He’d figured it out the moment he’d been ready to leave his apartment that morning, but it’d taken him a few minutes to believe he could be that stupid.
He’d stared for several more seconds at the empty hanger his favorite leather jacket usually occupied, trying to deny the truth as long as possible. Eventually, he bit out a curse beneath his breath.
He’d left his jacket at Cassidy’s last night.
The thing that helped him stay in character for the clients who were paying a large sum for a particular kind of man. And, yeah, he’d saved a bit of money lately, but not enough to replace a jacket with the hefty price tag of the one he’d left behind.
It’d been a long day. Luckily, he’d kept the Cassidy debacle from further screwing with his life by convincing his two clients today to let him fuck them while still wearing his black tank top. They hadn’t seen his scratches.
He hadn’t seen them all day either—had steadfastly refused any opportunity to. Didn’t mean he hadn’t felt them all day long.
He drummed his fingers on the countertop in his kitchen. There was no getting around it. He was going to have to go back to her place and—he gulped—ask for his jacket back.
Maybe . . . maybe, she wouldn’t think he’d left it there on purpose as some sort of plan to get to see her again.
She’d insisted that last night be a one-night stand.
I’m not that lucky. She was going to peg this as a stunt right away. Just like he would if she showed up on his doorstep with some lame excuse straight out of a poorly plotted, made-for-TV movie.
So why is my stomach doing that excited, jittery thing?
He pushed away from the counter with a huff. Gross. Excitement over seeing a woman.
There was only one person he looked forward to seeing. Ever. And that was because Ryker, the guy who had grown up in the foster system with him, was the only person who had proven he was worth two shits in Gage’s life. Everyone else had proven the opposite, Cassidy included with her hasty dismissal of him about two minutes after he’d made her come her brains out.
Wait. Gage froze in the middle of his kitchen. Was he offended by that? He rewound his thoughts and went through them again. Yep, definitely pissy. He was offended that a woman had done exactly what they’d agreed that she would do.
“Wow, Gage.” He chuckled. It was either that or punch himself in the face, and he needed that thing to make money. “Very mature. You should be proud of yourself.”
Okay, so he would march himself over there. Be civil to her because she deserved it as a member of the human race, much less as someone who had only done what they’d discussed. He’d get his jacket back and beat a hasty retreat.
It didn’t matter if she thought it was a trick, because after this, they weren’t going to run into each other anymore. Hell, her blinds had been closed all day anyway—a new habit of hers, apparently. They were done.
He tugged on the bottom of his T-shirt and shoved his fingers through his hair—not to make sure he looked acceptable. He simply . . . wanted to.
He rolled his eyes. “Jesus.” Time to get this done.
The walk over to her apartment building seemed both longer and shorter than it should have, giving him plenty of time to castigate himself over the whole situation while also surprising him when he was suddenly looking at 7G peeking through countless video game stickers.
He didn’t even know how he’d gotten in the building. Someone had to have opened the door for him. Again.
He clenched his teeth.
Get this over with. He knocked on her door.
Immediately from within, there was a shout, followed by a spate of gunfire. Every muscle in his body stiffened. He leaned forward. “Cassidy?”
Another gunshot and then silence.
“Okay, fuck this shit.” He grabbed the doorknob and tried to twist it, but it held fast. Damn it. Locked. “Cassidy!”
No answer. Gage took two steps back and examined the door. This was going to hurt. He locked down the muscles in his back and hips and fisted his hands at his side, turning a shoulder toward the door.
And then it opened. “You’d better be pizza. I didn’t even order one, but so help you . . . ” Cassidy stood in the open doorway wearing blue sweats with R2-D2 on the right thigh; a white, ribbed tank top; no bra; and perfectly puckered nipples just dark enough to cast shadows through her thin top. “Gage?” she asked, her eyes wide.
He jerked his gaze away from her nipples. A sudden shift of his weight drew attention to the fact that his pants were now slightly tighter than they had been moments before. He forced his gaze to her face, but, of course, the first thing he noticed were the freckles across her wrinkled nose.
You’re staring.
“Uh . . . hey.”
And then, the oddest thing happened. Something flashed in Cassidy’s green eyes. He was a pretty good read of character, and that something looked like guilt, but that couldn’t possibly be right. Cassidy didn’t strike him as a person who regretted a one-night stand, or regretted anything for that matter.
Why guilt?
He had to be mistaken.
She tilted her head, her nose still crinkled across the bridge. “What are you doing here?”
Her tone was perfectly conversational. He felt the words like a condemnation, however. I know, I know. I shouldn’t be here.
Before he could formulate an answer, there was another round of gunfire behind her.
