Page 23 of Love and Loathing

“Why would I be?”

“Those sorts of conservative viewpoints often go hand in hand.”

“I’m pragmatic, Evie. Not illiberal.”

“Good to know,” she said quietly. They were both silent for a while. Thoughtful.Twice,was what Aubrey was thinking, his drunk mind enjoyably lurid and entirely uninhibited.

After a moment, Evie inevitably started talking again. “I have to ask you one more question, though.”

“God. What?”

“If you could do it right now, without any consequences at all, how much, on a scale of one to ten, would you enjoy emptying an entire bottle of ketchup over Domnall White’s head?”

Aubrey laughed. He laughed for a surprisingly long time. And what was most surprising of all, was that he hardly thought about Liv at all.

Aubrey woke up in Evie’s bed, neck aching from where was still half-sitting against the headboard. Evie was asleep beside him.

He looked at her for a long moment as his consciousness slowly came to life, extremely unhappy with him about the state of his head. Hangovers got more vicious with every passing year.

She looked deceptively angelic asleep, lips slightly parted, one hand on the pillow. His fingers would wrap around the slim wrist with room to spare. He could probably hold both in his grip. But he preferred the first image, pinning her on her back with a hand either side of her head, while she looked up at him, what? Teasing? Laughing? Panting.

The rush of desire that swamped him seemed inevitable, and he let it build, annoyed at himself, taking Evie in his mind while she slept on, oblivious, pale dawn light hazy in the still, silent room.

He was still and silent, too, his mind anything but. In there, he took her hard and fast. In this bed, over the bar, over his desk at work. Angry, filthy, that’s how it would be between them. He ought to go back to his room, take a shower, get this out of his system. But he was tired, couldn’t bring himself to move, addicted to just being there, watching, thinking…

He must have fallen asleep again, dozed off on a cloud of hungover, pornographic indulgence, because the next thing he knew, Evie was standing by his side of the bed, pulling on his arm.

“Get up!” she hissed, eyes bright with excitement. “Quick! They’re coming!”

“What?”

She pulled harder on his arm, and he stumbled to his feet, Evie dragging him to the door.

“I can hear them,” she whispered. “Coming from their room. If we go out now, they’ll see us both.”

“What?” he asked again, groggy. Then, suspicion dawning. “No… Don’t you dare…”

She clamped a hand over his mouth, laughing, rooting behind herself for the door handle. He was too hungover, barely awake, and she pulled him so hard that they stumbled together out of the room and crashed up against the opposite wall of the landing, Evie pinned beneath him, his hand coming up just in time to brace himself against the wall so that he didn’t crush her completely.

She was giggling, hands knotted into the front of his t-shirt, face half-buried there, the length of her body pressed up against his. Knowing, with a searing, dreadful certainty what he would find, he turned his head to where Domnall and Liv were paused at the top of the stairs, watching the performance. Liv stared. Domnall grinned.

“Morning,” called Domnall cheerily. “Always good to see such an enthusiastic start to the day.”

“Quite,” replied Aubrey dryly. He would have moved away from their apparent cinch, greeted the man properly, attempted to recover a modicum of professional dignity, but Evie was quaking with silent laughter, face still hidden against him.

Liv smiled sweetly. “Don’t be late for breakfast. We’re hunting in an hour, remember?”

Aubrey gritted a smile in reply, and the pair descended.

“What the fuck, Evie?” he hissed, pushing himself off her.

She had just about recovered from her laughter, still breathless and smiling slightly as she said, “Admittedly an impulse decision.”

“My current impulse is to throttle you.”

“Come on, after what she put you through last night?”

“This is how you’re helping, is it? Humiliating me in front of my client?”

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