Her voice is groggy and wraps around my cock and I smile. “Sorry, did I wake you.”
“Shit, Alex. Do you know what time it is?”
I’ve moved away from camp and as I lean against my bike, I watch the flames in the distance. “Sure do. Did you end it with Cole?”
I sense her scowl. “Is that why you’ve rung at this ungodly hour?”
“I thought we could watch the sun rise together.”
I listen to the mattress creak as Mia groans and rolls over in her bed. “The sun’s not due up for a couple of hours.”
“Set your alarm and watch it with me.”
“When you’re back in Noir Valley. We can watch it then.”
“It’s a date.”
Mia giggles and it roosts in my stomach, soothing the night nerves. “Can I go back to sleep now?”
“Soon.” I turn my gaze to a patch of trees. We are hidden from the highway and I watch the taillights of a car at it passes, through the copse until they disappear. “Let me listen to your voice as I’m denied the pleasure of looking at your body.”
“Don’t make me fall in love, Alex.”
The vice around my heart tightens as I wince. Love isn’t for me. “How about lust?”
“I can cope with lust.”
There’s no easing of the tension surrounding my heart. “Lust suits me.”
“This is a crazy time to call.”
I glance at the stars. Their blinking no longer mocks me. “It’s the only time I was free.”
“Everyone else sleeping” she asked
“For a few hours.”
“I’ll have to ask them what it’s like.”
I glance over at the sleeping bodies. One or two of them snore or mutter in their sleep. A couple shuffle under their bedrolls while others lie perfectly still. “It’s dull. Mia. Nothing happens. Now if you were lying next to me. It would be a different story.” Mia’s husky chuckle flickers across my heart and I remind myself we’ve agreed to fall in lust.
“But I still wouldn’t be sleeping,” she said.
“No, you wouldn’t. You would be too busy and frustrated to sleep.”
“Is that why you called. Because you’re frustrated.”
I growl down the phone. “I might have just wanted to hear your voice.”
“I’ll give you a recording to keep. Then you can listen to it whenever the urge takes you.”
“Only if a video of you doing naughty things is tagged with it.”
“I haven’t been a naughty girl for a long time, Alex.”
I close my eyes as the heat in my blood sweeps through my veins and my cock twitches as I pull up an image of Mia from last night. Of her stretched out on the bed. Her flesh naked and warm as the sweat glistened on her skin. She had laid there as I played with her tits. Trailing my finger from one peak to the other. Tiny shivers caused her stomach to quiver as her musky aroma teased me. “You were naughty last night. Mia,” I close my eyes. There are times I am my worse tormenter. “Let’s play a game.”
Mia’s breath trickles over the air into my ear and I smile. “What kind of game.”
“Dare. You like to play dare, Don’t you, Mia.”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I dare you to wear dresses with no panties until I return to Noir Valley.”
“Alex.”
“You can always pay the forfeit.”
“And what’s that?”
“You clean the cabin with a toothbrush.”
Mia’s laughter taunts me for the rest of the night and although I’m on watch, I step behind a tree and find temporary release from my frustrations.
***
I pull the bike into Demon’s Lair compound and park beside Bastian. It’s three days since we left Noir Valley. Three long days and the nights were just as long. The calls to Mia too brief. The one time I tried to tempt her into phone sex, she refused. The girl needs loosening up and I intend to be the guy to do it. As I remove my helmet, I take a swift glance of the parking lot and smile when I spot the red Corolla tucked away in a far corner.
“Meeting in ten.”
I turn to Bastian and flip him the finger. “Won’t you be saying hi to Eve.”
Bastian slaps me on my back as he shakes his head. “It pays to be sweet to Firebird. That’s why I’m not working tonight.”
Shit. I begged Firebird to give me the night off, wanting to spend time with Mia on her first night on Demon’s Lairs. “Sweet my ass. That’s how Leon got to remain behind on this run.”
“That had nothing to do with me.” Bastian’s chuckle trails behind him as I follow him up the gangplank.
“Make it an hour.” I yell to his retreating back.
Bastian shakes his head as he turns to the saloon. “I’ve a lady waiting for me. The sooner church is over. The sooner I’ll have Eve’s warm body against mine.”
“Not if I tell her, this is how you’re talking about her.”
“Church.” The warm glow in Bastion’s dark eyes belie the somberness in his voice.
I nod as I turn to the lower deck. When I reach my cabin, I take a deep breath to steady the wild beating of my heart. I don’t have time to bed Mia before the meeting, but if Day hurries church,
