Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick

“I haven’t been ignoring you for years!” Now I was shouting (and lying).

Lee decided nose-to-nose wasn’t good enough and took the last step forward so I could feel his body heat.

Which, by the way, was immense.

“Bullshit.”

Okay, so I’d been trying to ignore him for years but I didn’t actually succeed. I mean, didn’t he remember all those Christmases and Thanksgivings?

“I bought you Christmas presents!”

“That doesn’t count.”

I made a choked sound. “So you’re saying you didn’t like the Billie Holiday boxed set?”

“I’m sayin’ it doesn’t count.”

“I thought you liked blues!”

He edged in closer, predatory and angry. “Indy, this isn’t something you can cute your way out of.”

Okay, so, maybe in the past I’d used my girlie status to cute my way out of things. Numerous things. Most especially using it with Lee, Hank and Malcolm. Dad always saw through it.

“Fine!” I stalked to the bed, giving in mainly to get away from him. He was too overpowering at close range. Then I whipped around when I reached the foot of the bed. “What are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna calm down your friend, make a call that should set some minds at ease and tomorrow, I’ll take him to get the diamonds and make the delivery.”

“Well then,” I said snottily, the wind out of my sails, “thank you.”

Lee started to turn, stopped, dropped his head back and looked at the ceiling and then turned around and came back to me. Again, he was so close I could feel his heat.

“Normally, I charge five hundred dollars an hour for this.”

I sucked in breath.

“For what?” I asked.

“This go-between shit,” Lee answered.

My eyes rounded in shock.

Wow.

No wonder he could afford this condo with a view and an office in LoDo. Not to mention his car, he had a great car. And he still had a bike.

“You do? Why?”

He came closer, so close he was all I could see.

“Because, I make the call tonight that puts me in the middle of this mess, and, if tomorrow I don’t have the diamonds, then it’ll be me they shoot at. I don’t like getting shot at.”

I shook my head, bit my lip and agreed wholeheartedly, “Me either, it’s not very fun.”

He didn’t move and I realized he expected a different response.

“I don’t think Rosie has that kind of money,” I noted. “You wouldn’t consider doing this on, say, family discount?”

He shook his head. “We’re not family.”

“I meant you and me”

“We’re not family either.”

“Yes we are, ten years ago you told me I was like your little sister.”

He waited a beat.

Something dawned on him. I could see the flicker in his eyes as it registered. I didn’t understand it but he did and whatever it was made his face soften a little from the seriously pissed off angry look he’d been wearing all night. In fact, he looked almost… pleased.

“That was then, this is now.” Even his voice was quieter and less hacked off.

“Well, how many hours will this take? It could be thousands of dollars. Rosie doesn’t have that kind of money, even with his side business.”

“It’s not Rosie who’s gonna pay.”

My head did an involuntary little jerk when I understood what he meant.

“I don’t have that kind of money.”

“You aren’t gonna pay me in cash.”

My stomach clenched and my heart stopped for a couple of beats.

“How am I gonna pay you?”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

“We’ll talk about it now!”

“Get in bed, go to sleep.”

“Quit bossing me around!”

He came closer and I let out a little peep. I couldn’t help it, he was pressed up against me, I had nowhere to go and the backs of my knees were up against the footboard. And I’ve already told you Lee’s a seriously scary, badass individual.

“You get in that bed yourself or I tie you to it.”

His face had gone back to the seriously pissed off angry look and I decided from the hard glittering in his eyes that he was not making an idle threat.

“Okay.”

Shit, I was such a wuss.

I tried to stay awake and listen to what was happening between Lee and Rosie but it was hard because I was tired, getting shot at takes a lot out of you. Anyway, whatever was happening took a really long time and I’m a girl who likes her sleep.

When I did wake up, it was still dark and my back was pressed up to something hard and warm and something heavy and warm was wrapped around my waist.

Lee.

Liam Nightingale was in bed with me.

Holy fucking shit.

You see, there were women in Denver who would pay a lot of money to be in this situation. Hell, there were likely women across the country who would do it.

