Everyone’s plates were clean and she had asked more than once if anyone wanted seconds. Beeks and Fish were too engrossed in their discussion to think about filling their mouths. Eating might interrupt their ability to interject and cut the other off.
Enjoying the feel of being with family, Shyla smiled at the two men at the opposite side of the table. Only when Score’s knee brushed hers did she seek him out. Her head turning toward him was automatic. She shouldn’t be so sensitive; sometimes the guy really did just make contact by accident. That time wasn’t an accident though, he was looking right at her.
He stared right at her. Into her. Shyla wasn’t sure what he was trying to tell her. If he was trying to tell her anything. There was a strong chance he simply wanted to unnerve her. No matter how hard she sucked on her lower lip and told her heartrate not to take his attention personally, her body didn’t listen.
After half a minute, he got up and left the table. Beeks kind of glanced his way, but he already had enough to worry about with Fish’s wild gesticulating.
Jumping from her seat, Shyla quickly gathered up the dirty plates and put the leftover food in the kitchen. Score had disappeared down the hallway. Doubting he went to the laundry room or into the stairwell, that corridor only led to one other place: their bedrooms.
Trembling in trepidation and excitement, she waited until Beeks and Fish weren’t paying attention, and then slipped around the end of the wall into the hallway. Score wouldn’t hesitate to tell her to return to the kitchen if he didn’t want to be alone with her. But given the way he’d stared, Shyla was sure he had something to say.
Her imagination went mad with the possibilities. Each one flitted across her mind for a brief second before it was forced out by the next prospect. She didn’t have to wonder where Score was, her bedroom door was closed and his was open. Shyla was out of the habit of closing her door; Score must have done it.
He’d been unhappy at her entering his space without permission. But he’d blocked the other option, so she guessed it was okay to go in.
When she turned into his bedroom, she didn’t see him at first, the bathroom area was vacant. The bed was made and empty. The terrace door was open. Shyla guessed he might be somewhere outside. As she headed that way, his voice rose from behind, startling her.
“You’re tense,” he said.
Simple words, but they startled her into spinning around. He was in the closet area behind the headboard.
“Geez, Phoenix,” she said, flattening a hand on her chest. “You scared me.”
“Proving my point,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?”
“Are you worried about tomorrow? If you want me to take this guy out before—”
“No, I’m…” She took a step his way, but stopped when he came around the headboard to stand near the head of the bed. “I wasn’t thinking about the funeral. I was thinking about us… then I felt guilty. I shouldn’t be obsessing about us having sex when I have to say goodbye to Stan tomorrow.”
He nodded once. “I thought you’d appreciate the distraction. We don’t have to—”
“No,” she said, holding up both hands. “Please don’t… I do need it. I… I don’t want to be sad about Stan and I’m worried Mick will open his big mouth, but…” Edging closer, she tried to take some of the gravity out of her tone. “We’re the future. I don’t have to shun my future to remember my past. I want to be with you… This is what I want.”
Getting close enough to lay her hands on his torso, she wasn’t positive she’d convinced him. With a frown on his face and the cogs in his mind working, Score contemplated her.
“We have to go back to the club,” Score said.
Shyla guessed he meant him, Beeks, and Fish, not her. “Okay,” she said. “You can talk to me about your work by the way. I don’t worry about it, I know you have everything under control, but I would like to be involved in your life.”
“You are,” he said. “But I get your point.”
Good, she was glad he did… though Shyla wasn’t exactly sure what it was. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Work? No,” he said on a shake of his head. “We’ll talk about that later.”
Hopefully not in the time she’d rather be having sex with him. “Okay.”
“After we’re gone you have work to do.”
“I do?” she asked, then inhaled. “I mean, yes, I do…” She frowned. “What work?”
He tucked her hair back from her face. “Everything that’s in your room has to be moved in here.”
Shit. Containing her enthusiasm for that task wasn’t easy.
“Mm hmm,” Shyla said, choosing to keep her lips tight together.
“I warned you about coming in here.”
If he’d taken her agreement as unhappiness, she’d overshot with her restraint. “I don’t have a problem with staying in your bedroom,” she said. “But don’t you think we should wait?”
“Until we’ve had sex?”
Yeah, that was what she was getting at. All of a sudden, her excitement chilled. “What if I don’t satisfy you?”
Elevating her chin with a curled finger, he didn’t blink as he spoke. “You already do.”
He’d mentioned pleasuring himself in the shower, and he’d been in the shower that morning when she woke up. Her temperature began to ascend again. Being in the room with him while he… She smiled thinking how she could get used to being his muse.
“I’ll bring everything through.”
“Good,” he said and began to turn away.
She grabbed for him. “When will you be back?
