Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (12 page)

Frost placed his glass on the table and complained, “I just want to know why everyone thinks I’m worse than he is?”

“He’s usually quite stealth about it. I guess he figured it was all good, because it was only the two of us in here,” Lexy responded.

“I bet it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out which room Tiberius is in?” Frost teased as he signalled the new waitress over to order another drink.

He didn’t really want her to go anywhere.
She knew what he was doing.
He was distracting himself too.
Lexy ordered another one for herself and said, “I think I’ll stick around for a while, if you don’t mind?”

Frost smiled at her and replied, “Not at all.”

This was where it was quite handy to be a Dragon. She was quite content to sit in silence and not discuss the mushy things like love and loss. Lexy understood he didn’t really want to talk about it. Frost just needed somebody to be there and truth be told, so did she.
If she drank enough maybe, she wouldn’t spend the whole night obsessing over what she’d just done with Tiberius.
The new waitress placed their drinks on the table. Lexy grabbed hers, clutched it in both hands and looked at Frost
. Was she supposed to say something to make him feel better? Sometimes she still missed these social cues.

He laughed and responded to her thoughts, “I appreciate the sentiment but what are you supposed to say? Gee Frost, I sure hope Kevin finds the balls to brutally murder Kayn in the Testing. I hope she doesn’t find out you set it all up and hate your guts forever.”

Lexy grinned as she pointed out her messed up circumstances, “Well, you could just have a laugh over my situation. I slept with my Handler and then he forgot about it as always so, I tried to make myself feel better by messing around with your diabolically evil brother. Then, I was forced to cut the undeniably hot situation short because Grey was coming and as you well know the whole subject of Tiberius is like poking a bear with a stick. He drives my option away, then stays all of half an hour and takes off with one of our waitresses.”

Frost started to giggle as he recalled, “I almost peed myself when he said go hard or go home.”

Lexy raised her glass in mock salute from one messed up situation to another and suggested, “After this one, we should try to get some sleep and try to forget this whole month ever happened.”

Frost impishly grinned as he took another drink and then said, “Now, that sounds like a plan.”

After about five more drinks and another hour or two of Frost losing his filter and professing his love for Kayn about eighty times in a row Lexy finally convinced him to leave. Frost attempted to stand as she realized he’d passed his ability to walk, long ago. Lexy questioned, “Did you come straight here after we arrived?”

He slurred, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.”

“You just sat across the room from your brother and gave him dirty looks all day, didn’t you?” Lexy teased. She steadied him and they attempted to make their way out of the bar together.
She was far to inebriated to help him. They were probably going to wake up in a gutter somewhere.

He incoherently mumbled, “Thank you, Sexy Lexy. You are a wonderful person. I like your hair.”

Oh, lovely. I guess if she had to get stuck with a drunk nick name, he could have come up with something a hell of a lot worse than, Sexy Lexy.
She replied, “You’re welcome, Frost. You have nice hair too.” As Lexy struggled to get him up the stairs she questioned, “What’s your room number?”

He playfully pinched her side and murmured, “I don’t know. What is it?”

Shit
…Lexy checked his jacket pockets and he had nothing but his cell phone, and wallet. She sighed, “Well, I guess you’re coming to my room.”

His head bopped up and he questioned, “Really?”

Now, that was funny
. Lexy laughed as she struggled to keep him moving and clarified, “As my friend you goof.”

She leaned him up against the door, as she unlocked it, and then led him inside. Lexy walked him over to the bed and he passed out cold the second his head hit the pillow. She stumbled into the bathroom and drank a bunch of water because she wasn’t a complete idiot and wobbled her way back over to the bed. Lexy had to yard the covers out from underneath of Frost’s body because he was dead to the world, and not being able to move around while she slept drove her nuts. She tucked him in and slid under the covers beside him. Something poked her in the stomach. It was her heels. She’d tucked them into her jeans. Lexy tossed them across the room and dropped into a deep thoughtless sleep.

