Page 49 of Love on the Rocks
“I’ll walk from here, thank you.” He helped me descend and we walked the rest of the way in silence.
My brain was working overtime. What did we do from here? Did we still hate each other?
“So,” I said, finally. “What do we do now?”
He shrugged. “Well, I don’t plan on washing my mouth for the foreseeable future.”
“Ew! Then I’m definitely not kissing you again.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.” I stomped off toward my place. “Goodbye.”
“You don’t want to invite me in to rewrap your ankle? Play with your toys?” he called after me.
I ignored him, praying that my Jell-O legs wouldn’t give out before I reached my place. Once inside, I leaned against the door, trying to catch my breath.
Oh man, was I in big trouble.
* * *
“I knew it!” Olivia screeched. “This is incredible!”
“Did you just hear what I said?” I cried back at her, covering my eyes with my hand. “I let that arrogant asshole give me two orgasms. Or one—technically, I gave myself the second one.”
Even after a long hot shower, my entire body was still tingling and yet I felt unsatisfied and needy. I couldn’t think of anything but his hands on me, his mouth on me. “And I didn’t even get to see him naked. It’s so unfair.”
I wrapped myself in Nana’s blanket with a hot cup of mint tea and listened to the rain outside. It was coming down hard again.
“I was waiting for you to admit that you wanted him. It was so obvious.”
“But he’s awful!” I had expected her to chastise me like she had each time I told her I was back with Gaz, but she was delighted.
“When has that ever stopped you before? At least he has actual principles, unlike someone else I know. Anyway, all that pent-up hostility had to go somewhere. So how was it?”
“Liv, it was unreal.”
That was the problem. I had never in my life felt like someone was just dying to get his hands on me, like not greedy, but reverent. I’d always had so many hang-ups about my body not being perfect that I’d worked hard to overcome. And had. At least until Gaz, who always had a little comment about how I was hot but could be even hotter.
With Nikos, I really felt like he wanted me as is, as if I were perfect for him, or that I drove him crazy. Every inch of me had felt venerated. I thought of the statue of Aphrodite, glorious in her voluptuousness. And that’s exactly how I felt.
“Cal! This is the best story I’ve ever heard. You should pitch the idea to Harlequin.” She was laughing now, delighted by my story as I had been retelling it. “So are you going to do it again?”
“No way! It was a temporary lapse in reason.” Yeah, it had to be a one-time thing because something was telling me this could get very intense very quickly. And I didn’t trust him. “It’s probably just part of his evil plan to distract me from my work with multiple orgasms. I’m not falling for it.”
“Too bad. It would have spiced up your time there.”
“I can’t believe you’re advising me to hook up with my enemy. Have those pregnancy hormones messed with your brain?”
“No, I just want you to have fun and feel good about yourself. And I want you to finally forget about Gaz, who doesn’t deserve you,” she added.
“I don’t think getting involved with another narcissist is good idea. Especially not one who has multiple children on multiple islands.”
“Whatever you say, but I can’t wait to finally see this guy when we come out next week.”
“You’re really coming?” I could have cried with happiness. I’d never needed my best friend more.
“Yes, we get in next Wednesday. I hope you’ll have some more stories to share by then.”
