"If we are," Steve said, "you deserve it." He glanced down the stairwell. Again, he said, "Twenty freaking flights."
Okay, I felt bad and everything, but couldn't he just drop it already? And besides, what a whiner. "Oh for God's sake," I said. "Just take the elevator then."
"I'll dothat," Steve said, "when you make a sandwich on that counter."
"What counter?" I asked. But even as the words left my lips, an image of my mom, naked with Bob the Appliance Guy, flashed in my brain.
I couldn’t help it. I stifled a shudder. When she'd told me that story, she'd been really,reallydescriptive – with sound effects and everything.
Suddenly, Steve was looking a lot more cheerful. Grinning now, he said, "See how that works?"
Yeah, I did. Unfortunately.
And the image was still there, burning in my brain like a naked clown that I'd been told not to think about.
It's not that Bob was bad-looking or anything, but the image of his privates slapping against my mom's kitchen counter was a little too vivid for my liking.
Damn it.
My gaze slid to Anthony, and I felt myself frown. He was smiling now, too.
Well, that was nice.
In unison, they turned away and started heading down the stairs. I called after them, "Text me when you get back, okay?"
For some reason, they thought this was absolutely hilarious. I didn't get the joke, but then again, I wasn't as crazy as they were either. When they disappeared from sight, I could still hear them laughing, probably at me, although I still couldn’t figure out why.
With a sigh, I turned around and headed out of the stairwell. In the hall, I found Jake leaning near the penthouse doors, almost exactly where I'd left him. When I reached his side, he said, "So your mom and the appliance guy, huh?"
Oh great. As if I needed a reminder. There it was again, that same X-rated image – this time, with those dreaded sound-effects. I didn't know what was more disturbing, the mental mom-porno flashing in my brain, or the fact that Jake had overheard me discussing it with my brothers.
How much of it had he heard, anyway? Probably, I didn't want to know.
Deliberately, I changed the subject. "How come you didn't take the elevator up?"
"I did. But I stopped at the office on the way, then took the stairs from there." He flashed me a grin. "Why? You miss me?"
"I might've missed you a little," I admitted.
He reached out and pulled me tight against him. I could hear the smile, lingering in his voice, when he said, "Wrong. You missed me a lot."
I had to laugh. "God, you aresococky." I pulled back to stare up at him. "Did you missme?"
His eyes grew dark and intense. "Always."
"A little?" I smiled. "Or a lot?"
"It wasn't a little." He pulled me closer once again. "You want proof?"
I didn't need proof. I could feel it, hard, pressing against my pelvis. Speaking of things that weren't little. My stomach did a funny little flip, the one it always did when Jake caught me off guard.
Breathlessly, I said the same thing he'd just said to me. "Always."
I heard his voice in my hair, and felt his hands slide down to my ass. "Always," he murmured. "I like the sounds of that."
In spite of everything, I gave a happy sigh. "Me, too." No matter how wrong everything else had gone today, there was something about this that felt so incredibly right.
Jake moved his head and spoke low into my ear. "Wanna know what else I like?"
