“Then why do you piss me off?” I breathed out.
“I don’t mean to… most of the time.”
“Baby boy—”
“Fuck, no, that’s just wrong,” he ground out, and I laughed.
“Okay, yeah. Gross. Infantilizing you does not seem to have the same sweetness as you infantilizing me does.” I gripped his cut. “Daddy cakes.”
“I’ll allow it.” His eyebrows pulled together in concern. “When we’re alone.”
“Better not piss me off in public, then,” I retorted. “Daddy cakes.”
“Moving on,” he said.
“Look.” I took a deep breath. “Sundance and I are good. We are friends. He’s like my dad. If he had a problem with something I’ve said, believe me, he’d tell me. You don’t need to play referee between us.”
“That goes for you, too, honey,” he said.
“Well, no, that’s not true.”
“Jesus, do I want to know why?”
“I’m your woman. There’s a certain amount of expectation that I’ll worry.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re back to being my woman?”
“Depends on if the tub gets filled in a timely manner, wine gets opened and brought to the room, along with nibbles.” I covered my nipples with my hands. “I should probably tape these. I’m not supposed to soak them yet.”
“Fuck, baby, stop.”
I gave him an evil smile. “Not long and you can play as hard as you like.”
He leaned down and kissed me. “I’m sorry we fought.”
“You don’t need to apologize that we fought, Booth.”
“What do I need to apologize for, then?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “You need to apologize for interfering in my relationship with Sundance. You can’t do that. More specifically, you can’t make me believe he’s pissed about something he’s not. That’s manipulation, and it’s not cool.”
“How do you know he’snotpissed about it?”
“Because he’d tell me.” I tugged on his beard. “What you’re doing is projecting.”
“How the fuck am I projecting?”
“You think maybe you’re worried he’s pissed at you, not me?”
He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve had a hard time trusting Sundance ever since I left.”
“Do you mean the time the two of you conspired against me?”
“Conspired? That’s a bit dramatic. Don’t you think?”
“You wanna talk about drama? How ’bout this for a story?” he asked, his tone darkening. “One day I woke up to find you gone, and my president was the only one who knew where you were. Only, he wasn’t telling. All he had for me was a note you’d left behind which also told me absolutely dick about why you’d left, where you were, or if you’d ever be coming back.”