Page 67 of Give & Take

“I’ll get nervous. I’ll know you’re watching and I’ll turn into this cold bitch again.”

“My favorite.”

She laughs softly. But when she looks at me, her eyes are almost bashful. “You’ll have to…wear a disguise or something.”

She’s playing along. I fucking love it.

“You know what that’s called?” I ask, running our joined knuckles along her soft flesh, inching just a shade higher up.

“What?”

She’s breathless.

“Roleplaying. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. It’s this thing people do when they want to spice up their sex lives.”

“Raphael, please,” she says, her voice strained. She’s laughing though. She’s perfect.

“Raph,” I say.

“What?”

“Call me Raph.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Just try it. It’s not going to make your clothes fly off.”

I bring our entwined fingers up to my face, setting my teeth down over her knuckles. “I wonder what might, though?”

Lana sighs. “Rapha—” she clears her throat. “Raph.”

She says the syllable like she’s trying it on. Like she’s wearing my shirt and looking at the way it drapes over her gorgeous, womanly body in the mirror.

And just like that, my cock’s halfway to stiff. Who am I kidding, it was already there. God, this woman.

“Raph?”

“Yes, Sunshine?”

“That’s it. Just a weary ‘Raph’.”

I laugh.

“Hey, Sunshine?” I ask. I shift my hand so it’s wrapped around the back of hers. Then I press her palm against my chest, wanting her to feel the way my heart beats under the thin fabric of my t-shirt.

Her fingers, cupped by mine, splay over me. “Yes?”

Her lips are full and beautiful in the encroaching dark, each word a tantalizing, gorgeous promise.

I lift my eyes to hers. “What do you think about kissing me?”

She swallows hard.

“You don’t want to?” The hook overhead creaks again as I shift, rising up off the cushions, still holding tight to her hand as I angle myself toward her.

“I—” she laughs. “You’re insane, Raphael.”

“Raph.”

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