Page 56 of Let It Breathe
He shrugged. “I never had anyone spank me in the bedroom.”
Larissa and Reese both lifted their glasses. Larissa giggled. Clay felt lightheaded.
“Reese—kinky!” Larissa said.
“You said no judging,” Reese said, and Clay watched her cheeks flush crimson. “But if you must know, it was that horse trainer I dated three years ago. He thought a whip would be a nice thing to bring on a third date.”
Eric laughed. “You sure can pick ’em.”
“Hey, I’m proud of you, cuz,” Larissa said, giving Reese a reassuring squeeze. “I didn’t know you had it in you to be so experimental.”
“I didn’t say I liked it,” Reese said, her cheeks still beautifully pink. She looked at the ceiling and gave a funny little smile. “Then again, I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
Larissa laughed and turned back to Clay. “Okay, hot stuff, your turn.”
Clay gripped his water glass, not sure what to say. Hell, there was plenty he could say. Plenty he remembered, plenty he didn’t, plenty he wished he could forget. He opened his mouth to say something. Then closed it. Then opened it again.
The sound of the doorbell dragged everyone’s eyes off him and onto the door.
Reese frowned. “What the?—”
“Uh-oh,” said Larissa. “I know who it is.”
Before anyone could ask, a voice outside started shouting. “Goddammit, Larissa—I know you’re there. Open the door!”
Chapter 8
From her perch on the love seat, Reese frowned at the front door, then at her cousin. She had a sick feeling in her gut, which made this the second time today she’d felt destined to toss her cookies.
“Larissa? Who’s that? And how did he know where you’d be?”
“It’s Joey—the dude I was supposed to go out with tonight?”
“Right,” Reese said. “You said he stood you up?”
“Kinda. Or maybe it was the other way around, I can’t remember now.”
“You mean you stood him up?” Reese felt the same sense of dread she always did when she ended up in the middle of one of Larissa’s romance dramas. “And then you told him where you’d be this evening?”
“Hey, a girl’s gotta play hard to get, but you gotta let ’em know where to find you.”
The doorbell rang again, and a man’s voice shouted from the other side. “Come on, Larissa. We need to talk about this. I know you’re there.”
“I don’t feel like talking,” Larissa shouted back. “I’m tired of talking. Talk, talk, talk—what about action?”
“I’ll give you action, I will. Come on, just let me explain.”
Eric lifted an eyebrow. “What did she do now?”
Reese sighed and glanced from the door to her cousin. “’Riss, you want me to call the cops, or you want to let the guy in?”
Larissa rolled her eyes. “I’ll let him in. But only so I can tell him to his face that the way to woo a woman is not by falling asleep when she’s giving you a hand job.”
Reese closed her eyes and tried to remember why she’d agreed to host this dinner party in the first place. She opened her eyes again to see Eric sitting up straighter on the couch and grinning at Clay.
“And you wanted to go home early,” Eric said, nudging Clay in the ribs with his elbow. “See? Things are just starting to get interesting.”
“Cheaper than hotel pay-per-view,” Clay agreed.
