Page 15 of The Pleasure Contract

“I wanted to show you something.”

Now it’s my turn to raise a brow at him. “I’m sure you do,” I tease, my eyes flitting suggestively from his face to his crotch and then back again.

Am I flirting? I should stop. I don’t do flirting!

Luckily, the big guy looks puzzled. He hooks a thumb over his shoulder and says, “I… I wanted to introduce you to-” his words trail off before an expression of realization blooms on his features. “Did you mean my cock?”

“I was joking-”

“Because you can see that any time you desire,” he says, the words rushing out of his mouth. “Or any part of me, really. You have the Permission token, and I-” mortifyingly, Az starts to undress, his shirt coming off first, then his hands going to the straps of his blaster holsters. “I would very much like to show you-”

It’s when his thick fingers are already halfway undoing the laced cord fastening of his tight pants, and he’s quite literally two seconds away from shoving them down his legs, I find my voice.

“Az, stop!” I fluster, my hands held out in front of me as if he were about to unleash a weapon.

And considering his size… maybe he was?

Az freezes, and it’s only now that I realize DJ is playing ‘Mr Boombastic’ by Shaggy in the background like his hype woman or something.

“I don’t want to see your penis right now,” I tell him.

He tilts his head, which annoyingly makes me think of a puppy dog. “Later, then? It is a good one, I promise.”

I can’t help but giggle a little bit at that. Despite my better judgment.

“It’s just you were looking at-” Az gestures with his hand to his general crotch area. “And I just wanted you to know that anytime you want to-”

“Yes, thank you for the very kind offer, but I will decline right now.”

“Right,” he says, rubbing at one horn, still looking a little perplexed. “But, you definitely were looking at-”

“Yes! Yes,” I admit. “I was flirting, but what I really meant-” my words falter, and my face feels like it’s on fire. What did I mean? “Who did you want to introduce me to?” I ask, changing the subject and wrangling it back to the whole reason Az is knocking on my bedroom door this evening.

He narrows his eyes at me for a moment and then bends to pick up his gun holsters, buckling the main one around his waist and then a secondary one around his thickly muscled thigh.

“Why do you even carry those guns around?” I ask, trying to distance myself from our previous conversation even further.

He looks up at me through his lashes, a strand of his dark hair hanging down in front of his eyes so artfully, I can’t quite believe it just does that without a stylist or something. He looks like a male model… if male models were freakishly strong, tall, had horns, fangs, and gray skin. “I prefer to deal with my own security instead of having guards trail me around the city.”

He picks up his shirt, but instead of putting it on, he tucks it into his pants at the hip, the bunched-up fabric hanging down so casually.

“Aren’t you going to put that back on?” I ask, trying desperately not to stare at those abs and just how broad and solid his chest is.

Az grins. “No.”

Bastard.

Before I can insist, he turns that grin toward DJ. “You heard that, too, right? She flirted with me.”

I open my mouth to argue.

Nothing comes out.

I have no defense.

“You-” I start, shaking my head, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. “I can flirt with whoever I want. It doesn’t mean anything.” God, I sound like a petulant child. Shut up, Lois!

Az interrupts my frantic thoughts by stepping closer – stepping so close, I can practically feel the heat coming off of his body in waves. He looks down at me and hooks a finger beneath my chin. “You are wrong, Lois. On both counts.”