Silver Linings, стр. 65
“No, I guess that wouldn't be right, would it?” Flynn straightened, looking very noble and stoic. “I'll think of something, Mattie. Don't worry about me. I'll find somewhere to spend the night. It's too late to get into any of the missions, but I can always find a doorway or something.”
Mattie was aghast. “But, Flynn, you can't possibly sleep on the streets. I won't allow it.”
Hugh eyed the pathetic little scene while he dug his wallet out of his jeans. “Tell you what. I'll make this even easier. I'll stake you to a night in a hotel, Grafton. It's worth it just to get you out of here.”
Mattie sprang up from the couch and came toward Hugh with a determination in her gaze that made him immediately uneasy.
“Will you stop behaving like a jealous Tarzan? There is no reason Flynn can't stay here. It's past midnight. I am not sending him out at this hour.”
“Then let him go home and sleep in his own bed.”
“This is my apartment, he is my brother-in-law, and I say he can sleep here.”
Hugh sensed defeat in the making, but he braced himself, planted his fists on his hips, and tried his most intimidating glare. “I say he goes.”
“You don't have any right to make demands around here.”
“Is that a fact? In case it has escaped your notice, we happen to be engaged. That gives me a few goddamned rights.”
She eyed him for an icy moment and then switched tactics with dazzling speed. “Hugh, I don't want to quarrel over this. Flynn's had too much to drink, he's very depressed and under a lot of stress, and he has no money of his own. It won't hurt you to let him sleep on the couch just this once. Please?”
“Damn it, Mattie.” It was not fair that a woman's pleas could break through a man's defenses so easily, Hugh told himself as he started to weaken.
A gentle snore interrupted the low-voiced argument. Hugh glanced toward the couch and saw that the man he was trying to evict had gone back to sleep. Hugh knew a strategically indefensible position when he saw one. Sometimes the only good option was a carefully orchestrated retreat.
And revenge, of course. There definitely remained the pleasures to be had in exacting vengeance.
Half an hour later Hugh stretched out beside Mattie in the loft bed and pulled her into his arms. He had waited patiently while she had found a blanket to throw over Grafton, brushed her teeth, taken her evening ration of vitamins, and changed into her prim little flannel night-gown.
“Hugh, I want to thank you for backing down on this little matter of letting Flynn sleep on my couch,” Mattie whispered earnestly as she snuggled close. “I know you were annoyed to find him here, and I realize that under the circumstances you had every right to react as you did. It won't happen again, I promise.”
“You're right. It won't happen again.” He kissed her throat, inhaling the sweet, feminine scent of her body. He was already hard with sexual anticipation, he realized. He let his hand glide down her arm.
“Hugh?”
“Yeah, babe?” He slowly pushed her proper little nightgown up over her knees and then edged it higher.
“Hugh, we can't. Not tonight.” She batted ineffectually at his roving hands. “Flynn might wake up and hear us. It would be horribly embarrassing.”
“Then you'll just have to try real hard to be very, very quiet, won't you?” He gently pried apart her tightly closed thighs. She was so soft, he thought. Her skin was like velvet. He smiled to himself when he felt the first small, delicious shiver go through her. He loved it when she trembled like that.
“Stop it,” Mattie hissed. “You're doing this to get even with me, aren't you?”
“No way, babe. I'm doing this on account of I'm such a sweet, sensitive guy who happens to be hornier than hell.” He tugged the nightgown off impatiently and tossed it over the loft railing.
Mattie gasped in horror as the gown fluttered downward. “For heaven's sake, Hugh. What will Flynn think when he sees that nightgown down there in the morning?”
“He'll think what he's supposed to think. That I'm staking out my territory.”
“Well, I suppose I should be grateful you don't do it in the usual manner of wolves and other wild animals,” she retorted tartly. “Really, Hugh, there's no need to be quite so primitive about all this. Oh.” She clapped a hand over her own mouth as she realized she had moaned aloud.
“Hush, babe, or he'll hear you. Think of the embarrassment.” Hugh slid down between her legs, moving lower and lower along the delightfully curving length of her until he could taste her essence.
“Ummph, no. I said no, oh.” Mattie held the pillow over her face. She used one hand to hold it in place and clenched her other first quite painfully in Hugh's hair.
He used his thumbs to part her carefully, and then he used his tongue.
“Mmmmph.” Mattie yanked the pillow away from her face. “Oh, my God, Hugh.” She slapped the pillow back in place. “Mmmmph. No. Oh, Hugh.”
Hugh waited until she was arching frantically, her muffled moans threatening to turn into the now-familiar cries of delight that he had gotten addicted to hearing during the past several days.
When he decided Mattie was too far gone to remember to use the pillow to muffle her breathless little moans, he moved heavily back up along her soft body, spread her thighs more widely apart, and thrust himself slowly, deeply, into her wet heat.
When he yanked the pillow away from her face, she looked up at him with huge, luminous eyes. He saw her teeth were clamped on her lower lip in an effort to keep from crying out.
“Slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am?” Hugh murmured on a soft, husky laugh.
“Like I said, it's not so bad.”
He grinned and covered her mouth with his own. A moment later he swallowed