[The Outcasts 03] • Deadly Suspicious

Eventually they found a small motel right under the airport flight path. Denby was too tried to care about that. “I could sleep on a barbed wire fence,” she muttered as she flopped onto the double bed in the room they had taken for the night.

“I wish you’d told me. It would’ve been cheaper to sleep on barbed wire,” Sirius quipped as he dropped the car keys down on a bench.

Money. He had it. She didn’t. Denby felt guilty. She had been the one who wanted to go. “I should pay.” Problem was, she wasn’t sure how.

“It’s okay, Denby,” he assured her as he sat down on the bed beside her.

“I pay my way.”

“As I do I. Added to that, I chose to come.” He lay back on the bedspread. “Arrrggghh, that feels good.”

She sat up. Him lying beside her was making Denby feel stuff she didn’t want to feel. Memories of a hard, warm body tight against hers made tense up. Sex right now would be totally inconvenient. Great, but awkward, with her irrational need to still feel pissed off at him. It was hard to keep that up when he was being so nice. “Well, I’ll buy dinner.” She reached for her duffle bag and scrabbled through her meager belongings to find her purse. “Or not.” She was broke but for three dollars, ten cents, a busted packet of mints and some ants who had managed to find their way in for the mints.

“Denby,” Sirius murmured to her.

“What?” She turned to see his eyes closed. He had to be knackered after driving for so long.

“While I’ve always loved your independence it’s okay for either a man or a woman to depend on the other. It doesn’t mean one is less than the other.”

Of course he was right. “I’m just used to looking after myself.” She dropped the bag on the floor. Flee while you have the chance, ants. Everything deserved to be free.

“I know and I don’t expect anything from you.”

“Oh.” She felt weirdly disappointed that he wasn’t so overcome by lust he wouldn’t want to jump her bones then and there. Not that he has to. It’s not like I want sex or anything.

Sirius opened his eyes and smiled. “No, your virtue is safe.”

“Right.” Disappointment slammed into her. Okay, maybe I do want sex. Spending so much time with him in the car had made her start to remember stuff she thought she had squashed down.

“Disappointed?” He tilted his head and looked at her with interest.

“No. Yeah. I don’t know.” He was a bastard. She hated him. He did wrong by her. Yet I want him. How confusing is that?

“Need sex?”

“It’s just being with you again—”

“Feels right?”

“Sorta. Anyway forget it.” There was no way she was going to ask for sex.

“Nope, I can’t now.” Sirius kept his gaze locked on her eyes. “Sex is handy to have with someone you already know as there are no ties or expectations.”

“I suppose.” Handy? Jeez, hardly romantic.

“And you could still consider me a bastard afterwards.” He grinned at her.

Lordy, he’s lovely when he smiles. “I was angry when I said that.”

“I know.”

Denby blew out a breath and contemplated her options. It was just sex. They had done it before. It’d be no big deal if they did it again. Right? “So, I suppose we could—”

“Yeah, we could.”

“You don’t sound that excited.” Maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe I’ll just use my fingers and memory later in the shower.

“Are you kidding me?” Sirius picked up her hand and placed it on his crotch. “I’ve had a hard on since the millisecond I saw you.”

“Wow!” He was hard. And all for me. It’d be a shame to waste it. Denby licked her lips. She couldn’t believe how horny she was. But this was Sirius and he was hard. It was a no brains required situation. “No strings attached right?” Her fingers hovered above the metal tag of his zipper.

“Right.”

“And later we’ll act like nothing happened.”

“If you say so, darling.”