“How do you know about that?”

“You complain often when you think no one is listening.”

“Ah.”

She groaned and looked me dead in the eye. “Can you handle sleeping in the same bed as me?”

I barked out a laugh. “You think so much of yourself.”

Bane dramatically rolled her eyes, and I wondered if that ever hurt. “It’s a king-size bed and large enough for the two of us with plenty of space. There will be a pillow barrier that, if crossed, you will get knocked the hell out.”

I laughed. “I would not risk crossing pillows.”

“It’s me you should be worried about crossing.”

“Thanks. Do I get the couch back tomorrow?”

“Yes. Sorry about the intrusion.”

“He’s like family, right? Besides, can’t turn someone away when they’ve had too many.”

She shook her head and took another sip of water, pushing my glass into my hand. “I don’t know why so many people are getting drunk on a Wednesday.”

I finished my last bite and drank the entire second glass of water.

“You’ve got something on your…” she started, tapping at her lips.

I rubbed the corner of my mouth.

“The other side,” Bane corrected, reaching up to rub something off the corner of my mouth right as my tongue darted for the spot, hitting the tip of her finger instead. She sucked in a breath, drawing back.

My gut clenched just from that minuscule, fleeting touch, from that sexy little gasp. Damn, it must’ve been a while since I’d gotten some because no way. Not Bane.

I stared at her, like an idiot, my eyelids hooded, heavy.

She smirked. And here it came…“Did you just lick me?”

“You’re imagining things,” I muttered.

“I’d almost believe you if I wasn’t here when it happened.”

I shook my head.

She teased a smile. “It’s okay, you know?”

“What?” I grumbled.

“That you want to lick me.”

I sucked in a breath, my jaw hardening among…shit…other things. “Don’t joke about things you’re not ready for.”

Her smile slipped. “So confident, huh?”

I leaned toward Bane. She boldly did not back away. She was frozen, immobile. And not because she was being her typical smart-ass baiting me. Nah. Because the sarcasm in her expression had wilted into something else. Her lips parted and she swallowed. I watched it all. I watched her nerves come undone as I inched toward her. I watched the skin on her arm pucker with goose bumps when I swiped my finger across the back of her hand, the hand on the table that had been trying to drown me with drinking water.

I held her gaze so intensely that it left her speechless. For once. My eyes dipped to her mouth. “Bane,” I said, my voice thick, guttural, sleepy. “How are you going to handle me licking you when you can’t even handle me looking at you?”

At that, Bane audibly gasped, and I wondered what else made her breath hitch. What else made her speechless? What else made her look at me this way, with heat burning in her eyes?

And why, for the love of god and all that was holy, was I so interested in finding out?

Fifteen Bhanu

I vaguely remembered having drunk so much water that my egregiously small bladder had dragged me out of a dead sleep to pee two, maybe three, times.

I stomped back to bed in the dark. It wasn’t pitch-black. Light seeped in through the gaps at the edges of the curtains. With a burp, I plopped into bed and rolled onto my side, hitting a fortress of pillows.

I shoved them back. They didn’t budge. Another shove, a much harder one after that, followed by an annoyed, throaty, “What, Bane?”

I almost shrieked as I shot up in bed. “Sunny?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you…” Oh, right. Kimo’s brother had crashed on the couch and Sunny had come in late. Drunk. And…had been flirting with me?

I groaned. Whatever. I was too dang tired, and by the silence, Sunny was, too.

But there was a man sleeping next to me. Not a boyfriend. Not even a friend. Not quite a stranger, but a coworker nemesis. I peered over at him. Sunny was hidden behind the fortress of pillows. He’d had at least followed the one rule I’d given his drunk butt last night.

“Are you watching me?” His voice was a low, gravelly grumble. And it did some funny things to my insides, tying them up into knots constricting and releasing in slow, pleasant tugs.

“You’re protected by the fortress,” I replied.

“I didn’t want to get knocked the hell out.”

I bit my lip. “Good memory for a drunk.”

“Almost drunk,” he corrected.

“Seemed pretty much there to me.”

“You’ve not seen many drunks, have you?”

“No.”

“What a protected life you lead.”

“Do I have to deal with you stumbling in, in the middle of the night, almost drunk again?”