“You’re so…” he’s saying as he leans against the bar next to me, one arm braced on top to hold himself up. “Sohandsome.”
I laugh, thoroughly entertained by his good mood and by the hum in my blood that I’m grinning almost as wide as he is. “You’re handsome, too, Cy.”
His eyes widen a bit. “You think so?”
I cock my head, genuinely confused that he seems confused. “Of course I do.”
He smiles at first but then it falters. “Maybe you won’t. After.”
“After what?”
He looks away, but comes back wearing a sly smile. “After…I let you have your way with me.”
“After youletme?”
He nods, suddenly very serious now. “I would let you do unspeakable—”
“All right.” I reach forward and clamp my hand over his mouth before shouting, “Dolly.”
She turns, making her way down the bar. “Aiden.”
“I think I’m going to take him home,” I tell her, keeping my hand on Cypress’s mouth and able to feel him grinning again beneath my palm. “Seems safest.”
She laughs, giving Cypress a knowing look. “You need me to come with you?”
“No,” I say, about to stand. “I’ve got him.”
She smiles, reaching out a hand to pat my cheek much as she’d done the night before. “I’d say you do, wolf. Let me know when you find the little bird.”
I pause, half off my barstool as other things from the night before begin falling into place. However, before I can get the words out to ask her, someone else is calling for her and she’s turning away while Cypress is using the distraction to make a break for it.
“Where are yougoing?” I ask, quickly following him as he heads for the stairs. “The door is that way.” I tilt my head in the direction of the front entrance.
“Ah, yes, but there are rooms that way,” he replies, tilting his own head the opposite way. “They have doors and everything.”
“Cypress.” I grab him by the arm and give him my best stern voice while trying not to laugh again. “There are rooms at Dolly’s house, too. Ones we haven’t already committed crimes in, might I add.”
He frowns, pouting. “But those are so far away.”
“They’re also far more private,” I suggest, leaning in close tohis ear and trying not to get taken in by his proximity to whereI’llend up leading us upstairs. “Might come in handy? With all the unspeakable things you’re going to let me do.”
His eyebrows shoot up as he rears back to give me an appraising look. “You know, wolf, I’m really starting to think maybe you’re not sorepressedafter all. Next thing I know, you’re going to tell me about a time you took part in an orgy or—”
“Not sure I would call it anorgy, but I suppose, there’s been a time or two where it was more than just two…” I say innocently, waiting for his reaction, and, God, if there is one memory I could keep…
“A time or two?” Cypress repeats, eyes wide. “Withmorethan two?”
I shrug, enjoying every bit of this. “I’m not sure if you know this, but I was once a very famous gunslinger.”
Cypress stares at me for so long that I worry he’s going to pass out before he shouts, “Dolly, we’re leaving!”
“I already told…” I trail off, not seeing the point since he’s already escaped back to the bar. I shake my head, laughing as I follow after him.
“Dolly, we’re heading out,” he says again, in case she didn’t get the message the first time while he leans against the bar directly in front of her. “Aiden and I are going.”
Dolly is laughing now, too, neither of us able to contain it in his current state. “I know you are.”
“Good,” Cypress says, boosting himself up to reach across the bar, give her a kiss on the cheek, and steal a bottle of whiskey in a surprising display of dexterity for his drunken state. “You know I love you?”