“Shit.” She reached forward, grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt, and yanked him into her apartment.
Again, he ducked his head just in time. “Damn, woman. Need me to familiarize you with the words won’t you come in?”
But she was already gone, racing across the apartment and flinging herself into one of the two gaming chairs. The gaming chair.
He froze just inside the door and stared at the low-to-the ground, leather chair. Images from less than twenty-four hours ago flicked through his mind like a flip-book. He rubbed the fingers of one hand over his chin, his five o’clock shadow audibly rasping against his skin.
Cassidy was furiously pounding buttons on a game controller, her green eyes wide and locked to the screen. Her nose was, of course, wrinkled. She had seemingly no idea that he was remembering precisely what she’d looked like naked with her legs spread and his fingers on her clit.
There was a loud groan from the screen, and then the light flickering over Cassidy’s features went dark.
“Fuck.” She dropped the controller in her lap and flopped back into the chair, shoving a hand through her wild hair. She glared up at him. “I died.”
Well. This was a new level of awkward he’d never shared with a woman before. “I’m . . . sorry?”
“I’d forgive you if you had pizza, but—” She gestured at him and his notable lack of a greasy, square box with a dismissive flick of her fingers.
Time to leave. “I forgot my jacket.” He jerked his chin at the back of her chair, over which his jacket rested exactly as he’d placed it last night before taking off his clothes. Don’t think about that!
She turned and looked. “Oh.” She pushed to her feet, freed his jacket from the back of the chair, and began walking his way. “I hadn’t even seen it there.”
He tried valiantly not to notice how her breasts swayed beneath her thin tank top—he truly did—but it was a losing battle. She stopped right before him abruptly, giving her breasts a particularly jaunty bounce. “Here you go.” She thrust the jacket forward, and Gage just barely bit back a groan before it hit the open air. Was she trying to torture him?
He took his jacket from her without a word and took a step backward toward the still-open door. Two seconds until freedom. And then he could put this whole night behind him.
He took another step, and Cassidy snapped her fingers. “Wait! I need you!”
What?
She snatched his jacket from his hands.
“Hey,” he protested weakly.
“Come on.” Kicking the door closed, she tucked his jacket to her side and grabbed his hand with her free one.
He stared down at their joined hands stupidly as she tugged him across the living room. Her hand was so tiny in his, her pale skin and freckles looking good against his tan.
As though he hadn’t seen his skin against countless women’s.
Now, I’m truly losing it.
She stopped and gave his chest a small shove, and he toppled backward into the other gaming chair. At his height, it was a pretty treacherous surprise fall, and his heart was pounding by the time his butt met leather. She thrust a controller into his hands and dropped his jacket to the floor between the chairs. As she hustled over to her chair, he surreptitiously arranged his jacket so it wouldn’t crease.
“So, there was this bug in two-player mode on my list.” She flopped into her chair. “I think I fixed it today, but I need a wingman to help me test it.”
He stared down at the controller. Were any of those words supposed to make sense? “Okay,” he said slowly.
She pressed a couple of buttons and flicked him a glance before looking at the screen again. “You do game, right?”
At least that he’d understood. Gage shrugged. He’d been doing other things, like surviving, around the age he would have picked up an affinity for gaming.
Cassidy puffed out a breath. “Okay, I’ll keep you from dying. Just stick close.”
This was not part of the plan. “Well, actually—”
Gunfire erupted from the TV. He jumped in his seat, his gaze jerking to the screen. A man was jumping toward their characters. In reflex, Gage mashed every button his thumbs could find on his controller in quick succession. The gun the female character was holding erupted with its own spate of fire, and the attacker fell to the ground.
“Nice one.” Cassidy pressed a button, and her character, the male, ran forward and began rifling the dead guy’s body.
“Jesus,” Gage muttered. “You can steal stuff off dead people?”
Cassidy turned her head slowly, her green eyes finding his. “Wow, you really don’t game, do you?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “My reluctance to rob the deceased gave it away?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Yeah, you pussy.”
A laugh burst from his chest. “Oh yes. I’m such a pussy.”
She smiled, and he was horrified to find his heart rate speed in response. “Come on, newb,” she said. “The bug is just around the corner. Help me make sure it’s fixed, and you can go.”
He shifted his gaze to the screen again. Cassidy’s character was done going through the bad guy’s pockets, and both he and Gage’s lady avatar were standing around looking bored. “I guess I could do that.”
No sooner had the last word left his mouth than Cassidy was moving her character forward. “Great.”
And he had no idea what happened next, but suddenly it was several hours later. The sunrise was streaming through the cracks in Cassidy’s blinds, and their avatars were standing before the final bad guy of the game.
