Page 51 of Love Sick

“The seventh circle of hell. How’s NICU?”

She grins. “A lot of drug babies I get to cuddle.”

“I didn’t know they let hellcats near the babies.”

As planned, the grin falls off her face, replaced by those fiery narrowed eyes. “The babies love me, Julian.”

I bet they do…with that ample chest to rest their heads.

“Did they tell you that?” I raise an eyebrow.

The enticing flush of color on her cheeks shouldn’t turn me on. It’s her angry face, not her I-want-to-do-you face, but I imagine this is the closest I’ll get, and I haven’t had sex in… God, when was the last time?

No wonder I’m hard up.

The server sets her drink down.

Grace turns to him with a dazzling smile. “Thank you, Eric.” She points at me. “Do you know his name?”

The surfer-esque server glances at me like he’s seeing me for the first time. “Er—James?”

Her face falls. “Oh.”

I nod at him. “Yeah, that’s it. James.”

He retreats, and I spear her with an I-told-you-so look.

“At least he got theJright,” she mutters.

I chuckle. “He picked the most white guy name he could and threw it out there.”

Our phones ding again, this time from Raven telling us her babysitter called out and she won’t make it.

“And then there were three.” She sips her drink.

A burst of edgy energy has my fingers flying over the screen.

Me:Alesha? You still coming?

The three little dots appear and disappear, and I set my phone down.

Grace takes a drink, smirking at me around her straw. “Scared to be alone with me, Santini?”

Yes.I snort. “No.”

Riding close quarters with her in the dark of my truck in December had been an enlightening lesson entitledThings You Can’t Have But Want Anyway. That was the last time I was alone with her, but a niggling voice in the back of my mind has been encouraging me to find excuses to do it again.

She’s smart. Funny. Pretty. Smells like a Victoria’s Secret Angel.

Suppressing a sigh, I remind myself I don’t know what an Angel smells like.

Sex and flowers and magic and sex.

Shut up, stupid voice. She hates me. Unfair, but true. That should be enough to shut down whatever base urges my starved and sleep-deprived brain wants.Shouldis the operative word there.

Both our phones ding, and we dive for them. Alesha’s reply makes my heart thud three uncomfortable times in my chest.

“What the fuck is a cat emergency?” Grace glares at her phone, then lifts her gaze to me.

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