Page 50 of Cursed Touch
Vanessa made quick work of drying off and slipped into a pair of skinny jeans and a red tank top that did everything for her breasts. She was not wearing it for Carter. No, she just needed a little picker upper after the last forty-eight hours.
“Shut up,” she muttered at the mirror as she dove into her makeup bag. She retrieved the mascara, slid the wand over her lashes, and applied lipstick. Then she ran her fingers through her hair and nodded with satisfaction. “There.”
“Pipsqueak! If you’re done chatting with yourself, do you think we can move along?” Peter yelled.
“Bastard…” she grumbled and shook her head at the sound of his laughter.
She grabbed her clutch and keys and glared at Peter. “I get you have awesome supernatural hearing, but can you be a gentleman and pretend you don’t hear everything that comes out of my mouth?”
“No. Leave the keys.”
“No? Wait, what? I need them to get into my shop,” she said, her head cocking to the side.
Peter shook his head and grabbed her by the elbow. “Your key won’t work. To secure the shop, we changed out the door and locks.”
Her mind switched gears when he stopped her in front of Carter’s alarm panel. She set it, and they hurried out to his car. Peter helped her into her seat and closed the door behind her.
“The shop’s door was changed?” she asked as she faced Peter.
“Mhmm…” he replied as he put one arm behind her seat to back into the street.
Her brows pinched in thought. “I think that violates my leasing agreement. Crap, what am I going to do now? Maybe Mrs. Ruby will understand the situation and not be upset,” she muttered.
Peter chuckled. “Do you always do that?”
“Huh?”
“Do you always talk to yourself?”
She pursed her lips in thought. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m an only kid, so Mom and Dad weren’t always around to chat. I guess it’s how I work some things out.”
“Makes sense.”
“I should probably call my landlady, right?”
Peter put a hand over her unlocked phone. “How about you wait until later to do that?”
Vanessa did not know what good it would do to wait, but there was no reason not to. The time would help her come up with an argument for why the door had been replaced without prior approval.
When they arrived at the small parking lot behind the building, Peter met her at the front of the car and guided her by the elbow to the much more sophisticated door. There was a regular lock, but just above it was a keypad—another number for her to memorize. It was no wonder they did not just fall out of her head with the hundreds of passwords rattling around.
Peter pounded on the door, and her eyes widened at the solid sound. A moment later, Joel greeted them with a grin. “Welcome!”
She giggled at the large man and shook her head in amusement. Before she could say anything, Carter appeared, and all her thoughts seemed to fall out with the numbers and passwords.
“Hi, sweetheart, can you turn around for me?”
The air around her became thick, but she did as he asked without a word.
“We have a little surprise for you,” he said, and his fingers brushed her face as a blindfold covered her eyes.
She heard some shuffling, her other senses amplified with her sight removed. “What’s going on? Why do I smell paint?”
He cupped her cheeks. “Trust me,” he whispered and pressed his lips to hers. They were soft and full, and she kissed him back without thought. Somewhere inside she knew she should be annoyed with him, but in that moment, all she could think about was tasting his lips.
The kiss ended faster than she would have liked, and he moved around her. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered and brushed his lips over the skin at her neck. A little shiver ran down her body, and her sex flooded with desire.
He was both bad and good for her. She had never reacted so strongly to a man, but on the other hand,everythingwith him was too strong, too fast, and too needy.
