Even now, after the hottest sex of her life, she should have been too tired to move, but Kent’s fingertips playing along her spine sent electric buzzes straight to her core.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and not for the first time.
“I said I was.”
She couldn’t see his face because he spooned her from behind, but she heard the concern in his voice. “I got carried away.”
She wanted to smack him for feeling guilty. “You weren’t alone. So did I.”
“You’ll be sore from it.”
“I know. I’ll like it.”
He made an odd rumbling sound. “Damn, woman. Keep talking like that and I’m going to be on you again.”
“Okay,” she said, smiling when she felt his cock, which was pressed against her rear, twitch in response.
“I can’t be this lucky,” he said. “You’re insatiable.”
“And you’re a sex fiend,” she teased.
He laughed gently. “For you I am.”
He pulled her in closer and nuzzled her hair. “Mmm. You smell so good. And it’s not only that.”
“What is it then?”
“It’s the whole package. Well, almost all of it.”
Little warning bells in the back of her mind told her not to push this, but she ignored them. “What do you mean? Almost all?”
“It’s nothing,” he said. “We’ll work it out, like we agreed.”
“Right. Work it out. You mean, we’ll go over the ways in which I’m not the complete package? We’ll discuss my failures? Is that what you’re getting at?”
“Hey, no, that’s not what I mean. Relax.” He caressed her shoulder and kissed her ear. “I’m crazy about you, Phae. You know that.”
Phae did relax. It was okay. She’d over-reacted. She’d been overcome by a dreadful premonition that this was too good to last, so she’d created a difficulty where there wasn’t one.
“You’re wonderful,” Kent assured her.
“Okay, you don’t have to go on and on about it. I wasn’t begging for compliments.”
He chuckled. “But I love giving you compliments. You deserve them. Did you know you have the best tits I’ve ever seen?”
“Shut up.”
“Nope. And you have these incredible abs. You do work out a ton, don’t you? Your body is fucking perfect.”
“It is not, Kent.”
“It is to me.”
“Stop. You’re embarrassing me.”
“Good. Now let’s talk about that ass. Seriously. Best ass ever. And that pussy—”
She grabbed his hand that was cupping her breast and toying with her throbbing nipple. “Seriously. Do not talk about my va-jay.”
His laughter was a warm rumble against her back. “You actually are every bit as surly as your family says.”
“Whatever,” she said, but she smiled and took the sting off it.
She let go of his hand and he returned to idly playing with her captured breast. She floated on the sensations of him pressed down the length of her, of his heavy thigh on top of hers, of her head snuggled under his chin.
He sighed contentedly. “I can’t get over it. Tell me, why does a woman as beautiful, smart and all-around wonderful as you are waste your talents performing menial duties for a bunch of people who should handle their own little troubles?”
She flinched, the topic shift like a blow to Phae’s senses. “What?”
“You have so much to offer, yet you spend your time sneaking around doing useless, mundane tasks—”
She pulled away from him, twisted around to face him. “Seriously? You’re saying this?”
“Yeah. I am. So?”
“So, useless, mundane tasks? You don’t know what you’re talking about. I help people.”
He flinched, appearing to finally realize he’d screwed up. “That came out wrong. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
It was too late for backing off now. “Then what did you mean?” she asked.
“I wanted to wait to have this conversation later.”
“Too late. You’ve already started it.”
“Listen, Phae, I won’t lie to you. Ever. If this is going to work, then we have to be honest with each other, and if you want that honesty right now, then I can do that.”
“Good. Let’s hear it.”
“All right then,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me, what you’re doing as Captain Nice Guy. The only truly helpful thing I watched you do tonight was preventing your uncle from driving drunk. But instead of simply waiting outside for him like a normal person and offering him a ride home, you played out this over-the-top covert mission scenario. As for the rest of what you did tonight, well …”
Phae went from zero to ninety in a split second. She sprang up, sexual fog utterly disintegrated, her energy reignited by his pompous attitude. “‘From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life,’” she quoted.
“What are you talking about?”
She found her t-shirt and pants on the floor, pulled them on rapidly then stood in front of him, hands on her hips. “It’s a quote by Arthur Ashe. ‘From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.’ Shall I interpret it for you?”
He sat up. “That won’t be necessary. You’re saying that what you do is noble, that getting dressed up in an absurd outfit and sneaking around town in the middle of the night is a virtuous, fulfilling activity, not the act of a bored, under-challenged—”
“I’m not saying I’m a saint or anything. I like what I do, yes, but that doesn’t lessen it. In fact, I think it makes my work better.”
“What did you do tonight that was so special and noble?” Kent asked.
“You were there. You saw it.” She could hardly believe he was being so dense. “I protected a lot of people tonight from potential harm.”
“Would you sit down? You’re giving me a headache with that walking back and forth.”
She came up short, unaware she’d been pacing. It didn’t matter. “So now you’re going to give me orders, General Powell? Well, forget it. I think I’ve had enough of you and it’s time for you to leave.”
She stalked to the door and yanked it open. With a flourish, she waved outside. Kent propped his feet on the coffee table.
“I’m not going anywhere without my clothes,” he said.
“Oh, yes you are. I’ll mail your clothes to you. Now get out of my house.”
“I’m not leaving like this. If you want me out, you’ll have to carry me. So why don’t you just shut the door and knock off the tantrum?”
Blood rushed to her face. She slammed the door with enough force to make the glass doors in Grandma Jones’ china cabinet shake.
“I am not throwing a tantrum,” she said, lowering her voice and trying to calm herself down, not wanting to give him any more ammunition. “I simply don’t see the purpose in continuing this conversation when you’ve obviously made up your mind.”
“I haven’t made any conclusions about you, other than the obvious one that you’re overly sensitive to criticism about your ninja-spy routine. And that makes me wonder about how noble you truly think your actions are.”
Phae refused to look at his mocking face. She sat down in the easy chair and stared at the bare wall across from her. “You’re trying to goad me into a reaction. It won’t work. I’ve had enough. When your clothes are dry, you’ve got exactly three minutes to get dressed and get out of my house. In the meanwhile, will you cover yourself with that towel or something? It’s hard to have an argument with a buck-naked man.”
Kent began to chuckle. She ground her teeth in annoyance, but kept silent.
He got his towel off the floor and tossed it loosely over himself. “You know, Phae, you’re not very attractive when you pout.”
She wondered if the man had a death wish. “I’m not interested in your opinions of my physical or emotional states.”
“I suppose that could be true,?