Not me.

No way.

That boat had sailed.

There was a time when we were kids that Lee, Ally, Hank and I slept together all the time. Our parents would have dinner parties and we’d be tucked into Kitty Sue and Malcolm’s big bed, all four in a row, according to age. This put me between Lee and Ally. Of course, once we got older, we were separated.

Then there were the times when we were in the tent when Dad and Malcolm would take us camping in the mountains. Always, I was stuck between Lee and Ally in my sleeping bag. As I tumbled headlong into my teens, and thus more and more desperate for Lee to declare his undying love for me, this was a form of torture. I couldn’t exactly throw myself at him when Hank, Dad and Malcolm were around (Ally would have slept through it).

And then there was that brief time when Ally and I were nineteen and had gone off rock ‘n’ roll and discovered cowboys. Lee took us to Cheyenne for the rodeo and we got a motel room that just had a big king-sized bed. Out of necessity, we all slept in it together and I slept in the middle. Or at least I slept in middle until Lee moved to the floor, likely to give me room to move. I never woke Ally up with my restless sleeping. Ally could sleep through an earthquake.

So it wasn’t as if I hadn’t already slept with Lee.

But not alone, not just the two of us, not when we were full-fledged, consenting adults, not ever in his bed.

I moved forward, thinking the floor sounded quite comfy.

The heavy warm thing around my waist tightened.

“Don’t move,” Lee mumbled, his voice kinda husky.

My stomach fluttered and as Lee’s hand was splayed and pressed against it, I was pretty certain he could feel it.

Shit.

“What’re you doing?” I asked.

“I was sleeping.” His voice was still husky.

“I mean in this bed,” I clarified, what I thought was unnecessarily.

“It’s my bed.”

True enough.

Time for a different tact.

“I’m gonna sleep on the floor,” I said.

“No you’re not.”

I hesitated for a moment, confused, and then tried Plan C.

“Then I’m gonna sleep on the other side of the bed.”

“No you’re not.”

What in the hell?

I didn’t get it.

“Why?”

“Because you were sleepin’ over there and you hit me in the chest twice and kicked me in the shin three times.”

Oopsie.

I’d heard that before.

“I’m kind of an active sleeper.”

“No kidding.”

I thought about my options.

There was the floor, which apparently was not an option for me.

There was the Command Center, which I probably couldn’t breach and likely didn’t have a couch or bed considering in my imagination it was filled with supercomputers that had a direct link to the Pentagon.

My cobwebby mind chugged along for minute, registering somewhere deep down how warm and cozy I currently was.

Rosie was a little guy, at least three inches shorter than me and wiry. Rosie was also kind of asexual, never had a girlfriend, his life was coffee, pot and rock ‘n’ roll.

Lee on the other hand was not asexual. He might think of me as his little sister and could calmly sleep next to me without his nipples getting hard (or anything else getting hard for that matter) but I was pretty certain I could not do the same.

Lee had one of those big, deep-seated couches, the better to sit on and watch Monday Night Football.

Maybe both Rosie and I would fit on the couch.

“I’ll go sleep with Rosie.”

The reply was instantaneous.

“The hell you will.”

Hmm, all sleepy-husky gone from his voice.

Lee was now all business and using that “brook no argument” tone.

I was stuck.

See, I was too afraid to go against Badass Lee Nightingale and I was too tired to try to get comfortable with Rosie.

Actually, bottom line, I was just too comfortable even to contemplate moving.

So, I went back to sleep.

It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

I woke up again hours later in an entirely different position. Lee was on his back and I was sprawled half-on him, half-off him.

Yikes.

I blinked at the clock on the bedside table. It was seven after six.

I might be a party girl but I’d never been able to sleep late. Even when I fell into bed at four a.m., I woke up before seven.

This caused me, over the years, to perfect the art of the mid-day Disco Nap.

Today was going to be a Disco Nap Day, I could feel it.

There was no way I was getting back to sleep and no way I was gonna remain sprawled all over Lee.