“Exactly my point. You’re dangerous, Slade Cruz.”
“Seriously?” he groans. “You’re still on that bullshit? Our little rivalry is over. I’m not going to hurt you anymore. I told you that.”
“That’s not what I mean,” I tell him. “You might not be down for spray painting a dick on my locker or kicking out the leg of my chair during class, but now you have the ability to hurt me in a much deeper way and I don’t know if I can afford to risk that. I’ve already been through enough bullshit, and with the threat of Lucien hovering over our heads, I don’t really think it’d be wise to spend our time shacking up in bed.”
“We don’t have to do it in bed,” he shrugs. “Right here against the house suits me just fine.”
“You’re not about to scar my neighbors with your naked ass. Mrs. Johnson across the street would have a heart attack.”
“Really?” he grumbles, glancing over his shoulder at her home to see the nosey woman in question peering through her curtains. “I think she’d probably want to join. You know, Mr. Johnson isn’t as young as he used to be and I think she’d be a fox in the sack.”
“Oh good, then why don’t you go over there and screw her instead?”
He leans in real close, sending those familiar shivers over my skin once again. “Because I bet she’s not as flexible as you are, at least, not anymore.”
Damn it.
My head falls back against the house and his lips instantly return to my neck. “Fine,” I groan, hating how easy I must appear. “We can start slow, but one sign of your asshole ways or bullshit and I’m out. I’m not looking to get hurt.”
“Good,” he murmurs, kissing me again. “But for the record, your bullshit is just as bad as mine, if not worse.”
“So, you admit it then? I would have won our petty war?”
“Oh, hell no, Virago,” he laughs. “I was going easy on your ass. Turning me blue and hitching a ride in the back of my Dodge are nothing.”
My eyes bug out. “You knew we were in there?”
He grins wide. “Why do you think I was going over those speed bumps so fast. Damian though, he fucking copped it for helping you two get away.”
I bite down on my bottom lip, looking up at him through my lashes, loving the way he makes my heart race with need and so much more. This connection between us has become everything to me and to lose it would be devastating, but to see it through only to get my heart broken later on…well, I don’t know if I’d survive.
“You really need to sort Damian out. I’m starting to think he likes me more than you.”
Slade’s eyes narrow as his hands wind down my arms until his fingers are lacing through mine. “I know,” he mutters darkly. “Believe me, that dick won’t be getting away with it, not if I have anything to do with it.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. I quite enjoy having someone around to help get me off when you can’t quite do the job by yourself.”
His jaw drops and presses into me again, his eyes becoming impossibly darker. “Take that back.” I shake my head and he looks at me completely horrified. “Trust me, babe. Had he not been there that night, this thing between you and me would have started days ago.”
“I’m not your ‘babe,” I remind him. “And believe me, had he not been there, I would have run out of there like my ass was on fire.”
“You are my ‘babe’ and might I remind you that you did run out of there like your ass was on fire.”
“Yeah, because I found out that you’re a shady asshole.”
Slade rolls his eyes, clearly having nothing to throw back at me, declaring me the winner of this mini-war. “Come on,” he tells me, grabbing my waist and throwing me over his shoulder. He spanks my ass and my insides clench. “Let this shady asshole take you out.”
“What? No,” I laugh as he welcomes himself into my home and past the kitchen, making Shay, Ben, and Blake all gape in surprise. “Put me down.”
“No way. If I put you down, you’ll run.”
I roll my eyes and go along for the ride. He walks down to my room as though he has my home completely mapped out inside his head when it occurs to me that he actually does. He’s no stranger to my home and he made that known the night he snuck in here and dragged me out of bed.
He pushes through to my room and throws me down on my bed before having a good look around. Last time it was the middle of the night so I was able to keep some parts of my home life to myself, until now.