Melina

Mr. Whiskers was happily exploring his new room. I could not believe how much effort Trevor had gone through to get him settled in. It was sweet, and it threw me off balance. Then again, everything Trevor had done so far today had thrown me off balance, from his nervous texting to our wild sex in my kitchen. I was never going to be able to look at my kitchen the same way again. I’d had no idea what to expect when Trevor came to pick me up. While I’d known he wasn’t going to show up regretting his choice—not after all the effort he’d put into getting me to give him a chance—I’d wondered if he was going to waltz into my condo acting like a cocky ass. While he was definitely acting cocky, it was kind of cute.

“Thank you for going to so much effort to set up a room for Mr. Whiskers on short notice,” I told him, and Trevor’s smile made me think of a little boy who’d been praised for doing something good. Trevor was definitely a good host. That thought made me frown and reminded me of another reason I’d avoided getting involved with Trevor.

“What did I do wrong?” Trevor asked hesitantly.

“Sorry. It’s not anything you did just now.”

“It’s something I did another time?” he asked.

I let out a sigh, figuring we were going to need to have this discussion, eventually. “I’m not much of a party person,” I explained. From what I remembered, Trevor had at least one party a week, and he’d been known to have two or three.

“I haven’t had a party in months,” he admitted, surprising me.

“Really?” I asked, wondering if he was joking.

He turned away. We were in his kitchen, and he started to rummage through the fridge before setting out a fruit and cheese platter. “Before you ask, this wasn’t for a party. Dylan’s mom insisted I take leftovers home from the wedding reception.”

I laughed. “Then it was for a party, just not yours.”

“Smart ass,” he grumbled.

“Are you trying to avoid telling me why you’ve stopped having parties?” I asked.

“No,” he replied before shrugging. “Maybe a little. After you laid into me about my parties and acting like a child, I got to thinking about the way I was living my life.”

“Oh, Trevor,” I began, recalling what a bitch I’d been. While I’m usually a bitch, I rarely feel guilty about it. “I’m sorry about that. You shouldn’t have to change your life because of what someone else thinks.” Actually, I was shocked Trevor would even consider changing his life to please someone else. That wasn’t his style.

“That’s not why I stopped having parties,” he began, holding a strawberry out to me. “What you said made me think about what I was doing with my life. At first, I was pissed that you’d called me juvenile, and I had no intention of changing, but I suddenly stopped enjoying the parties. It was like I could hear your voice in the back of my head asking me why I was having people over when I didn’t like most of them.”

“So, you’re saying I did ruin the parties for you,” I insisted.

“Not really,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Eat,” he ordered, pointing to the tray. When one of my eyebrows lifted in question, Trevor chuckled. “After fucking you in your kitchen, I need to fuck you in my kitchen, so I figured I’d make sure you eat something first.”

His eyes were locked on mine, waiting to see how I’d react. It was a struggle not to tell him to fuck me now and forget the food. “The parties,” I prompted with a sweet smile before grabbing a piece of cheese from the tray. I knew damn well he was trying to distract me.

Trevor chuckled. “I’m going to have to step up my game. I was convinced you’d forget what we were talking about.”

“You’ll have to work harder to distract me in the future,” I responded.

“If I get much harder, I might break the zipper on my pants,” he grumbled.

“The parties,” I pushed.

“Right, the parties. I got to thinking about the reasons I was having the parties. First, I was lonely,” he admitted, sounding somewhat embarrassed by that admission. “So, that might have been a good reason to have the parties if it weren’t for the fact that I’d been avoiding most of my guests for months. My guests were more like background noise.”

“What were the other reasons for the parties?” I asked.

“Only one other reason came to mind, and it was lamer than the first reason,” he admitted. “I had this idea that, if I had enough parties, one day, my perfect witch would walk in the front door.”

“That seems like a good reason to continue having those parties,” I stated.

Trevor just shook his head.

“So, no more parties?” I asked.

“No more parties,” he confirmed.

“Do you miss it?” I asked. “There must have been more to the parties.”

He thought for a moment. “I missed it at first. Being alone is scary. I’d never spent much time living alone, and I had a hard time getting used to it, but I did. Believing I needed people around to make me happy, meant spending time with people for the wrong reasons. I was looking for someone to make me feel good about myself, instead of learning to like my own company.”

It was strange hearing Trevor talk this way. I’d always seen him as overly confident, but it seemed I’d misread him. “Now, you like your own company?”

“I do,” he replied without hesitation. “As much as it pissed me off when you cut me off all those months ago, I needed this time alone. Without it, I don’t think we would have stood a chance of making this work.”

I still wasn’t sure we could make this work, but I wasn’t about to argue with Trevor—at least, not now. I’d probably argue with him about it plenty later, but for now, he’d opened up to me, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment with a bitchy comment, as I was often known to do. “I’m glad you like your own company, Trevor. You’re a great guy.”

