“You want me to, what, stake my claim?”

“That would be nice, yes.  What would be really nice is for you to mean it.”

Ha.  That really wouldn’t be a problem.  “Oh, I can do that.”

He started moving to me, and I had to stifle the urge to start backing away.  I didn’t want him to touch me until I knew what he’d been up to between the funeral service and here.

“So you rode over here with the entire family?” I asked him, watching his face very carefully.

He grimaced, and I tensed up.  “No.  Mona set it up so it was just she and I in a limo.”

Well, at least he hadn’t tried to cover that up.

“Did you f**k her?”

He didn’t take that well, which was understandable, because I hadn’t meant it well.

I didn’t really think it was a possibility, but I couldn’t seem to keep it in.  I had to vent somehow, or I’d go nuclear.  Even so, I regretted saying it instantly.  This was not the time or the place.

His nostrils flared, his eyes gone wild.  “Is that a serious question?”

I chewed on my lip, reluctantly admitting, “No.”

“Good.  And no, I stayed far away from her.”

He finally had me backed into a corner when he cupped my face in his hands.

“This is why you don’t sleep with the daughter of a close friend,” I told him.  I was angry about that, how his naiveté could potentially harm what we had, what we were still trying to build into something.  “Especially one that you work with.  What were you thinking?”

“I was a fool, clearly, but she didn’t present herself as she is now.  She was, I don’t know, the opposite of you.  She’s not a relationship girl, or so I thought.  She always tried so hard to prove that she was just the cool chick and just as disinterested in having anything serious as I was.  She was all too happy to volunteer for f**k buddy status.  It made sense at the time.  None of it is an excuse.  I was an idiot.”

Yep, I was done with that line of conversation.  I tried to pull my face out of his hands, but he wasn’t having it.

He bent down to me.  “Stay by my side.  Stake your claim.”

“That’s just what Bianca told me to do.”

“Well, aside from her taste in too pretty men, she’s a smart girl.”

That got a small smile out of me, as though he took that as permission, he brushed his lips against mine.

I gripped his wrists, whether to keep them where they were, or push them away, I wasn’t sure.

He took my mouth softly, in slow, drugging pulls, running his velvety tongue very slowly along my lips, begging for entrance.

With a small moan, I opened for him.

“Do it, Danika.  Claim your man,” he pulled back to murmur against my mouth.

I wasn’t proud of it, but I let him have me, quick and fierce against the wall.

We were straightening our clothes when Mona opened the door.  She didn’t say a word.  She didn’t need to.  She just wanted us to know that she knew what we’d been up to.

I felt bad.  I’d just participated in making her bad day worse.

A few days later, I couldn’t believe I’d ever had a kind thought about the woman.

Always trust your gut, even when it makes you feel like a total bitch.

That’s what I learned from Mona.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

I was at work, minding my own business a few days later when a smiling Mona came waltzing into my gallery.

Every time I saw that smile, I became more certain that there was just something wrong with it.

“Is it about time for your shift to end?” she asked, her tone pleasant enough but lacking any inflection.  Her eyes were sort of glazed over and vacant.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Even so, I didn’t really want to know where this was headed.

I sighed.  I still felt bad about what she’d been through with her dad, so I’d be humoring her.  “I run the place.  I can leave any time I want.  I take it you wanted to talk again?”

She nodded.  She was just off.  I wondered if she’d taken something, but I didn’t know her enough to be able to tell for sure.

“I’ll meet you at that bar, Twist, when I’m done.”

She left.

I finished up with a few things, and then tasked Sandra with closing up in thirty minutes.  I headed to Stephan and Javier’s bar with the hope that I could get rid of Mona quickly and then just hang out with the guys.

Stephan saw me coming and came to greet me with a big hug, kissing both of my cheeks.  “Finally, you come to see us.”

Javier followed closely behind him, and we had a quick love sesh.

“Come sit at the bar, chat with us.  Tell us what’s going on with you.”  Javier wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.  “Because we’ve been hearing some things.”

“Hell, we’ve been seeing some things,” Stephan added, referring, I knew, to the baby shower.

I scanned the plush lounge area for Mona and sighted her easily enough.  “I’ve got to talk to someone real quick, and then I’ll be right there.”

I excused myself, knowing they’d have a million questions for me to answer about this in about five minutes.

I sat down next to Mona on a plush white leather couch.  Next to, as in three feet away.