Page 22 of The Red Zone
“I fiend innocence well, didn’t I?” Her nose crinkled as a coy smile pulled up the corners of her lips. “That was some of my best work, if I do say so myself.”
I was smart enough to know she was playing her game with me right now. The only problem was that my dick was too slow to catch on, so my pants tightened despite trying to continuously will down my arousal.
This no sex thing was hard enough as it is, but when temptation was quite literally sitting in your lap? Fucking excruciating.
“You’ve been hanging around Lea too much.” My voice was flat.
“What can I say? I learned from the best.”
“For the record, I enjoy the boob thing… Every. Single. Time.” A hint of a smirk pulled at the corner of my lips as I mocked her.“But now that I’m aware of it, it might work better if you just get naked next time.”
“I thought you said sex was off limits during the season?” She raised a brow at me.
I leveled my gaze with hers. “Who said I was interested in fucking you?”
Her eye roll was no surprise.
Scooping underneath her legs again, I gently lifted her from my lap and planted her in the seat next to me. Another second of her ass pressed against me, and I would’ve had a raging hard on that would’ve been impossible to conceal.
Shaking my head, I leaned down to untie my shoes so I could slip them off of my feet.
“What are you doing?”
“You can’t keep walking in those all night.” I looked down at her high heels. “So, we’re trading shoes.”
“As much enjoyment as I would get out of seeing you struggling to strut around with red bottoms on, these are special editions.” Mae slipped off her shiny black stilettos and held them up to show me, although I had no idea what I was looking for that made them so “special”. “Plus, it’s not like I haven’t spent years walking around in uncomfortable shoes for work. Another night of it won’t kill me.”
“You did that because it was your job. This is not your job. It’s your birthday party.” I pinched my lips together. “You’re not going to walk around in unnecessary pain for the next who-knows-how-many-hours if you don’t need to.” I leveled my gaze with hers, grabbing the shoes from her fingertips. “So, again… we’re trading.”
“What shoes are you going to wear?”
“None.”
“You can’t go—"
“Stop telling me what to do and take the damn shoes before I throw yours overboard.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Those are Louboutin’s. You can’t do that.”
“Argue with me again and you’ll find out exactly how much I don’t care about those unbearably overpriced hunks of leather you call shoes.”
“That might be the most offensive thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Sounds like I need to work harder, then,” I smirked, holding out my pair of size twelve dress shoes. “Put them on.”
She grumbled to herself, reluctantly taking the black loafers from my hand.
“Damn it, we should’ve had everyone sing happy birthday while you had everyone’s attention earlier.” Scarlett popped up out of nowhere with what appeared to be a green apple martini in one hand, while she silently grabbed Mae’s shoes from me with the other.
“If you need her to fall again, I can make that happen,” I offered.
The glare Mae shot me held the venom of someone who had just been granted the license to kill.
Joke not well received. Noted.
“You two seem like you’re getting along.” Scar waggled her brows while bouncing her gaze between the two of us.
“Don’t be fooled. I’m seething on the inside.” Mae looked up at me with a not-so-subtle glare. I watched as she secured my shoes onto her feet with one last knot and pushed off her knees to stand.