Trevor prowled around the kitchen island, his hot, hungry gaze moving along my body. My eyes traveled down his body, and I sucked in a breath when they landed on the bulge in his pants.

“I keep saying I can’t wait to get you into my bed, and then I get distracted with all the other places I want to fuck you,” he murmured, sliding his arms around me and splaying his fingers across my lower back.

My mouth opened to give a sassy reply, but before I could speak, Trevor’s lips crushed mine. My mouth moved against his. All it took was one touch from this warlock to have me ready to beg for more of him, making me wonder if I’d somehow turned into a nympho for Trevor. It had only been a few hours since I’d had him, and I was already dying to feel him inside of me again.

One of Trevor’s hands slipped under my shirt to stroke my nipple through the lacy fabric of my bra. I arched into his hand, groaning and breaking our kiss. His eyes were locked on my face as he pinched my nipple.

“Seeing you in my home is so fucking arousing it’s a miracle I’ve waited this long to touch you,” he murmured.

I moaned, and Trevor took my mouth again. I was already close to coming just from having Trevor kiss me and play with my nipples through my bra. “I need you in me, now,” I insisted.

The buzzing of my phone was not a welcome interruption, and I decided to ignore it when Trevor pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it across the room. His hands went to my bra clasp, freeing my breasts to his hungry mouth. That’s when the phone started buzzing again.

“I need to answer that,” I said on a moan.

“Ignore it,” Trevor commanded, leaning in to take my nipple between his lips and suck hard.

My lips parted on a whimper, and I was seriously tempted to listen to him, but I knew I couldn’t do that when my phone started buzzing a third time.

“I can’t ignore it,” I told him with genuine regret. “There are rehearsals tonight, and there might be a problem I need to deal with.”

Trevor pulled back and nodded his understanding. While it was obvious he wasn’t happy about the interruption, he didn’t seem annoyed.

I grabbed my annoying phone before the call went to voicemail again.

“This is Mel,” I answered gruffly.

“Mel, it’s Leo,” the producer of Night High shot back before letting out a hacking cough.

“What’s up, Leo?” I asked, knowing it could be anything with him. He’d call me if the restrooms were out of toilet paper because the ass couldn’t call the janitorial service, or Goddess forbid, go to the supply closet and get the damn toilet paper himself. Admittedly, I was surprised he was calling me on a Sunday night since he did his best to avoid the studio on weekends, and he rarely showed up for rehearsals. Leo preferred to be there when he thought the press might stop by to ask him about his show. Leo was a total prick.

“We have a serious situation,” he told me. “I need you here in ten minutes.”

With that, the annoying little troll hung up on me.

“I need to go into the studio,” I explained to Trevor, looking around to see where he’d tossed my bra and shirt.

“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice a little strained, which made sense considering the erection still straining the zipper of his pants. I was seriously going to kill Leo if this wasn’t something that required my skills as head writer.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. I would have called Leo back, but now that he’d spoken to me, he wasn’t going to answer his phone. “It could be some minor bullshit issue. For whatever reason, the asshole producer thinks I’m the only person who can take care of anything.” I put my shirt back on and finger-combed my hair.

“I need you to be honest with me, Melina,” Trevor said from right behind me, and even though he wasn’t touching me, I could feel the heat of his body, tempting me to lean back into him. “Are you using this as an excuse to get away from me? We had a serious talk—one I’m sure you weren’t ready for—so, I can see why you’d want to put some distance between us.”

“No,” I assured him. “I definitely do not want to put distance between us. I may kill Leo if he interrupted what was about to happen without a damn good reason.”

“Okay, then I’ll go with you,” he offered.

“No,” I responded quickly. “Fuck! That makes it sound like I don’t want you around me, and I do. It’s just that I don’t want to deal with all the questions your presence will bring since they will only keep me at work longer tonight. I just want to handle whatever issue came up and get out of there. Would it make you feel better if I offer to let you bring me dinner tomorrow?”

Trevor nodded, and he seemed relieved. While I’d been tempted to try to keep the fact that I was seeing Trevor a secret because I knew it was temporary, I’d quickly dismissed that idea. I was staying at Trevor’s house, and as part of our bet, I’d agreed to give him a chance. That meant he’d be seen with me in public.

“I think I’ll change out of my moving clothes and get Mr. Whiskers ready to go,” I said, knowing he’d probably be annoyed about leaving his new toys.

“Just leave him,” Trevor told me, and he chuckled at my skeptical look. “You already know we get along fine, and he’s going to be living here with you, so he may as well get used to spending time alone with me.”

“We’re staying here for a month,” I reminded him. “Unless you get tired of me earlier, and then it could be even less than a month.”

“Keep telling yourself that, honey, and I’ll keep proving you wrong.”