Shay pulled her hand away. “Is interesting good? Or is that, like, what you say when someone shows you a weird mole on their neck?”
“If someone showed me a weird mole, I would tell them to have it removed and biopsied. If I say something is interesting, it’s because I find it interesting. And I don’t find many things interesting. But you . . . I do.”
Shay finally straightened up and stepped in front of her. He slid his hands from her elbows to her hands, ignoring the notebook she was still holding. “Well, then, I think you’re interesting, too.”
They gazed at each other for several long seconds before Tock finally asked, “Should we be doing something specific?”
“I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but we could go up to my room. Or yours. Together. To do something specific.”
Tock shook her head. “No, no. We’re in someone else’s house. Not even a friend’s. We don’t even know these people. We probably shouldn’t do anything here, huh?”
“You’re probably right.”
“Besides, if we head upstairs together, everyone will know what we’re up to.”
“Good point. Not sure either of us is in the mood for that.”
“Right.” She let out a sigh. “We’ll just wait, then. Until we’re back home or can get a hotel room.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Tock felt nothing but regret. And a little resentment that the world was getting in their way. She wasn’t an excessively horny badger, like Max and Streep. She did, however, find sex a healthy release when she needed it. She didn’t think about it all the time or need to think about it all the time. Still . . . Shay was beautiful. And she wanted to know what it was like wrapping her body around his.
It would wait, though. No need to get Max and Streep focused on her love life. Or tipping off Shay’s brothers. Because the pair of them could be major ball breakers.
No, no. They’d wait until, you know, it could be perfect.
The look of disappointment on Shay’s face made her feel a little better. Knowing she wasn’t the only one bummed out.
Unable to help herself, Tock reached up and pressed the palm of her hand against Shay’s face. He immediately closed his eyes and leaned into that hand. They stayed like that for a bit. Tock expected him to pull away so they could go up to the first floor and watch TV with everyone else.
But Shay didn’t pull away. Instead, he began to push his head into her hand, moving it around a bit. She’d seen the feral cat that lurked around Charlie’s yard do something similar with Stevie when it allowed her to get close.
She moved her hand in response, circling her fingers in the opposite direction. As an amateur scientist, she simply wanted to see what that move would do.
And holy shit! Did it do a lot!
Shay growled and pressed his head closer to her hand. When she dug her fingers into his hair, his hands slapped against the dryer she’d been leaning against, his arms caging her in place. She didn’t mind. The heat from his body made her tense and a little sweaty in the air-conditioned room.
Suddenly, Tock didn’t care where they were. Whose house it was. What her friends were doing. She was only touching him with one hand but that alone was making her squirm. Tock did not squirm a lot. Squirming when working with explosives was never a good idea. She was well known for her stillness.
Shay’s eyes opened and they were pure gold. Cat gold.
She didn’t bother waiting anymore. She leaned in and kissed him, pressing her mouth against his. His lips parted and their tongues met, and it was like one of her homemade pipe bombs going off while she was too close. Every part of her seemed to be vibrating and stunned.
And that was just from a kiss.
His arms were around her now, pulling her close. She decided then they could worry about foreplay later. She had other needs that had to be dealt with right now.
But when she had his sweatpants pushed halfway past his ass, Shay abruptly pulled away.
She watched him, wondering if she’d done something wrong, when he suddenly announced, “I’ll be right back.”
“What?” she snapped. She didn’t intend to sound mean, but she was a honey badger and he was taking her meal away!
“Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
Then he was gone. Leaving Tock to think of all the ways she could strangle him when he came back.
*
Finn was sitting on a couch with his arm around Mads. For the last five minutes, he’d been hearing heavy footsteps running back and forth past the “family room.” The footsteps seemed to stop near or in the many bathrooms in the house, but he wasn’t sure. He only had a general idea of the layout of this place. And since he didn’t know who was running or why, and no one was calling out a warning, he chose to ignore the sound altogether.
He didn’t want to interrupt the horror movie they were all watching. He wouldn’t say he was a fan of the genre, but it was the one thing the MacKilligan sisters could agree on. Since Finn didn’t want to hear hours of arguing from the three sisters, he’d agreed on their movie choice. And Keane, the Dunn triplets, Nelle, Streep, and Streep’s fiancée, Ash, didn’t seem to care one way or the other. So far, they’d already gone through “The Conjuring” series. And had just started “The Exorcist” series when Finn heard more heavy footsteps and then felt a hand on his shoulder. Before he could react, he was snatched out of the family room.
He unleashed his fangs, assuming a crazed wolf wanted to fight, but instead he found himself in the kitchen staring at his brother Shay.
“What are you doing?”
“Do you have a condom?”
“A condom? Why would you need a . . . oh. Oh!” He grinned. “Ohhhhh.”
“Stop it. Just give me a condom.”
“I don’t have one. Unlike you, I didn’t get a chance to go home to get my shit. At this moment, I’m wearing wolf clothing. It smells like them, too.” He pulled the T-shirt up, sniffed it. “And Downey. Anyway, my current lack of condoms is why I’m watching horror movies with bears rather than fucking my girlfriend in the room they gave me.”
“I need a condom.”
Assuming this was all about Tock, he asked, “Can’t you two wait until we get home?”
When his brother grabbed his sweatshirt and lifted him up against the wall, Finn said, “So that’s a no? You can’t wait?”
“What’s going on?” Mads asked. Not surprisingly, she’d been the only one to notice Finn was gone. Kind of hurtful after the day they’d had. He’d think his other brother would notice that Finn had been snatched from the room. What if Finn was in danger? Again!
“Shay needs condoms.”
“Condoms? Oh. Oh!” She frowned. “Oh, yeah. We don’t have any. I just figured later we could suck each other off.”
“Could you not?” Shay snarled while Finn smiled. He loved his girlfriend.
“Calm down,” Mads soothed. She’d gotten really good at managing his brothers. His past girlfriends had just avoided them completely. “Put Finn on the floor and let’s go see what we can do for you.”