wasn’t funny, but she was. “When you’re sober, you and I are going to have a talk about home protection, Tiger.”
He fished the key from under the mat and unlocked the door, no easy feat while juggling a living rag doll. Once inside he flicked on a wall switch, bathing the compact living and dining area in muted light. “Spotless” was his first thought, quickly followed by “sparse.” Minimal furnishings with an oriental flair. He noted the framed prints on the wall. Japanese temples and landscapes. A movie poster of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Huh.
He located her bedroom, wishing she hadn’t mentioned her agility, compliments of yoga. Oriental images of an erotic nature flashed in his mind as he laid her on her black-and-red comforter.
Time to leave.
He took off her glasses and placed them on the nightstand, noted a book on Zen and travel brochures on China and Japan. Spenser had never mentioned her obsession with the Orient. He wondered if he knew. He thought about what she’d said earlier. “I have dreams, too.” After one peek at her living quarters, any idiot could deduce her dreams involved Asia. He filed away the knowledge, slipped into the bathroom and nabbed a glass of water and two aspirin. He returned and nudged her awake. “Take these and drink this. You’ll thank me in the morning.”
Bleary-eyed, she complied, then fell back on the pillow with a groan.
“Sleep tight, kid.” I’m outta here .
Warm toes skimmed up his T-shirt and across his lower back. “Jack?”
Wary, he turned back and nabbed Kylie’s adventurous foot. The wide pant leg slid toward her body, revealing a toned thigh and a glimpse of red panties. Damn.
“I’m not getting any younger,” she said.
Hit the road, Jack. “Meaning?”
“Meaning if I wait for what I want, I’ll never get it. At least that’s the way it’s worked so far.” She shoved her hair out of her eyes, then wagged a finger in his direction to emphasize another thought. “Although, I did grab the bull by the horns once, if you catch my drift, and I know you do, and I didn’t get what I wanted that time, either. I gotta tell ya, life has been one big-butt disappointment.”
She sounded pitiful and angry at the same time, and he cursed himself a pig for imagining the pleasure zone beneath those satin panties. He released her sexy foot and tugged her pant leg back past her knee. Against his better judgment, he sat on the edge of the bed. “Sorry to hear that.”
“Today in particular stunk.”
“Want to tell me what Spenser said or did to ruin your birthday?”
“It’s what he didn’t say or do.”
“You’re losing me.”
“It’s not about my birthday, but my life.”
“Definitely lost.”
“But it is what it is so I need to make the most of what I have, which isn’t much. I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
He pressed a finger to his temple, rubbed.
“Creative visualization is a beautiful thing. I will have my adventure, just you wait and see.”
“Back to shaking up things in Eden, huh?”
“I was planning to start tomorrow, but you know what they say…” She quirked a brow, waited.
“No time like the present?”
Her full lips curved into another of those loopy grins. “For the past year, I’ve spent every night in this bed alone. It would certainly break my blah, boring routine if you—”
“No.”
“—kissed me.”
Shit.
“It’s the least you could do.”
“For?”
“Refusing to be my first.”
He scratched his forehead, reflecting on the episode he’d sworn to take to his grave. “You were fourteen.”
She scrunched her brow. “So? How old were you when you first—”
“That’s different.”
“Why? Because you’re a guy? That’s a stupid argument,” she slurred, “but I’ll let it slide and point out that I am now thirty-two.”
“You’re also blitzed.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What if I was sober?”
“You’d still be Spenser’s little sister.”
She