Page 17 of Should've Been Us
He laughed, “Are you going to lock me out if I leave theroom?”
“It hadn’t occurred to me but now that you mentionit…”
“Lu.” He groaned and shelaughed.
“I won’t lock you out so long as you come back with coffee. Lots and lots ofcoffee.”
“Your wish is my command.” He mock bowed and she laughedharder.
“Now that is something I could get usedto.”
She was still laughing when she slammed the bathroom door in his face and Connor was stillgrinning.
Good God, had they finally turned thecorner?
She hadn’t told him to go away. She’d let him into her room. She’d smiled at him and thanked him for the food and even joked with him. She’d also accused him of being a total stalker and spying on her but hell, he could admit at least to himself that the thought of crossing that line and coming in here to check on her had run through his mind at least one or two dozen times overnight. He hadn’t done it though and he was glad he hadn’t since her reaction had been to freak out at the verythought.
He wasn’t sure what that look on her face had been when she’d realized barely a wall separated them but he’d liked it. Liked the way she’d bit into her bottom lip. Those dark eyes sparking with something that the man in him wanted to call heat but the cynic in him said was probably justconfusion.
It didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was that she’d let him in. It was an opening, no matter how small, and he fully intended to slip through whatever crack had opened up in herarmor.
He grabbed the donut she’d bypassed and took a big bite as he left the room to retrieve her more coffee. He’d been good and only eaten yogurt and granola for breakfast but hell, he felt like indulging as a treat for how well things with Lulu had gone sofar.
Now if they could just make it through theday.
He grinned again as he remembered the way she’d cursed Derek for pairing them as buddies. The truth was, Connor had done more than a little maneuvering on that front to make sure he had her all to himself. He’d put a bug in Derek’s ear about his cousins and that little wager they had going with Dean and of course his friend being the good guy he was hadn’t questioned it at all when Connor suggested he could keep an eye on Lulu this week. Derek had even thanked him for making sure his cousins didn’t get any ideas about sleeping with Lulu. Derek, sweet, oblivious Derek, had no idea that Connor was the one withideas.
Dirty, filthy, sexyideas.
He had to push the images of her in nothing but her bra and panties to the back of his mind, again. He’d been so damn good last night. He’d barely even let himself look, barely even glanced at her beautiful, lithe, strong dancers body. He hadn’t taken advantage of her drunkenness. So he wasn’t going to feel guilty for going back to his room and taking care of the situation she’d caused with his ownhand.
Wasn’t the first time he’d jacked off to thoughts of Lulu but he damn sure hoped it was thelast.
He wanted her there, with him. Her hands on him. Her mouth on him. He wanted her under him, wrapped around him, chanting hisname.
“Fuck.” He muttered as he grabbed the largest cup he could find at the buffet and filled it with hotcoffee.
He had to stop. He had a chance, a small chance, but a chance. This was the first time in twenty years Lulu wasn’t following Derek around like a shadow and Connor wasn’t going to screw it up by showing his hand too early. He was going to play it cool and make it through today with her without kissing her. Or killingher.
With Lulu, the girl that twisted up his head and his heart, those two things seemed to go hand inhand.
The more she annoyed and frustrated him, the more he wanted to kiss her. He wasn’t sure exactly when he’d gone from imagining shaking her until her teeth rattled to imagining her shaking through an orgasm beneath him, but it hadn’t happened yesterday. It had been a long time coming and it had taken him a while to accept it himself, to realize that the need he had to set her straight about Derek was twisted up in his own need forher.
It had taken him a long time to realize he could simultaneously hate her and love her, want to yell at her and holdher.
Up until now, she’d only ever given him the chance to do theyelling.
He finished adding the two packs of sugar and the cream Lulu liked to the cup and then snapped on a lid. He could have yelled at her for this. He’d brought her coffee as a nice gesture this morning but it had been more than that. He’d brought her coffee exactly how he knew she liked it. But had she said a word about that? Had she even noticed that he made it the way she liked? Nope. She’d just downed the thing like it was a drug and she needed her fix and then sent him to get her more because it hadn’t beenenough.
He hadn’t yelled at her though. He hadn’t said a word. Because this week he intended to get the chance to hold her and yelling at her wasn’t going to get him any closer to thatgoal.
Connor smiled at the group of women that passed him as he headed back to the bungalow. His eyes didn’t linger on them for a second but still they giggled once his back was to them. He couldn’t say the attention didn’t feel good. It did. It always had. But the only woman he wanted looking at him like he was a piece of meat these days mostly looked at him like he was meat and she was holding a carvingknife.
The thought made him chuckle to himself and he was so distracted he swiped his key card over the automatic lock and nearly ran smack into the door when it didn’t open. Connor frowned and swiped again. It stayed red and he cursed under his breath for being anidiot.
He’d made Lulu promise she wouldn’t lock him out, but she didn’t have to. The door had locked behind him automatically. He didn’t have a key to her room. He was holding the key to his own room next door but of course that wasn’t going towork.
He grinned to himself as he headed for his room. If she thought she could keep him out that easily she had another thing coming. He’d barely been gone ten minutes and he suspected she was still in the shower. So long as that was the case the door between their rooms would still be open and he could get back in thatway.
