Free Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter Page A

him.
“I’ll do what I want, when I want, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.
You lost the chance to order me around. And besides that, she’s a heartless
bitch who deserved every punch I landed. Next time I’m not going to stop until
she’s unconscious.”
    Lexis
gasped.
    Rome
blinked over at me, shock forming in those electric blues.
    Someone
whooped behind me. I turned—and it was one of the hardest things I’d ever done,
looking away from Rome. But I had to. Any longer and I would have run to him
and jumped into his arms. He was just so familiar to me, so…necessary. More
than that, shock was a look I received from him quite often. Every time I said
something he didn’t expect but liked, he would blink, grab me and kiss the
breath right out of me. Yes, he kissed me for a lot of different reasons.
    “Hello,
everyone.” Grinning, Cody leaned a muscled shoulder against the door frame, so
beautiful he could have been a painting come to life. Hell, in this supernatural
world of ours, I wouldn’t doubt if that were the case. “Hello, gorgeous,” he
added, gaze on me.
    My
brow puckered in confusion. Was he talking to me? Surely not. He’d never spoken
to me like that before. The only women Cody wouldn’t seduce were those that
belonged to his friends or those who were looking to get married. I was both,
so I was definitely off-limits.
    Or
had been, I thought sadly. This sucked.
    “I
need a moment with the women,” Rome said stiffly.
    “Well,
I need a moment with Belle.”
    “No.”
    Cody
laughed now. “So you’re saying you’re her man? If that’s the case, I’ll leave.”
    Rome’s
jaw clenched. He remained silent.
    “Fine,
then. You’re no longer her man,” Cody said, “so you can’t speak for her
anymore. Not that you could have before,” he added with another laugh.
    “Get
lost,” Rome retorted.
    “I
believe the little lady told you to fuck yourself. Rather than tell you the
same, I’ll just ask Belle what she’d prefer to do. Stay here and receive a
lecture about giving naughty girls the spankings they deserve, or come with me
and have fun.”
    My
head lashed back and forth between them as they spoke. Rome bared his
extra-sharp teeth in a scowl, but Cody never lost his grin. These two men were
friends, colleagues, yet here they were, locked in some sort of tug-of-war. Not
over me, but over power. Surely. Why?
    “Miss
Jamison…Belle,” Rome said, and hearing my name on his lips was heaven. Nearly
my undoing. “Tell Cody you want to stay. We need to talk.”
    Giving
in to him now would have undermined my take-no-crap stance. Besides, as Cody
predicted, he probably wanted to yell at me for hurting his previous and future
wife. Ugh. No way. I’d seriously vomit. Then I’d burn something. That didn’t
mean I wanted him to spend time alone with Little Miss Know-It-All, though.
    Hating
myself, I faced Rome. “I think we’ve said all we need to say to each other.
Unless you’ve remembered something?”
    He
gave an abrupt shake of his head.
    Not
one to miss an opportunity, Lexis rushed to his side before I could latch onto
her arm and petted his shoulder. “Let her go. She’s caused enough trouble
today.” Next she whispered something in his ear.
    A
muscle began ticking under his eye, his gaze never leaving me.
    My
insides twisted in disgust. What the hell was she telling him? That I was the
devil and I’d attacked her for no reason? That she’d begged for mercy but I
didn’t possess any?
    “Belle,”
Cody prompted.
    Do
it. Spin. I spun. Each step measured, I walked to Cody, knowing the distance between me
and Rome was growing. I was shaking, my eyes a bit watery. Any minute now,
raindrops would pour from the ceiling. You are such a baby. Hold your head
high. My chin lifted.
    When
I reached Cody, he wrapped one of his arms around my waist and tugged me into
the hard length of his body. I would have gasped, but he smothered the sound by
pressing my mouth into his