“Sorry about that.”
I squeaked as Derek’s voice boomed behind me. He stood there, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish grin on his face.
“That? Oh, that was nothing. I mean…it was…it’s none of my business.”
He cocked a smile at me. “Claire likes some adventure. She gets it from her books.”
“You know, it’sreallynone of my business,” I said, walking over to the cabinet to get down a mug.
“I’m gonna do the rounds…check outside.”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded, not looking at him.
“Storm!” he called, and the wolf immediately jumped up and followed him outside. Weird.
God, I would never get those blue tights out of my mind. Or the red underwear. Was that what they were? Maybe they weren’t called underwear. And the idea that I was so concerned with whatever that costume was called just blew my mind.
As soon as I heard the door close, I sank against the counter, grateful to be alone once again. It would take days to unpack what I just saw.
“So…oops?” Claire said from behind me.
“When I turn around, you’d better be fully clothed and have no ties around your wrists,” I mumbled.
“Fully clothed and ready for inspection.”
I winced, turning to face her. “That’s not any better, you know.”
“Yeah, I heard it come out of my mouth,” she laughed. Walking around the counter, she grabbed a mug and waited with me for the coffee to be ready. “So, that was a good introduction to my world.”
She said it so casually, but I didn’t miss the way she blushed.
“You were serious about the whole Superman thing.”
“Told you,” she shrugged. “Not that it was all our fault. I mean, you put on quite the show yesterday.”
“What?”
Rolling her eyes, she plopped on the stool. “Oh, come on. We all heard you in the shower with Rob. I’m pretty sure even Sinner called home to have sex with his wife.”
“Ew!”
“Hey, you started it. We just finished it.” She blushed again, but I had the feeling she wasn’t really embarrassed about what she did. She just didn’t know how to discuss it with me.
“To each his own.”
When the coffee was done brewing, she grabbed some and headed for the cabinet, getting the powdered creamer. “So, what’s going on with you and Rob?”
That was a loaded question. “Nothing. It’s just sex.”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Just sex. That was amazing sex. You don’t make sounds like that when it’s just okay.”
“What do you want me to say? It is what it is.”
“Um, first of all, that’s crap. Second of all, a huge pile of crap. What’s really going on?”
Groaning, I thunked my head on the counter. “I’m stupid. Beyond stupid. I slept with him again!”
“Okay, I’m not seeing the problem. So you slept with him. What’s wrong with that?”