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The door opened and she walked in without a second glance, even as a can fell from a bag, leaving me to grab it up.
“What do you mean you have a thing for difficult assholes? Like you’re just the easiest woman on the planet.”
She hiccuped again and turned back around to me, reaching for the can I’d picked up.
“Oh, right. Me? I think I made it pretty obvious I wanted you from the moment you walked into my morgue. I asked you out and everything.”
I pulled out the bowl for O and let Cali put the food inside it before setting it on the counter. That seemed to make O calmer, and I took the opportunity to get the litter box sorted out. I looked up a moment later to find Cali staring at me.
“What?” I asked. “We can get one of those fancy self-cleaning ones later, but tonight he’ll be happy enough.”
Her eyes might have been glassy from the wine, or was it something else?
“Who are you really, Xander? Thug? Possessive prick? Cat lover?”
I stood and took a step toward her.
“All of those things, I guess.”
She took a step toward me.
“Are you? You can cover yourself in tattoos and kill anyone you want, but I don’t think I’ll ever believe you really fit any of those things.”
That made me laugh. “By definition, I think that’s exactly what a thug is. A psychopath who kills without remorse. I’m the man who creates the nightmares. Fuck, I star in them.”
She took another step closer, her little pink tongue darting out and licking her lips.
“Maybe. Maybe you are all those things, but not to me. Tell me, Xander. What are we doing here?”
The room seemed to have grown twenty degrees hotter and the air thicker as I struggled to breathe.
“What do you mean? I’m keeping you safe.”
She smiled a little tipsy smile I’d never seen from her before.
“Safe in your bed? You could have just helped me move to a different apartment. Helped me disappear. Maybe even not started a little war with the Vipers. But instead, here I am. In your space.”
She was right. I might have had other options. Maybe I should have thought about any of them, but I didn’t. I only saw her with me.
“So, tell me, big bad Xander of the Spectors, what are you doing with little old me?”
I reached for her, grabbing my shirt and pulling her the remaining inches into my body.
I couldn’t give her an answer she might have wanted. Not yet, because I still didn’t know.
“I’m owning you, Calliope. And in return, you own whatever part of my soul you’ve somehow reawakened.”
The world fell away when she was in my arms, and as I claimed her mouth, the here and now was all that mattered.
The scars of my past disappeared as her lips danced with mine. I ran my hands down her arms, stopping at the waistband of shorts that were in my damn way. I broke the kiss.
“When you’re in my house, I only want you in my shirt and nothing else.”
I kissed her as I pulled the shorts down, letting them fall to the floor. I slid my hands under her ass and lifted her onto the table.
“Whatever you want, Xander.”
Her hands fumbled at the waistband of my pants, and I ran my hand under my shirt, cupping her breast, loving the way her nipple hardened under my touch.
