Page 27 of Last Call at the Doghouse

Sonny studied Duncan with curiosity and a touch of animosity. It was a guy thing, she supposed; some territorial bullshit. In a weird way it was a competition, even though there was none. While she might eventually end up sleeping with Duncan, Sonny would never get close to her again.

“Sonny Camden. Armi and I were high school sweethearts.” He winked at her.

She snorted. “Not the words I’d choose to describe the relationship,” she said under her breath, but loudly enough for both men to hear.

Duncan tightened the arm he’d tossed over her shoulder in what seemed to be a comforting and familiar hug. “Are you ready for bed, honey? I sure am. It’s been a long day.”

Honey? She saw the game Duncan was playing. Instead of laughing him off she played along. She could take care of herself. She could send Sonny packing all on her own. But dammit, she was tired and didn’t have the energy for it, not tonight.

“It has been a long day,” she said, looking up and over to Duncan. She gave Sonny a half-hearted goodnight and turned away. As they walked toward the stairs Duncan rested his hand at the small of her back in a possessive way that made Armi tingle from head to toe. She might’ve shaken him off if she hadn’t been sure Sonny was watching. He needed to know she was taken, even if it was a lie.

Duncan kept that warm, heavy hand at her spine up the stairway then down the hall, even though no one was watching. The contact continued until they were inside the room. Only then did he drop his hand.

“What the hell was that?” he asked sharply as he locked the door.

“Long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere any time soon,” he snapped.

Armi sighed. The bed was too damn squeaky, so she claimed a hard chair that had a brightly colored quilt draped over the back. “Not long before graduation, Sonny slipped me a love potion. One thing led to another, and… you know.”

With his eyes narrowed that way Mitch Duncan looked downright dangerous. “That’s no better than…”

“I know,” she snapped, interrupting him. “Sonny is vile and seeing him here makes me even more determined to find another place to stay while we’re in town.” Though she still had no good ideas about where that might be. Was Sonny a part of the evil Duncan insisted was coming for her? She wouldn’t be surprised. “Anyway, we slept together a couple of times. I thought I was wild for him, but my grandmother saw the unnatural influence in me and slipped me a potion of her own to counter the effects of the one Sonny had given me.” Just like that, the love had vanished.

“The story’s not all that long,” Duncan said, an accusing tone in his voice.

“That doesn’t mean I enjoy sharing it.”

He walked to the window and looked out on the back yard, which was dark at this hour. For a few long minutes he stared down in silence. Did he judge her for how gullible and vulnerable she’d been? Was he trying to think of a way to kill Sonny in his sleep? Maybe both.

Finally he turned and looked at her. “I’m going to tell you something you’re not going to like.”

“I hate to tell you, but it won’t be the first time.”

He didn’t smile at that, didn’t react at all. After a few long seconds he took a deep breath and said, “Sonny is sleeping with Mary.”

Armi jumped out of the chair with more energy than she would’ve claimed she possessed after this very long day. “What?” she shouted.

He was there in a heartbeat, a finger on her lips, a low shushing on his own. His body pressed to hers; she could feel his heat, smell the scent of his skin, and see the tiny lines around his eyes more clearly than before. For a moment, everything stopped. She forgot where she was, why she was here, what was coming. There was just this man who had turned her life upside down and the feelings he stirred in her.

She liked it. She liked it a lot. The closeness, the heat, an unspoken promise.

After a few wonderful and terrible seconds, she recovered and said, “I have to warn her. She doesn’t have any idea…”

“We don’t know what she knows, and we can’t say anything until…”

“Mary is sweet and vulnerable, she’s my friend, and Sonny is a snake. He must’ve used the same potion on her that he used on me, more than twenty-five years ago.” Or something like it. Teenage Sonny had still been learning. Old Sonny was likely more talented, more dangerous. “Poor Mary. She doesn’t need a man like Sonny Camden screwing up her life!”

The time came and went for Duncan to move away. The room was small, but it wasn’t that small. He had a chair on the other side of the room he could sit in, a pallet on the floor he could claim. He didn’t. He stayed close. If she tipped her chin up, she’d be able to kiss him. She didn’t. Wrong time, wrong place.

“You can’t trust anyone but me,” he whispered.

“Sounds like something Sonny would say,” she countered. “How do you know about this anyway? Why do you know something about one of my best friends that I don’t?”

He hesitated. “I was out for a walk. It was late, you were sleeping. I saw him leaving her room.”

“It could’ve been…”