Page 54 of Pretty Threats

Jamie nods. “Yeah, edge of.”

War pulls out the tray of food I made Raine, lifts the cover, and sweeps half of it onto a plate.

“So, I missed all the action,” I say.

“You’ll see it next time ‘round. We’ll hit it again.” Jamie lowers his voice. “How about the in-house op?”

Grabbing a handful of grapes from the tray, I nod. “On track.”

I’m not gonna share details, which is good because then I don’t need to mention I deviated from the “treat her like a princess” plan and used her to satisfy myself instead.

Overall, I don’t think it set back my progress. It’s not like I left her unsatisfied. She came multiple times. Also, who wants fucking sweet missionary vanilla sex, when you can have intense, mind-blowing sex in all kinds of positions? Definitely not me. And not her, either, I don’t think. She smiled seven times while eating and used the sweet voice to tell me to go to sleep when we were in the media room. Mission-wise, the night was a success.

“Well done,” Jamie says. “I’m heading to bed. Shoot a text if you need one of us to watch her.”

“Nah, I’m good. Slept hard last night.”

War pauses near the stairs and glances back. “Fucked her, then? Good. That’s the best way to get them under control.” Without another word, he heads upstairs with his plate of food.

Jamie grabs a couple of cookies from the counter. “If you’re rough, don’t forget to pet her after. The barbarian doesn’t need to do it because when a girl’s shell-shocked, I step in.”

“Pet her? We’re not playing that.” At least not yet, I think. I wouldn’t mind trying it out some day.

“Didn’t necessarily mean to literally pet her, though she’d make a cute kitten, wouldn’t she? I just meant cuddle up and whisper whatever she wants to hear. Make her feel like your darling girl.”

“I’ve got it,” I say, though I haven’t. Say sweet things? Yeah, no. Pretty sure I couldn’t carry that off if I tried. Just the thought of it makes me frown.

“Right,” Jamie says, heading upstairs, too.

About ten minutes later, I hear the bedroom door open. Raine mutters something, and that’s followed by quick footfalls and the bang of the bathroom door.

A few minutes later, she dashes out into the living room, wearing the red dress, which is rumpled from laying on the floor all night. She has wild bedhead.

“My gosh. I overslept.”

“For what?”

“You heard him. I need to make calls to get my schedule sorted out.” She opens cupboards and bangs them shut. “It’s almost noon. I wish you’d woken me up.”

“You needed sleep.”

She turns to me with wide eyes and then she smiles. As she speaks, she reaches over to squeeze my arm. “That’s sweet of you.”

If she considers stating a fact sweet talk, the bar is low. The mission is definitely on track.

“Where are the pods for this coffee maker?” There’s some frustration in her voice.

I open the drawer on the island and take out a box of pods. Then, I sweep her aside. “I’ll make it for you.” I almost add the word baby on the end. That’s what Liam calls his wife and what Aiden calls most women he’s friendly with. I don’t think it would land right from me though. At least not yet. Partly because it wouldn’t sound natural coming from me and partly because I’m not sure we’re at a stage where she wants to be called a pet name.

Pet. That makes me think about Jamie’s advice. Like Aiden, he can pull off using terms of endearment within five minutes of meeting someone. Asshole. Maybe I’ll practice saying it when I’m alone so it’ll sound more normal rolling off my tongue.

When I finish making Raine coffee, she sits at the island with a bowl of granola in yogurt and her laptop. I set the coffee down next to her, and she looks up and smiles.

“Thank you, Killian.”

“No problem.”

She takes a sip and returns to her screen.

---