who hadn’t said a word yet. Was he just confused into silence? Did he know who Demitri was? That he was on my dad’s arrest radar? That he knew Rebecca?
That I knew Rebecca?
Pulling out the chair next to me, Demitri invited himself to sit. “I tried calling you last night, but you weren’t picking up after you texted me the hotel where you were at.”
I arched a brow. “So you decided to stalk me?”
A dashing smile split halfway up his face. He swept my hand up from the tabletop, cradling it in his big palm and touching his lips to the back of it.