Page 90 of Conflict
I grin at her. “I’m just checking off a lot of firsts for you, aren’t I?”
Her eyes dance. “Keep it up and you’ll be checking ofallmy firsts.”
Is it wrong that I really hope she means anal?
Not that I’m asking that. I’m not an idiot. I’ve just gotten her back in my life. Way too early for that conversation.
“Can I ask you something?”
She tilts her head, studying me. “Shane, you can ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
“Why’d you wait until you were twenty-five to have sex for the first time? And why the hell did you pick me? I mean,Iknow I’m a catch, but to you, I was just a stranger.”
“A sexy stranger,” she says with a laugh. She toys with the stem of her wine glass and looks at me. “I didn’t have much luck with men, and once I started my internship at Wellsley, I didn’t have the time for them. Between school, work, and interning, I was spread thin enough. Add a man into the mix? No, thank you.”
She gives me a quick rundown of her past exploits and I nearly choke on wine when she tells me about the guy whose mother walked into the room as he went down on her.
“And now it all makes sense.”
Alyssa laughs. “So thank you, Shane, for finally giving me a sexual experience that didn’t make me want to scratch my eyeballs out.”
She cuts into her steak, and I wait as she takes a bite. Her eyes drift closed, and she leans her back, and moans.
Fuck me. The sound is going to haunt me on many sleepless nights in the future.
“Oh my God. I don’t even care if it’s rude to talk with food in my mouth. This is so freaking good,” she tells me, opening her eyes back up and staring at me with awe. “Quit your job immediately. The world deserves your cooking.”
Before I can respond, she tries the risotto. Another moan.
“Scratch that. I don’t want to share you.”
I grin. “They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I’m an equal opportunist and think it works both ways.”
“Is that so?” she asks.
I nod. “Absolutely.” I lean forward. “Tell me. Is it working?”
She holds a hand up and starts ticking things off. “Attractive, good job, cooks, cuddles, and kisses well? Yeah, Shane. What you’ve got going for you is definitely working. Now, shut up so I can eat.”
She’s grinning as she says it, but I do what she asked. We have plenty of time for conversation later.
We eat in a comfortable silence, with Ella Mai crooning softly in the background. When she eats her last bite, she places her napkin on the plate and sits back, her eyes hooded.
“I thought Bryan and I had a good thing going. But this? I could eat like this every night.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her we can make that happen, but I don’t. “Any time you want a good home-cooked meal, you let me know.”
She smiles and looks at me under her lashes. “Careful. I might just take you up on that far too often.”
“If it means I get to see you, I’ll cook every damn day.”
We head to the kitchen and work together doing the dishes and cleaning up. It feels so right, so normal, and it shocks me how quickly I could fall into domesticity with this girl.
As I put away the last cast-iron pan, I turn to Alyssa. “How about a movie?”
She walks toward me and places her hands on my stomach, sliding her palms up until they rest on my chest. “I was thinking something a little more…intimate.”
My cock screams yes; my head tells me it’s too soon.
