"Because for the past week, you've been being calm and nice, and honestly? It was freaking me out."
"You were freaking out because I was beingnice?"
"I was worried your brain had broken." She takes another sip. "This"—she gestures at all of me—"This I can work with. I don't worry about you when you're like this. Guess I cured you, huh?"
I curl my lip at her. "What do you fucking mean,curedme?"
She grins wider and looks down.
At my cock.
Through my pants.
Insufferable.
Absolutely fucking insufferable.
And my cock twitches anyway, because apparently my body has decided that insufferable is its type now. The scar tissue along my shaft pulls with the slight shift of blood flow, that familiar dull twinge, the reminder that even arousal comes with a tax.
I grit my teeth and ignore it.
"Carmine's going to be here in less than an hour," Bells says, setting down her drink. Her voice shifts. Still casual, but not as much as before. "We could practice up here first. Just us. No audience."
My jaw locks. "No."
"Rex—"
"I saidno."
She ignores me. "I practiced on Orion. I'm good at it."
That catches me off guard.
"You practiced onOrion?"
There's no fucking way I heard her correctly. Orion would never allow that. Maybe if she was blindfolded. Even then, probably not.
"Yep. We got it down." She pops the case open. "Ten clean pulls in a row before he called it."
I study her face for the micro-expression. The involuntary tightening around the eyes that people get when they're trying not to react to something horrifying and failing because it's branded in their minds.
"Didn't that bother you?" I ask.
She tilts her head. "Didn't what bother me?"
"His face."
Bells's expression shifts. She isn't grinning anymore, and her honey-gold eyes hold mine deliberately.
For once, it isn't a staring contest.
"No," she says quietly. "Of course not." A beat. "Why, should it?"
"He's scary as fuck."
She shrugs. "He's sweet. It isn't a big deal." Then she adds, the grin spreading across her face again, "If I weren't with Phoenix and Raf, I'd actually consider taking Jamie and Orion up on their sexy game night offer."
The shorthairs on the back of my neck prickle with a sudden wave of fury I didnotfucking ask for.