Page 19 of Bang Buddies With Benefits
Ah, he’d said the magic word—calendar. “Too true, and a good point. Plus, there’ll be food, right?” I placed my hand on my stomach. “I skipped breakfast, so I’m starving.”
“I’ll take you wherever you want, kitty-cat.” He tapped my nose, and I showed plenty of teeth as I shot him a sharp and slicing smile. He was lucky he didn’t get the hiss—clearly, we needed to add another item to our agenda, because he so didn’t have the clearance to use that nickname. Frankly, I’d take it away from Ellie and Penny if I could. They just weren’t as scared of me as other people instinctually were, and so my threats never worked on them, dang it.
In other words, I was all filled up on people I let myself be mushy around.
I asked Miko to forward any urgent calls to my cell and suggested to Zac we go to Las Hermanas, a Mexican restaurant and distillery ran by the Serrano sisters that Penny had designed. I’d been missing food from home as of late, a fact I couldn’t confess to my family without earning myself a lecture on how long it’d been since I’d visited them. It was on my list of to-dos, but kept getting bumped for work, which was beginning to consume my life.
I’d be busier as partner, too, but it’d be worth it.
Besides, family gatherings often meant fielding questions like “Why are you still single?” and “When are you going to settle down?” My parents had always taken in people like they ran an animal shelter, only for abandoned humans. Lately, though, single men around my age kept showing up, intent to matchmake overtaking the evening. Something my family denied, as if I didn’t have a ton of experience sorting the guilty from the innocent.
As Zac and I pushed out of my office building, I recognized Zac’s motorcycle parked next to the curb. I slowed my steps and shook my head. “Oh no. You don’t think I’m riding on the back of your bike now that we’re fake-engaged, do you?”
As hardcore as I liked to pretend to be, I’d turned into a safety-first person about nine years ago. High risk didn’t mean reward when it came to the fragility of a human body. It meant possible carnage, and so, so much blood, and my heart beat faster and faster as I searched for an excuse that wouldn’t make me sound like a wimp.
“Do you not see this dress I’m wearing?” I ran my hand down the binding skirt. “It nearly split when you dipped me. There’s no way I can straddle something.”
Zac snagged the helmet off the top and extended it to me. “That’s too bad; I was rather hoping there’d be some straddling.”
“Ha-ha.” I didn’t make a move for the helmet he continued to hold it out, as though some of the gel keeping his ’do perfectly coifed had gotten into his ears and blocked him from hearing my protest.
“Don’t tell me you’re worried about messing up your hair.”
I redirected like the law partner I was planning to be. “Don’t act like you’re not conceited about yours.” With the help of my four-inch heels, I reached up and ran my hand through the dark brown strands.
He splayed his hand on my lower back and allowed me to muss the strands, the recent trim job on his beard emphasizing his taunting nose scrunch and lip bite combo. I only got to savor it for a second or two before he dipped his head and dragged his scruffy chin across the side of my neck, leaving me squealing and clinging to him in the street. “Just hang on this tight, and you’ll be fine.”
With that, he plopped the helmet on my head and placed his on as well. Then he gripped the sides of my waist and hauled me up onto the bike. I squeezed my thighs to the seat and sighed. “You have a listening problem.”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you,” he said, gesturing at the spot where the helmet covered his ear, even though I knew he could hear me.
“Now my pencil skirt looks like a scrunchie.” I squirmed and tugged at the fabric to no avail.
Passion flared in the depths of Zac’s eyes as he ran them up my thighs. “I see nothing wrong with that.”
“Ah-hah!” I jabbed a finger in his smug face. “Youcanhear me.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll beer you once we get there. Have some patience, woman.” The bike dipped with his weight, and then he fired up the engine, drowning out any possibility of further conversation. This was one of the many reasons we’d never work as a real couple. We were both too stubborn, not good at taking or listening to suggestions, and he did things like show up at my office unannounced.
Impromptu fun was his M.O.—that and purposely misunderstanding me, apparently. Yeah, I’d benefited and reaped satisfaction from his impulsiveness, but it also gave me anxiety on occasion. While it was easy for him to say things like “just sit back and enjoy the ride” it wasn’t like any of his patrons might go to jail if he didn’t do his job.
Unless we got super literal, like he didn’t cut off people in time, but that wasn’t the reason behind my introspection. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what was, only that I felt the need to remind myself this was temporary, and we both had an objective in mind. That way, I could refrain from being a total buzzkill who counted all the seconds ticking away from the day.
“Don’t wreck,” I shouted, my voice trembling along with my body, all too aware that if we crashed, I’d be the one missing a layer of skin.It’s a short drive.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
“Not planning on it,” he called over his shoulder, loud enough to be heard, so at least he handed out reassurances, despite them being as fake as our engagement. Since there was some smartass in the mix, I wound my arms around his waist “accidentally” linking my hands so low that they cupped his crotch.
Satisfaction whizzed through me at the way he jerked against me and the seat, and I clamped my thighs even tighter against his. Once we pulled into traffic, I’d be too afraid not to behave. Until then, all bets were off.
Zac revved the engine, reached one arm back, and smacked my exposed thigh.
The spike of desire drowned out my overwhelming sense of dread.
For all of two seconds anyway, and then the bike lurched into the street and joined the other vehicles zipping down the road.
Leaving me no choice but to do something I loathed: I ducked my head, holding tight, as I placed my trust in someone other than myself.
