Page 53 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

I flushed.

“He wasn’t like you. His affection was difficult to earn, and only offered behind closed doors.” I picked at the label on the pickles as I spoke. The pit in my stomach returned. “You saw my…Neil, and you continued to talk to me. I thought you were making fun of me.”

“Fuck no.” Alex sounded so adorably angry, I had to turn to look at him. He looked pissed off on my behalf, which was…flattering. “I mean, yeah, it’s a pretty wild choice—to bring a dildo on a?—”

“I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?” He blinked. “But you?—”

“My roommate packed it. Not me.”

“Oh. Well. That makes sense.” Alex’s smile was apologetic. “No offense, but you give off a kind of sexually repressed vibe. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would’ve believed you’d bring a sex toy with you like that.” His smile morphed into a grin. “So, what? She snuck it in there without you knowing? Won’t she miss it?”

I gagged. “It’s not hers.”

Sexually repressed?

I’d bet anything I’d practiced more kink than he had.

“So it’s…” Alex blinked. “So itisyours?”

“I never said it wasn’t. I only said that I wasn’t the one who packed it.”

“Right.” He nodded up and down. His eyes were on my body. My chest, then my hips. His pink tongue flickered out to wet his lip. “And you…use it?” His hands twitched, almost like he wanted to reach out to measure my waist—to see if someone as slight in frame as I was could really fit a cock that big inside.

“That’s a very inappropriate question,” I admonished, cheeks hot.

“Right, sorry. I’m just…” Alex inhaled sharply. “Fuck.” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to redirect his thoughts, probably. Horny bastard. His lips were still slick, and they looked…even more kissable like this, when he wasn’t smirking and smarming and taunting.

Honesty was a good look on him.

“Suffice to say,” I mirrored his earlier words. “I didn’t know what to do with you. Beingwantedis unfamiliar.”

“That’s a shame,” Alex said, eyes opening again, his pupils flooded black. “A serious shame.”

I shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

“So, you’ve never had a boyfriend who showered you with affection?” Alex echoed, finally putting his hands back on the steering wheel. “A guy who couldn’t keep his hands off you, no matter how hard he tried?” He shifted gears, pulling out onto the road. It was a relief not to hold the entirety of his attention any longer.

“Never.”

“Not even Roddy?” Alex said.

I quirked a brow. “We weren’t like that.”

“Right.” He shifted in his seat, chewing over our conversation as the world blurred by. It was too hot, so I reached over, pointing the cool air my way. The pickles jostled, but I managed to keep them from falling to the floor. “Would you…want that?” Alex asked, voice uncharacteristically breathless.

“Want what?” I inquired.

“A boyfriend who showered you with affection,” Alex clarified.

I paused with my fiddling. Now it was my turn to chew over his words. Scowling, I settled back in my seat. “I…” Imagining that hurt. Someone to love. To care for me openly. To be proud to parade me around. To touch and hold and pamper me. Someone who thought I was enough. “I would.”

“Okay.” This silence dragged on longer. I didn’t interrupt, certain there was a purpose to it. Alex’s expression was contemplative as he watched the roadwith unseeing eyes. We passed over a railroad track, wheels thunk, thunking.

“Okay,” Alex said again, a bit louder, like there hadn’t been a pause at all. “I have a proposition for you. And it’s going to sound unhinged?—”

His expression softened as he glanced my way.

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