Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Jenny
When Joey opens the door to his apartment, Kingston is waiting, his tail wagging with his mouth open in a constant smile.
He bounces between Joey and me and then launches into zoomies around the kitchen island three times before running toward the couch, jumping onto the center cushion, running to the end, jumping off the arm, and circling back to us.
He pants a few times and then runs to his water.
Joey puts three pints of ice cream and my bag of clothes on the counter. “I think I’m going to be insulted if I ever come home and he doesn’t do that,” he says, and wraps his arm around my waist.
He’s been doing that all day, finding little reasons to reach out and touch me. When other men do that, it gives me the ick. But when he does it… it’s comforting and safe.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he says as he kisses the top of my head.
“I have emails and other work stuff I need to get done. Can I set up on the couch?”
He grunts what I assume is a ‘sure’ and moves around his space.
Thirty minutes later, I’ve got ear buds in, listening to a podcast about the Knights of the Night, have finished three emails, started and stopped scheduling six times, did the Wordle and read my horoscope, before circling back to my email for a seventh time.
I slam my laptop down and groan. Focusing is a million times harder right now than it normally is.
Joey is making noise in the kitchen—sounds of containers slamming on the counter and general grunting.
I twist around on the couch and get a clear view of him. “Whatcha doing?” All of his bottles of sauces are out on the counter as is his fresh fruit.
“I’m fixing my fridge. You said you were busy, and I suspect it’s hard for you to focus, so I won't jump on the couch and play with your breasts for the rest of the afternoon. I need something to keep me busy. And when I saw your fridge, I agreed with Donny, you are a genius.”
My little heart swoons and swings from side to side.
I put my computer on the coffee table. “When you're done with that, come here and play with my boobs.”
He grins. “Hell yeah.”
Scary Mafia boss? Maybe, but haven’t seen much evidence of it… besides the blood on my carpet and the damage done to my windows. But that could be anyone.
A few minutes later, he’s on the couch with his back against the arm and his legs spread across the length.
He drops one leg off the couch, leaving space for me to slide in.
His chest is warm against my back, and he rests his head on my shoulder, watching clips from the Knights of the Night on my phone.
“Are you a Pirate King fan, or are you team monarchy?”
His chest rises and falls in a soft steady pattern. “I’m more into the wolf pack. I like their sense of loyalty and how they brought Elena into the group. Besides, they have the best sex scenes.”
“They do.” If it wasn’t for a few placed props blocking body parts, I’d be shocked it’s on TV. But I guess they have a budget, and don’t have to appeal to the FCC or whatever. “It is borderline porn.”
He laughs. “It threads that needle, doesn’t it?”
“I heard the worldwide birth rate increased nine months after the first wolf pack went into heat.”
“That's not surprising at all. It’s the top-rated episode that doesn’t have the Pirate King in it.”
The next video that pops up on my screen is about Amanda Chase. He huffs. “Yeah, I don’t see what the big deal is about that girl.”
My stomach drops. I don’t think I could be with a man who has open disdain for Amanda. “What, you don’t like beautifully written and insightful music that rips your heart out one minute and gives you hope for humanity the next?”
He shrugs. “I’m not saying she’s not a good artist, I just don’t get the hype.”
Ok, this I can work with. “Oh, my dear sweet man, you have stumbled into my second hyperfixation. Are you sure you want to be schooled on the lore of Amanda Chase?”
“Do I want to be? No. Are you going to do it anyway? Probably.”
“I happen to have an epic power point ready on this topic.” I squirm out of his arms and grab my laptop. In seconds, it’s loaded. “Welcome to Amanda Chase—the lore, the legend, the longing.”
I black out for like ten minutes as the Narrator Lady comes out and ignores all social cues.
I rave about Amanda and Grae’s song writing, the power point includes a clip of a song, which it kills me not to play the whole thing.
Then I talk about her battles with Joey’s cousin, Terk Henderson.
I don’t know how I feel about this, but Joey assures me, he fucking hates the guy, so then I shift the topic, to the most epic night in history.
Amanda caused the Capital Internet Providers’ servers to overload during her first professionally streamed concert, between merch sales and a new album drop she made more money in one night than Terk Henderson did the last three years combined.
I get choked up thinking about it. “You might be a mob boss, but are you Amanda Chase level of badass?”
I blink a few times out of my hyperfixation word vomit. “Sorry, how much of that were you paying attention to? Sometimes I can’t tell when people are bored and don’t want to listen to me anymore.”
Joey scrunches his face, like he’s thinking or counting in his head. “Like seventy-five percent of it. The other twenty, I was thinking about how cute you are when you’re excited about something.”
I cock my head at him. That was only ninety-five percent.
He grins, like he knows exactly what I was thinking. “And the other five percent was me ignoring the guys in a group chat.”
This is new and unnerving. He’s interested in what’s important to me, and he thinks I’m cute. Which is super strange. Has anyone said that to me before? I’m always trying to tone things down and make myself less. But each time I let my mask slip, he’s there, and hasn’t yet told me to be quiet.
Alana told me to be a chaos gremlin. To be myself. Until now, that was always too risky.
But damn, the sex is awesome, and… shit. As much as I keep trying to run away, I think the feelings are catching up to me.
This can only end badly.