Fire & Vice: In His Sights

Chapter 6

Where am I? Lucy wondered, a slight flare of panic beginning to rise as she struggled up in the unfamiliar bed.

Then as the most vicious headache she'd ever experienced hit her, along with a healthy dose of nausea, she fell back on the mattress.

"Oh, nee. Slecht!" she moaned, reverting back to the language of her birth. She brought her knees up underneath a heavy quilt that had been draped across her. She clutched her head in between shaking hands, closed her eyes and tried to make the room stop spinning. "Slecht! Wat heb ik gedaan-?"

She frowned. Was she wearing-? One hand still on her throbbing head she snaked the other one to the edge of the blanket, lifted and squinted. Yes, she was wearing what looked like men's sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt. Lifting the collar of the shirt, she peered down the front. Her eyes flared at the sight of her naked breasts. No bra! And she could already tell she wasn't wearing any panties. She moaned and began muttering again.

A deep, masculine chuckle drew her attention and she brought her head up in a sharp arc that nearly made her vomit. When the vicious pain behind her eyeballs subsided enough, she was able to make out Mack Hudson standing in the doorway of- where was she anyway? Lucy clutched the blanket against her chest and scooted up the bed until her back met a headboard.

"Can't even face the day in English?" he asked, amusement lacing his voice while his gaze crawled over her disheveled hair and face. She didn't know how it was possible, given that she must have a decided green tint about her complexion and she was pretty sure her hair was plastered to one side of her head, but the gleam in his eye told her he was thinking decidedly sinful thoughts.

"Uuuummm-" Lucy's voice trailed off and she picked at the comforter for a moment while her pain-hazed brain tried to kick her butt into gear. "So, did I actually offer to, uh-"

Mack shifted against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his biceps bulging in front of him. He lifted an eyebrow and just watched her, clearly not willing to help her out of a horrifically embarrassing situation. But she needed to know how bad it was. Like if she needed to get a new identity and move to a new continent immediately or if another state would do it.

"Uh, offer to um, to-" she trailed off again.

"Practice the art of blowjobs on me because you'd never given one before and wanted to try it out?" he supplied helpfully.

So, she hadn't imagined that conversation. She stared hard at the bed, bringing her knees closer to her chest. She licked her lips. "And did I- did I- try to-?"

"Attack me while I was driving and nearly kill us both by causing me to swerve toward the ditch?" he asked, his voice casual, but with more of a steely quality to it now. "Yep, you did do that."

"Oh dear," she whispered, her headache completely forgotten as she sunk into a pit of utter humiliation. "And did we- did I-?"

"Nope," he drawled the word, giving her a chance to sigh in relief, until he continued speaking. "Not for lack of trying on your part."

She moaned in despair and sank back into the pillows, covering her eyes with her hands. She wondered how hard it would be to move to Antarctica. Her lips trembled, and she actually had to make a conscious effort not to cry. She really thought maybe she could have had something with Mack if they could get past a few of their differences. Now- now, she was going to finish this godawful hangover and then go find a cliff to end her humiliation in the only way she could imagine in that moment. She was so caught up in her lack of dignity that she didn't hear Mack approach the bed until he was tugging her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face.

She peeked up at him, blinking a few times until his gorgeous face was back in focus. The intensity of his blue eyes was arresting in itself. Combine that with the look of concentrated lust on his face and Mack stole her breath and heart in one sweeping move. She was helpless in the face of such a man.

"Baby, I said no last night because when you suck my d**k I'm going to want the whole package right after. And when I finally f**k you, I want you to feel every part of me touching every part of you," he told her, his voice even deeper than usual if that was possible. "I don't want you to forget me in an alcohol-induced haze."

Holy. Cow.

He dropped her wrists and turned to stride away from the bed. "I'll be right back with something to take the edge off your hangover."

He gave her just enough time to dash into the washroom to relieve her screaming bladder and discover that yes, her hair was exactly as bad as she thought. She also used some of his mouth wash to rinse the dead farm animal taste out of her mouth and rolled a tiny amount of his deodorant under her armpits before rushing back to the bedroom and diving under the covers. Her smile came a little more natural when he returned to the bedroom with what looked like a water bottle in one hand and some Tylenol and a banana in the other.

She watched, her eyebrows slowly rising in amusement as he handed her a big bottle of water and shook a few tablets into his palm. She took the bottle from him and took a healthy drink, wrinkling her nose before sticking her hand out for the pills. He dropped them into her palm and sat on the edge of the bed next to her. She braced herself against the dip in the mattress, when his big body forced her to fall against him.

"I don't think I can stomach the banana," she protested when he held it out to her.

"Trust me," he said gruffly. "If there's one thing I know, it's how to cure a hangover in a hurry. Just have a few more sips. Give yourself a couple minutes, then try a few bites."

She nodded, baffled by how kind he was being. Mack Hudson had never struck her as even remotely gentle. And she knew he was at least mildly annoyed about her wild evening on the town. "Am I at your place?" she asked timidly, tucking a section of the hair that she had frantically finger-combed behind an ear.

He nodded. "Didn't think it would be a good idea leaving you alone since you've never been drunk in your life and I didn't want to spend the night in that rat-infested dump you call an apartment. No choice but to bring you back here."

"Oh," she said, frowning a little. So, his gallantry wasn't entirely because he wanted her in his space, he just hadn't known what else to do with her. "My apartment isn't rat infested! I've only seen a few ants." She defended her cute little place, taking a few more gulps of water. Maybe if she got better quickly he'd drive her home so she could sleep off the rest of this hideous hangover and then go find a cliff to jump off.

"Cats'll eat ants, farm girl," he said, piercing her with his ice blue eyes.

"Dogs'll eat cats," she countered. "I could cut out the middle-man and just get a puppy."

He flashed her a slow grin, reached over and tapped the bottle. "Drink more."

She obeyed his quietly spoken command. The liquid and pills did seem to be working together to make her feel miraculously better. She dropped the empty bottle into her lap and swept her eyelashes up, studying him intently. "How did you know where I was last night, Mack?"

"Your bodyguard told your sister who called me. Apparently, everyone has a soft spot for the Amish princess; no one wanted to get you in trouble with the Boss, so they called me instead," he grumbled. "Don't know why they thought I'd go easy on your ass."

The breath caught in her throat as he lifted the water bottle from her lap and set it on the table next to his bed. He silently handed her the banana and she tried to take it from him. He held onto it for just a moment before letting go. The moment was filled with an intense awareness that neither could deny, yet it was also- somehow, very comfortable. Sitting on his bed, surrounded by his scent and his things, the light streaming through a window, it felt oddly perfect.

"What are you going to do to my ass?" she whispered peeling the banana and bringing it to her lips. His eyes darkened and dropped to her mouth. Suddenly the air between them became charged to an almost unbearable degree. Lucy didn't know what to do except wrap her lips around the tip of the banana and take a bite.