Chapter 7
Awkward Awakenings

L
exy, stirred to the comforting sensation of being cuddled. She hadn’t opened her eyes as she smiled lethargically and snuggled up against the person she automatically assumed was Grey.
What time was it?
She opened her eyes and they focused in on the arm draped around her.
It had black hair on it. Oh Shit. What had she done?
She was afraid to move because she didn’t want to awaken her bedmate. Lexy was drawing a blank on the night before.
Well, most of it
. The naughty events that took place in the stairwell sprung to mind.
Holy Shit! Had she slept with Tiberius? Oh, crap! Grey would be looking for her. He’d probably be freaking out by now.
She had to get her shit together and think. Lexy looked around the room and it appeared to be the room that she’d been sharing with Grey.
Maybe, the rooms all looked the same?
She tried to shimmy her way out from under what she thought was Tiberius’s arm and he hugged her tighter.
Shit, she was just going to have to talk to him.
Lexy winced, cleared her throat and said, “We should wake up before Grey catches us.”

Frost’s voice mumbled her name and told her to go back to sleep.

What in the hell? How was she with Frost?
She struggled her way out of his arms just as he clicked in to where he was and leapt away from her. They stared at each other with alarmed expressions on their faces.

He looked around and stammered, “Did we? Are you in my room or am I in yours?”

Lexy pressed her lips together, exhaled and said, “I have no idea, for both.”
He still had his shirt on.
She looked down at her chest and felt her jeans under the covers and gave a sigh of relief.
Oh, thank God
. She pointed at him and ordered, “Look under the covers. Are you still wearing your pants?”

He did, exhaled deeply and replied, “Yes, I’m wearing pants. We must have just passed out here together.”

That made sense because they both absolutely reeked of whisky.

Frost got out of bed and wandered to the bathroom and announced, “This is your room. My stuff isn’t in here.”

She heard the water from the shower turn on and her drinking partner from the night before had the fastest shower ever. In a couple of minutes, he wandered out with a towel around his waist and asked, “Where’s Grey? I’m starving. We should go out for breakfast.”

Lexy was still sitting there trying to chill herself out.
How had they ended up in the same bed? Where in the hell was Grey?
She replied, “You’re going to have to give me a minute to regain my faculties. When I saw the black hair on your arms I had a moment there.”

Frost strolled towards the bed, and chuckled as he leapt back onto the bed beside her and teased, “You thought you were waking up next to Tiberius didn’t you?”

“Until you spoke. Yes, I did,” she replied while chuckling quietly to herself.
Oh, the relief.
She covered her forehead with both of her hands, sighed and said, “That scared the shit out of me.”

He grinned and laughed, “Now, what does that tell you? Glad I could provide you with a dry run for how you’d feel the morning after doing that.”

Doing that
…Lexy hopped out of bed and replied, “Yes, it doesn’t seem like the greatest idea anymore. I’ll be right back.” She escaped into the bathroom, closed the door behind her and just stood there for a second staring at the painting in front of her on the wall. It was of two wolves standing side by side in the backdrop of a snow covered mountain. She recalled the day she met Grey. He’d been taken by Triad and she saved him from what he’d referred to as a fate worse than death. She’d spoken to Tiberius for the first time that day in the forest while she was still a Wild Thing and when she thought about what she did to him it made her smile. She hadn’t been in the frame of mind to even notice he was flirting with her. He’d held onto that moment for all of these years and she’d barely given it a second thought. Lexy drew her eyes away from the painting of the pair of wolves that had caused her thoughts to drift back to Tiberius and stepped into the shower. She quickly soaped herself down and rinsed off. Then towel dried her hair, and chose to leave it damp. After doing the fastest make up job she’d ever done she carefully applied her favorite crimson red lipstick and stared at her reflection. She was probably going to opt out of following through with that little tryst with Tiberius after her reaction that morning but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to look gorgeous the next time they bumped into each other. The chances of that would be pretty damn high over the next couple of days.

Frost bellowed, “I used some of your toothpaste. Don’t worry I didn’t touch your toothbrush.”

Someone knocked on the door and Lexy hurried in the bathroom. She leaned out and said, “Can you get that? It’s probably Grey.”
Frost leapt up and got the door.

