Part 44 (2/2)

'-ish,' he replies, humour clear in his husky voice. 'Remember our deal?'

I roll my eyes to myself. I was kidding myself if I thought he would forget about his little deal. And now I'm certain he had me running a marathon at the break of dawn in an attempt to immobilise me. Control freak!

'No reminder f.u.c.k required.' I mutter. He'll never know. I'm not going to get so drunk that I have a raging hangover a it's too soon after my last performance.

'Watch your mouth, Ava.' he sighs, tiredly. 'And I'll decide when and if a reminder f.u.c.k is necessary.'

He's serious? I gape a little down the phone. Has he no sense of humour? I stand up again, pulling my thigh to my b.u.t.t on a satisfied groan. d.a.m.n him and his break of dawn run.

'Roger that.' I confirm with all the sarcasm it deserves.

'When will I see you?' he sighs.

'Tomorrow?' I really do want to see him, despite his challenging ways.

'I'll pick you up at eight.'

Eight? It's a Sat.u.r.day, I want a lay in. Eight? I really won't be getting drunk, not if Jesse is going to be rocking up at eight. 'Noon,' I counter.

'Eight.'

'Eleven.'

'Eight!' he barks.

'You're supposed to meet me half way!' The man is impossible.

'I'll see you at eight.' He hangs up, leaving me on one leg with my phone hanging from my ear. I look at my mobile disbelievingly. He can turn up at eight all he likes; I won't be awake to let him in. And I seriously doubt Kate will be either. I sink my achy body back into my chair on a few sharp inhales of breath. I'm never running again.

'Tom,' I call. 'We're out tonight, you coming?'

He looks up with a dirty, great big grin on his baby face. 'I shall decline graciously,' He bows his head like the gentleman I know he's not. 'I have a date!'

'Another?'

'I can't come. I a.s.sume you were going to ask me.' Victoria huffs without looking up from her drawings. I don't dignify her sarcasm with a response, flas.h.i.+ng my screwed up face to her back instead.

'Yes! This one is definitely a keeper.' Tom nods with the biggest smirk on his face.

I leave Tom with his grin, returning to my computer. They're all keepers.

I leave the office at six, heading straight to the shop to get some Radox and a bottle of wine, before making my way to the tube. I fight off the temptation to open the wine here and now. It's Friday, I'm catching up with Kate tonight and spending the day with my challenging control freak tomorrow. Perfect.

I walk through the front door, finding a half-naked Sam walking out of Kate's workshop, followed by a fully dressed Kate with a highly satisfied smile on her face.

'Seriously?' I splutter, as I try to direct my eyes anywhere, except on Sam's fine physic.

He blinds me with his ultimate cheeky grin and turns to face Kate, giving me a rear view of his bare back and baggy jeaned a.r.s.e. It's then that I notice a lump of cake mixture at the nape of his neck.

'You missed a bit.' I point to the offending smear of mixture.

Kate swivels Sam back around to face me and licks up the centre of his back towards his neck. He smirks at me. I laugh. What a pair of exhibitionists.

Making my way up to the flat, I hiss at the stabbing pains travelling down my legs with every step I take. I go straight to the bathroom to run the bath, pouring in half the bottle of muscle relaxing bath soak. Then I take myself to the kitchen to take care of special requirement number two; I pour myself and Kate a gla.s.s of wine. I gasp my appreciation as I take my first sip.

Five minutes later, I'm flinging every garment in my underwear drawer over my shoulder in a panic. 'KATE!' I know I put them in here, so where the h.e.l.l are they? If this is Sam's idea of a joke, I'll wring his f.u.c.king neck!

Kate breezes into my room. 'I've turned your bath off. What's up?'

'My pills,'

'What about them?'

'They're gone,' I turn an accusing eye on her. 'I can't believe you let Sam in here.'

Her eyes widen. 'I didn't let him in. And anyway, your pills weren't in there. I would have seen them.'

I let out a frustrated yell and proceed to turn the rest of my drawers inside out and upside down. I know I put them in here. 's.h.i.+t!'

'Chill out, you can get some more. Are Tom and Victoria coming?'

I scoop up the contents of my underwear drawer and stuff it back in. 'I already did that. And no, they both have dates.'

'Your organisation skills are shocking.' she moans tiredly. She's right, they are, but I manage fine at work. It's the personal side of my life that suffers. 'Oh, is it Victoria and Drew's date tonight?' Kate looks at me with wide, blue eyes.

'Yes!' I meet her wide eyes with my own.

'It'll never work. Hurry up in that bath, I need a shower.'

I grab my wine and head for the bathroom.

The water is glorious, and I wash my hair with shampoo and conditioner. I shave everywhere, and then reluctantly pull myself out before downing my wine and brus.h.i.+ng my teeth.

An hour later, I've blow dried and curled my hair, creamed up and got half a face of make-up on. My door opens and Kate's head pops around. 'How long?' she asks. Her fire red hair is in rollers and she looks at about the same stage of readiness as me.

'Half hour,' I confirm, opening my underwear drawer.

'Cool.' She shuts the door.

It opens again.

'What?' I ask, without looking up from finding suitable underwear.

Within two seconds flat, I'm grabbed, my towel is yanked from my body and I'm on my back atop the bed with a hulking male looming over me.

WHOA! I'm completely disorientated and still clinging onto a pair of knickers that I was deliberating over. I don't even have a chance to focus in on his face. His lips smash against mine, starting to work my mouth greedily. What the h.e.l.l? There's no chance to fight him off or ask what he's doing here. He flips me onto my hands and knees, his fingers slide over my entrance a no doubt to check my readiness a before he undoes his flies and slams into me on a garbled yell.

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