Gage couldn’t remember a time he’d had more fun with a woman.
Well, maybe last night.
The sudden wave of tension from Cassidy’s general direction distracted him from his thoughts. He didn’t look at her, however. He didn’t want to miss whatever happened next in the game.
As he watched, the guy they were to kill raised a gun and pointed it at Cassidy’s character. Gage’s controller buzzed in his hands, nearly making him drop it. It wouldn’t have mattered if he did, though, because when he pressed buttons, nothing happened. He frowned at the screen as his female avatar screamed, “No!” and threw herself in the path of the oncoming bullet.
“What the fuck!” Gage uselessly pounded buttons. It didn’t help. His character, the one he’d grown to like a lot over the past few hours, bled out at the hero’s feet.
It was a quick matter of two seconds before Cassidy directed her character to leap on the bastard who’d killed Gage and knife him in the neck. The screen flicked to black, and the words Road of Trials appeared in epic, golden font.
“No, seriously.” Gage thumped his controller against his thigh. “What was that?”
Cassidy blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
“I didn’t even get a choice? I just have to sacrifice my life?”
“Well, you were playing the girl.”
“And she could have knifed that asshole in the neck just as easily as the dude could have.”
An odd expression crossed her face, but he couldn’t take the time to process it. He was too heated. “That is some bullshit. Are they all like that? Because that isn’t right—”
All of Gage’s air oofed out of him as a tiny, skinny, redheaded Gamer Girl landed in his lap. Before he could process that, her lips were shoved against his, and her tongue was in his mouth.
He blinked at the credits rolling down the screen behind Cassidy’s shoulder for several moments.
Just go with it.
No problem there. Gage’s controller slid from his fingers to land with a soft thud on the floor, freeing up both of his hands to wind themselves in her riotous hair.
She bit into his bottom lip and pulled back slightly. “Yes, they’re all like that,” she breathed, nipping at his lips with little kisses between each word.
He groaned as her tongue skimmed his upper lip. “Wait, are we kissing or talking?”
She shifted her hips so she was straddling him fully, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head when the warmth of her pussy, barely shielded by the thin sweat pants she was wearing, landing directly over his raging erection.
“Can’t we do both?” she asked, her lips still brushing his.
He shook his head, his body’s needs clouding his thoughts. She wanted to talk while doing this? “I can’t.” When she suddenly started grinding against his cock, he disentangled his hands from her hair. They shot down to her hips to hold her still and give him precious seconds to gather his thoughts. “Not with you.”
What the fuck did I just say? Had he seriously confessed that? Did he truly feel that way? Because it was scary as hell.
She bucked against his hold, his grip lacking the conviction to keep her truly still. “Then,” she said with a gasp, “we’re kissing.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, her small breasts flattening against his chest. “Just kissing.” She ground against him again and moaned. “Maybe fucking.”
His mind finally decided to latch on a word and understand it completely. Fucking. “Okay.” He was on board for that.
“Oh, good.” Cassidy leaned back, grabbed the bottom of her tank top, and pulled it over her head. Her tight little nipples thrust themselves into his face, and his fingers flexed into her hips a little too roughly.
This was going to be fast. “Condoms?” he asked, his voice cracking at the end.
“Still around here someplace.” She shimmied from his lap, and he relinquished his hold on her reluctantly. “Clothes off, mister,” she tossed over her shoulder as she shoved her sweatpants down her hips and thighs. She kicked them away and bent over to look under the other gaming chair.
He choked on his tongue.
“Ah, found them.” She snapped upright, the box of condoms in her hand. She glanced his way and frowned. “You’re still dressed.”
He nodded. “Fixing that.” He lifted his ass from the seat, unbuckling his belt. Her gaze grew heated as she watched him, and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. He should have been too distracted by her pert breasts and that breathtaking view of her ass to pick up on the subtle signs of her arousal, but old habits died hard.
He kicked his own pants off, and they landed by the boots he’d taken off several hours ago. She was already walking his direction as he pulled his T-shirt over his head.
“Much better,” she murmured, stepping between his spread thighs.
He palmed the sides of her ass, smoothing his hands down and then back up again. Her pale, freckled skin was smooth and cool as water to the touch. “I agree,” he whispered.
“So.” She hooked first her left leg and then her right over his, solidly straddling his lap and wedging the box of condoms next to his ass. He watched raptly as the lips of her pussy spread for him, revealing glistening, pink skin and enticing shadows. “You took a bullet for me,” she said, brushing her palms across his pecs. “I think that deserves some gratitude.”