She heard Grey’s voice say, “You guys, it smells absolutely disgusting in here.”

“We’re going for breakfast,” she called. “I’ll just be a second.” Lexy paused before opening the bathroom door, and hoped Frost had the sense to quickly put his clothes back on. She opened the door and walked out to the sight of Grey opening the windows and cursing about the scent of the whisky.

Grey passed Frost some hotel room keys and said, “Are these yours?”

Frost shook his head and said, “Well, at least we know how I ended up sleeping here now.”

Her Handler knit his brow and repeated what his friend had just said, “You slept here?”

Lexy sparred, “Where did you end up?”

Grey smiled and changed the subject, “How long did you guys stay there after I left?”

She shrugged and replied, “I honestly have no idea. All I know is we woke up in bed together, fully clothed.”

Grey ruffled up her hair and said, “Don’t worry, Honey. I know that would never happen. Frost would never do that to me.”

Frost’s eyes widened and he steered the conversation back and enquired, “Where were you again?”

He grinned and responded, “A gentleman never tells.”

She was still stuck on his statement;
Frost would never do that to me
.

They all left the room. Grey was walking ahead of them and Frost placed his arm around her and whispered, “If I wasn’t all hung up on someone else, I would totally do that to him.”

He gave her a playful squeeze and she laughed.

Grey turned around and chuckled, “You’re such a jackass. I heard that.”

Lexy wasn’t about to knit pick about Grey’s choice of night time activities while she was still having hot and steamy flashbacks of her own. They descended the stairs, all three of them slightly hung over and uncoordinated as they entered the diner and surprisingly enough there was a table full of their fellow Ankh sitting in the corner. Lexy’s eyes didn’t narrow in on that table. Her eyes noticed the booth full of Triad she’d have to pass along the way.
The table of Triad, with an absent Tiberius.
From their blank expressions she knew Tiberius hadn’t uttered a word about what had happened between them the night before. She touched Grey’s arm and said, “Order for me? I need to use the washroom.”

He smiled at her and replied, “I know what you want.”

She knew he didn’t mean it the way that she’d taken it
. As Lexy walked away from Grey, she glanced back and he was already seated at the table conversing with their friends. Sometimes, it was difficult to adjust her mindset.
For heaven’s sake Lexy, you were with Tiberius and Grey seduced and slept with a random waitress last night. Get a hold of yourself.
She gave the bathroom door a good hard shove, and it appeared to be locked. Lexy gave the door to the family bathroom a push and it opened. She went to close the door…

Tiberius shoved her inside and closed the door behind them and said, “I have to leave. I just wanted to make sure we had an opportunity for a proper goodbye.”

Lexy smiled at him and replied, “Both of our clans are out there.”

“I’m aware of that,” he whispered. Tiberius didn’t attempt to make a move; he remained in front of the exit blocking her escape. His eyes travelled from her feet up the length of her legs to the zipper of her jeans that he’d undone the evening before. Mr. Trouble bit his lip and continued, “I was disappointed that you didn’t come looking for me last night.”

She’d wanted too.
Lexy smiled at him.
It was flattering now where his flirtations had never been before. Remaining across the room, versus closing the space between them had only made her long for more of what he’d given her last night
. Lexy found her eyes drawn to the bulge in his jeans. She exhaled and whispered, “They’ll come looking for us and find us in here together.”

Tiberius reached over, locked the door and said, “Is that better?”

Lexy wanted him in an absolutely crazy way, but she couldn’t take that step towards him after her reaction that morning. She looked into his eyes and said, “We can’t.”

He grinned at her and teased, “What happened between last night and this morning that changed your mind?”

Lexy met the intensity of his gaze and gave him a version of the truth as she replied, “I woke up with a change of heart.”

Tiberius grinned and sparred, “It’s not your heart I’m interested in. Change it all you want.”

She met his penetrating gaze and asserted, “I’ll never love you.”

He grinned, stepped towards her and intimately tucked a wild strand of her crimson hair behind one of her ears and teased, “I’ll never love you either.”