- Landon -
argot’s body stiffened in my arms at the first knock, and when the unwanted visitor pounded even harder a second time, she leaned back and looked at me.
The hazy lust drained from her eyes like she’d just been woken from a deep sleep. “If you need to get that—”
I shook my head and slid a hand up the back of her neck, clenching a clump of her hair in my fist and pulling her head back so I could stare at her wet, panting lips, the same lips I’d been jerking off to all fucking week. I gritted my teeth. “What I need is to—”
“Open up, Landon. It’s me.”
I flinched at the sound of Christophe’s voice, struggling to recall the details of a hurried conversation I’d had with him last weekend.
Margot raised her eyebrows.
“It’s my neighbor,” I whispered, loosening my grip on her as I looked towards the door. “Go away.”
“What do you mean go away?” he asked. “Ben’s thing is in two hours, and I can’t drink all this Patrón by myself.”
“He’ll be right there,” Margot said, turning around and lifting her hair.
“Oh shit,” Christophe mumbled. “I didn’t realize you had a girl in there… Please tell me she’s coming to the party with friends.”
I stared down Margot’s back at the gold zipper on her dress, my heart sinking with my hard-on. It was like being asked to relock a safe I’d been trying to crack for ten years. I grabbed her shoulders and leaned over one of them to whisper in her ear. “I’m so sorry. I completely forgot about this thing.”
She tilted her head so her mouth was right by mine again. “It’s okay. I have to be going anyway.”
“We haven’t even eaten yet. I can get out of this.”
“I’d rather you just zip me up.”
I slid my hands around her waist and spread a palm over her stomach, hugging her body against mine and inhaling the sweet smell of her perfume. “I’d really rather not.”
“Please,” she said. “Your friend is right outside the door.”
“Is this me being blown off?” Christophe asked. “Because it’s kind of hard to get a sense of what’s going on from this side of the door.”
I zipped Margot’s dress back up, my eyes sinking into every inch of her smooth skin before I made it disappear.
She dropped her hair and spun around to face me, the former innocence in her eyes replaced by a more guarded look.
“I’m not going to let you leave without dinner.”
She lifted a hand and dragged it lightly down my chest, pulling it back before she reached the waistband of my jeans. “I’m not sure I have much of an appetite now that I’m full of…other stuff.”
God, how I wanted to be what she was full of. “I’m so sorry,” I said, hoping she knew how thoroughly I meant it. After all, I wasn’t just sorry for Christophe’s arrival or for forgetting I had plans. I was sorry for confusing things between us mere moments after the flood gates were opened…and for not opening them sooner.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “If you have plans, you have plans.”
“You inspired me to change my plans pretty quickly just now.”
A soft knock hit the door as if made by the sound of someone’s head.
I groaned and went to open it. Sure enough, Christophe was standing there in one of his overpriced clubbing shirts, his hair gelled in a way that must’ve taken him at least a half-hour of mirror time.
He leaned his head inside before following with his feet. “Holy shit. You really do have a woman in here. Sorry I didn’t fuck off, but I had to see it to believe it.”
I swung the door shut. “Don’t be a jackass.”
“Seriously.” He looked at Margot like he half expected her to evaporate. “I know gay guys who are less picky about women than you.”
Margot leaned off the counter and smoothed her dress down as Christophe walked into the kitchen and stuck his hand out.
“Christophe,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Margot,” she said, taking his hand.
He checked her out so blatantly her cheeks burst into flames.
“How did you two meet?” he asked, setting an unopened bottle of Patrón down on the counter.
“She’s Matt’s sister,” I said at the exact same moment Margot said, “We work together.”
Christophe’s eyes bounced between us for a second before settling on her again. “Are you coming to Ben’s thing tonight?”
“I don’t know anything about Ben’s thing,” she said. “I was just leaving.”
I crossed the kitchen, determined to keep her from leaving empty-handed.
“My buddy’s throwing a party tonight to celebrate the fact that he just opened a club in Hong Kong,” Christophe explained as I pulled some Tupperware from a drawer. “That’s really all there is to know.”
“Sounds like fun,” she said.
I scooped as much pasta into the container as I could, trying to give her the parts with the most melted cheese.
“That’s plenty,” she said, laying a hand on my shoulder.
“You should come,” Christophe said, walking around the counter to perch on a bar-stool as if he’d finally sensed the tense situation he’d walked into.
“Maybe another time,” she said. “It was lovely to meet you, though.”
“Despite the circumstances,” he added, coming as close to an apology as I expected he would get.
Margot grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
When she stepped into the hallway, I handed her the warm container of pasta. “This isn’t how I wanted tonight to end.”
She raised her brows. “How did you want it to end?”
“With you not leaving, for one.”
Her eyes smiled. “Thanks for a lovely evening, Landon. I really enjoyed myself.”
“Can I at least call you an Uber or something?”
She shook her head. “You’ve done enough.”
“I was only getting started.”
She looked down at her feet and took a slow step back before looking up at me again from behind flushed cheeks. “Have fun tonight,” she said. Then she turned and headed down the hallway to the elevators.
I watched her until one arrived, smiling when she looked at me one last time before getting on. Then I shut my door and gave Christophe the look he deserved.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “It’s not my fault you forgot you invited me over.”
I sighed.
“Or that you didn’t finish whatever you were doing with her sooner.”
“That,” I said, heading for the remaining pasta, “I can’t argue with.”
“I’ve never seen you like this,” he said. “Who did you say she was again?”
“Matt’s little sister.”
“Matt who?”
“Roberts,” I said, forking some pasta straight from the dish.
“As in your best friend who I met at that—”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“What?” I asked as I chewed.
“Is he cool with you looking at his little sister like that…and whatever the hell else you were doing?”
I swallowed my bite. “He doesn’t know.”
Christophe’s lips formed a tight O as he pulled the cork from the tequila.
I furrowed my brow. “What? There’s nothing to know.”
“Look, Landon. It’s not my business what you tell yourself, but if you ever even think about looking at my little sister like that, you better fucking tell me before you do it.”
I grabbed two shot glasses from a nearby cabinet and set them on the counter. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know that bitch was in heat when I came in here.”
My lips twitched towards a smile. “Why don’t you shut up and pour some shots already?”