31. Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Aiden
‘ Y ou didn’t have to come.’
‘What?’ Charlotte’s voice was so quiet I almost missed it over the hum of the elevator motor.
‘I could have just met you there,’ her voice trailed off, and I turned my head to look at her. She’d tucked her chin, allowing her hair to fall forward over her shoulder and form some sort of shield that separated her from me, but I didn’t miss the way her fingers toyed with her keys.
‘Cupcake?’
‘Mmmm?’ She didn’t look up and, as much as some part of me revelled in the fact that she was responding to my nickname, I wanted her attention for what I was about to say.
‘Charlotte.’ I took a step towards her, moving into her space and forcing her to look up at me.
‘First,’ I started, holding up a finger with one hand while my other hand splayed against the wall just beside her waist. ‘If anyone in this situation doesn’t need to be doing something, it’s you. That’s why I came up.’ Charlotte’s lips parting distractingly, a rebuttal already waiting on her tongue. ‘And second,’ I continued, lifting my hand to cover her mouth and the platitudes and reassurances I could see swirling in the depths of her eyes, ‘I’m not sure what kind of narcissistic pencil-dicks you’ve dated in the past, but no girlfriend of mine would meet me anywhere—not if I could walk her there.’ This close, I could smell the warm citrus undertones of her perfume and all I wanted to do was bury my face in the crook of her neck and breathe her in. ‘Fake or not.’
Her mouth popped open, her lips moving beneath my fingers, forming the perfectly round ‘o’ of surprise, and I froze. What the fuck was I doing?
I dropped my hand, ignoring the tingling sensation that her lips had left against my fingers as I forced myself to take a step back. I blinked confusedly as I stared at the woman in front of me. What was it about Charlotte Hall that had me acting like a caveman whenever my guard was down?
I dropped my chin, squeezing my tired eyes shut as I tried to dredge up some vestige of control. But all I could summon up were images of Charlotte and that pretty, pink flush that was staining her cheeks. Stop it. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I was tired and maybe a little horny, but that didn’t mean that I’d lost all reason. Charlotte was a complication that couldn’t be allowed to happen. She was off limits.
The scrape of the elevator’s metal doors pulled me out of my head, and before I’d even had the time to look up, Charlotte had hurried past me and was making her way towards her apartment.
‘I won’t be long,’ she called back over her shoulder. ‘I just need to sort out Oscar and change.’
I stepped into the apartment after her, watching as she shrugged off her thick woollen coat before shoving it and her bag into the entryway closet.
‘You don’t need to change.’ My pep-talk from moments ago dulled to a murmur at the sight of her. Charlotte always looked beautiful. There was no question about it. But there was something about the way her trousers hugged the gentle curve of her hips that had me hoping she’d wear them all night.
‘Maybe not.’ Charlotte let out a huff as she shut the closet door, leaning back against it and offering me a smile. ‘But I’d like to.’
I nodded in understanding. ‘I can help.’
‘Me change?’ The little crease between her brows appeared at that, her nose scrunched up in confusion. Fucking adorable.
‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘With Oscar.’ As if summoned from the seventh circle of hell, the man in question slunk into the room, twisting himself around Charlotte’s legs.
‘Really?’ Charlotte beamed, bending down to stroke between the cat’s scruffy ears.
‘Yeah.’ I straightened in the glow of Charlotte’s smile, her smile making me impenetrable to the death-glare Oscar had aimed at me. Bring it on Lucifer.
***
The smile-induced confidence proved to be short-lived. I’d only just squatted down over Oscar, trapping the little beast between my knees when Charlotte burst into the kitchen, sliding across the tiles in stockinged feet.
‘What are you doing?’ She gasped, bracing her palms on her knees and looking between me and the yowling cat.
‘Givnhmismebicime,’ I mumbled past the injection I had wedged between my teeth.
‘What?’
I lifted my hand from where it had been holding Oscar in place and removed the injection from my mouth. ‘Giving him his medicine,’ I repeated. Oscar, seeing his chance, jostled between my legs and in an attempt not to crush the bottlebrush, I fell back onto my ass. ‘Shit,’ I grunted as Oscar scrambled away.
Charlotte, her breath steadier, straightened, resting her hands on her hips. ‘Why aren’t you using the peanut butter?’
‘Peanut butter?’ I repeated, not really paying attention as my gaze travelled up from her stockinged feet to the short black miniskirt she’d swapped her trousers for.
‘Ms Au didn’t tell you?’ Charlotte asked, moving to the other side of the kitchen, bending forward in a way that had the fabric stretching over her hips. All of the blood rushed to my groin, and I simultaneously thanked and cursed the creator of miniskirts. Pushing away the thoughts of Charlotte’s perfectly peach-shaped ass and trying to focus on other, unsexy things, I was about to turn away, when she pulled open the cupboard below the sink, revealing a thick rubber mat stuck to the inside of one of the doors. I watched, mouth gaping, as she spooned and smeared a thick layer of peanut butter across the mat. She was just reaching up to drop the spoon into the sink when Oscar wandered over, a purring resonating from somewhere deep within his chest as he lapped up the peanut butter.
‘It keeps him still long enough to inject him,’ Charlotte explained, reaching forward to slip the injection out of my hand. Oscar was so utterly absorbed in his task that he didn’t even notice when Charlotte administered the injection.
‘Well…’ I said, deciding that since my mouth was already open, I might as well use it. ‘That would have been useful to know.’
‘I can’t believe she didn’t mention it,’ Charlotte said, stroking her hand over the black and brown smudges of Oscar’s back. ‘He won’t let you do it without it. How on earth did you manage last time?’
Flashbacks of Oscar’s yowls of protest filled my ears, and I shook my head. ‘You don’t want to know.’