"Wouldn't you rather be the one writhing beneath me, Larrington?"
"Not even a little," she insisted.
"Hmm…" He shrugged into his coat. "That's funny, because that's not what you were saying last night when you kissed me."
If he'd smacked her across the face she wouldn't have been more stunned than she was right then. The missing piece of the puzzle had just been identified and she felt like projectile vomiting. Arming him with this type of ammunition was an epic failure on her behalf. "I don't believe you," she said firmly, jutting out her chin.
God, the look on her face was utterly priceless. If only he could snap a picture. "Suit yourself," he shrugged. "But, I'm not lyin', Larrington. You," he began, taking a step closer, "kissed me," another step, "and asked me to stay. Call me crazy, but I don't think you had Parcheesi in mind, either," he added simply, looming over her tiny frame and staring down at that gorgeous face of hers while she glared up at him. He was close enough to kiss her if he wanted to. He smirked instead.
Her eyes narrowed at the self-satisfied look on his face. He was unbelievable! Her embarrassment dissipated and was replaced with anger. "Well, I can assure you that it was just the alcohol talking. That will never happen again."
Big raised a brow, his grin taking on a wicked edge. "Now, I don't believe that for a minute."
"You know what, Big?" she clipped. "I don't really give one good damn what you believe or think."
"Larrington, chill the fuck out. It was just a kiss," he said gruffly, reaching out and brushing the pad of his thumb gently over her lip. "Though it was a damn good one. Makes me wonder what else you can do with that mouth of yours."
She slapped his hand away and shoved at the muscled wall of his chest to put some much-needed distance between them. "God! You are repugnant and sleazy! Get the hell out of my home this minute," she yelled. She stalked towards the door and jerked it open. "Why don't you stop and get your Valtrex refilled on the way home and find some brainless harlot that doesn't mind listening to the garbage that comes out of your mouth. I've reached my quota for the next two centuries." Her blood was raging so wildly within her that she very nearly could see the red in her eyes.
He laughed at her and realized that was probably the wrong thing to do when she stomped her foot and her eyes went wide and scary. She was so angry that she was actually vibrating. "Look—"
"Get out! Now!" she screeched, her voice notching up about a million decibels.
Big walked past her and paused in the doorway, unable to resist getting another dig in. "You know, Shorty, if you want to take your anger out on me I could think of a much better outlet than shouting. Though I guess there'd probably be shouting involved then, too. Mostly my name."
"You just don't give up do you?" she asked shoving him out into the hall. She opened up the blanket revealing all of her naked glory to him. His jaw dropped. "Well, Jake Biggerman, take a goodlong look because this is the last time you'll ever see this naked body again. Fuck. Off." She slammed the door in his face.
He stood, stunned, outside her closed door, the image of her firmly emblazoned into his brain as the blood rushed south. It took him a moment to snap out of the shock she'd sent him into. Turning, he started down the stairs and realized he didn't have his goddamn shoes on. Fuck. He lifted a fist to pound on the door when it opened up and she chucked his shoes at his head. Lucky for his face she had terrible aim. "Goddamn, Larrington!" he laughed. When she flipped him off he nearly pissed his pants from laughing. "See ya at Maggie's birthday party," he reminded her. "Maybe we can pick up where we left off," he said, wagging his eyebrows.
"You're uninvited!" she yelled, slamming the door in his face once more.
Fuck, it was fun to mess with her, he thought, bounding down the stairs. He pulled out his cell phone and sent her a text.
Alisha was lying on her bed, staring at her ceiling, wondering what entity had possessed her a few minutes ago and made her go completely bat shit crazy. God, it was bad enough that he'd accidentally seen her naked, but then she'd gone and showed him again during her hissy fit.
Well they call me the fireman, that's my name
Making my rounds all over town, putting out old flames
Well everybody'd like to have a what I got
I can cool 'em down when they're smold'ring hot
I'm the fireman, that's my name
"Can't he just stop torturing me?" she groaned, hearing Big's ringtone on her cell. She fumbled for her phone and saw that he'd sent her a text.
Big: Don't 4get ur future per4mance w/FE
Her face fell into a frown. What the hell was he talking about? She had a bad feeling it was another missing piece to the puzzle. But whatever it was couldn't possibly be any more humiliating than what she'd already been through today.
She replied with a succinct '?'.
Big: Check ur bag
Alisha huffed out a breath and rooted through her bag, pulling out the newspaper article that she remembered him defacing. Looking at it through sober eyes was every bit as funny as the night before, though she cringed seeing at some of the things she'd told him about Gregory. Tossing that aside, she found a bar napkin with a bunch of stick figures and scribbles of a tambourine, fire extinguisher, what she thought was a microphone, some musical notes
