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As much as we’d both been playing our little…thing as smooth and casual as possible, I couldn’t deny how good he made me feel at times. As much as he had driven me crazy initially, he had somehow found a way to invert those emotions with the passing days. Something as simple as attacking me with a sudden kiss was enough, leaving me feeling desired and appreciated.
“Jackass,” I hissed softly, nudging him away as my senses returned. “Rules.”
“Rules that apply when we don’t want to be spotted or overheard. Everyone was sent home shortly after you went upstairs to deal with my mother,” he told me with a chuckle.
“Gee, I wonder who did that noble and wonderful deed,” I snorted, poking him in the chest.
“It’s not as if my mother will care. There is enough food left over for us to be fed until they come back in a couple of days, and the house isn’t going to get filthy in that time,” Shane said with a shrug. It was only upon looking at him that I noticed dark circles under his eyes that hadn’t always been there, but there was also a brightness in his gaze I couldn’t recall seeing. “And if she hadn’t wanted me to make executive decisions, she shouldn’t have made sure I was the one in charge of things while she’s recovering.”
Recovering. As if she wasn’t actively fighting the excessive and dangerous growth of her own body's cells with the help of what was essentially a poison. I had seen this sort of delusion from other people in the past, but just as with those who came before, I said nothing every time and let Shane have whatever illusion he needed to keep going. Shane had never struck me as a man to lie to himself easily, and part of me believed in this one instance he needed it.
“Wait,” I said, as Sophia’s words suddenly lit up my brain with understanding. “You’re the one taking over for her when she’s unable?”
Shane looked away as if embarrassed. “Well, not completely. She’s got a couple of other people handling a good chunk of it.”
I leaned around him to catch his eye. “But apparently, she’s giving you enough.”
“I suppose.”
“How long…it was after I spoke to her, wasn’t it?”
He glanced at me with a smirk. “Well, now you know how that particular ball of shit you started downhill hit me. I’m not sure if I should be thanking you or not.”
I hadn’t given much thought to the fact that he had been on the phone more often, though only when he wasn’t spending time with me. I had caught glimpses of him talking, but not once had it ever occurred to me it was something important like helping his mother run her business empire.
“God, I would have never thought,” I said with a laugh.
Shane frowned. “Why not? Lord knows I was raised around it enough, and I have the education for it.”
“You do?” I asked. “Huh, I didn’t know you went to college.”
He scoffed. “Of course I went to college. I’m fairly certain a refusal to go would have been one of the few things my mother would have cut me off over. It’s a surprisingly small list.”
“And you do know a good deal of the same people she does and probably have a better relationship with them,” I said in realization.
“Not that she considers that a point against her.”
“Maybe, but I’m betting she considers it a point in your favor.”
“What a marvel that would be, Sophia Perkins, finding something worthwhile in me,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
“Right, because she put you in charge of making big decisions because she thinks you’re a giant fuck up who can’t do anything right,” I told him sarcastically.
He sighed, pushing away from me and heading toward the kitchen. “Honestly, there are so many better things we could be talking about.”
“Like what?” I asked him, close on his heels as we entered the kitchen.
“I’ve always enjoyed talking about you naked,” he said, fishing a bottle of liquor from the cabinet and a glass. “Or that thing you do with your tongue when you’re…”
“You know, as adorable as it was the first thousand times you tried to deflect a conversation by talking about sex, it’s beginning to get stale,” I warned him as I took a seat at the table and opened my laptop.
“Stale? Sex? Our sex?”
“I’m not encouraging you, so stop fishing.”
He chuckled and poured himself a small measure. I’d also noticed he’d been drinking less than before. Not that I’d ever seen him wasted in all the times I’d seen him drink. He’d always had a good measure of self-control. Apparently, I had his newfound responsibility to blame for this suddenly well-behaved Shane, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or missed the old one.
“Fine,” he said, closing the bottle and taking a sip from his glass. “Then perhaps we can talk about how you managed to get into my house earlier while I wasn’t around.”
