Page 130 of On Merit Alone
After he kissed me, then downright scolded me for “taking it spectacularly too far”, we spent a couple minutes straightening each other out before I grabbed his hand and led us back into the main club. It was no secret to anyone we were with that we were fooling around. I mean, we had to be gone for at least thirty minutes. But curiously, when we arrived in front of our friends, who had all gravitated toward each other in the unity of taking bets on if we were hooking up, Ira was quiet.
“Oh! Welcome back, you filthy animals!” Ira’s teammate Troy said as we approached the table. This had the whole group cheering like crazy, like we were on some sort of display.
I didn’t really care. My people knew what I was about, I wasabout Ira, and I’m pretty sure his knew too. But instead of laughing or fist bumping or whatever it is guys did when they were being praised for “getting some”, Ira just raised his hand to the back of his neck and averted his eyes, pretending not to notice.
I looked at him then. Admiring the way he could look so cool while somehow also looking shy. I'm sure to everyone else he didn’t look shy. To everyone else he probably looked bored, maybe a little tired of this place. But I knew differently. I could feel the way his fingertips trailed the small of my back, tracing them along the seam of where my top met my skirt, tethering me to him. I could see how his yellow-brown complexion looked flushed and damp. I could hear how he had to clear his throat before every response, his mind obviously somewhere else.
It was getting so bad that when one of Ira’s buddies clapped him over his shoulder and asked if he was coming to the next bar with everyone, I had to speak up and say, “No, he’s busy” as I grabbed him by the hand and yanked him out of there. After we said goodbye to my teammates and collected the rest of my things, I pulled Ira out by his fingers saying, “C’mon King, you’re blushing.”
I had only been half kidding, but now in the light of day I could tell that hehadactually been blushing. And judging by the red of his golden cheeks now, there was something still playing on his mind.
This morning, he had woken up before me, and in the hour or so he’d been up, he’d taken Cash out on a walk, picked up breakfast, made us coffee, and was currently making himself busy with something across the room. Something that looked a lot like organizing and reorganizing the stacks of paper on my desk.
This fidgeting had to be about the cutest thing I’d ever witnessed, and if I was truly mean I would let it continue. But the poor guy was dying and he’d been so earnest with me the night before, I could do the same.
“Ira,” I said, setting my cup of coffee down on the bedside table.Hearing his name, his head snapped up and he looked to me hopefully. Excited. Like he’d been waiting for this the entire morning. I stifled a chuckle. “Question.”
“Shoot.”
“Do you need to talk after doing sexual things, or do you need to be alone?” I asked and when he looked at me knowingly, I gave him a soft smile.
He sighed, sounding almost relieved that he didn’t have to ask himself. Still he shrugged, like he was embarrassed. “Talk. Definitely talk.”
I smiled. I knew it. Reaching out a hand, I beckoned him over. “Come here then, will you?”
He wasted no time, coming around my side of the bed and sitting in front of me. He took my hand and rubbed a slow thumb across the soft middle of my palm. I wrapped my fingers around it and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I'm fine.”
Ducking down, I tried to catch his eyes. “I'm sorry I fell asleep. Without talking about what happened, I mean.”
“It’s fine, Six. You were tired,” he said.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “What’s on your mind?”
“I-uh,” he started, but as he let his eyes wander over my face he trailed off. I bit my lip, sort of starting to worry. “It’s nothing, never mind. “
“No, no. Ira, sit. Talk,” I said encouragingly. When he just continued to look at me with a set jaw, I breathed out. “So, last night… Did I cross a line?”
“No.”
“Did you have fun?
He swallowed. “Clearly.”
I nodded. “But something’s on your mind.”
He cleared his throat. “I uh, I don’t do that sort of thing with everybody.”
I couldn’t help my smirk. “I would hope not.”
“No, I—I mean with just anybody. I don’t really sleep around,” he sighed deeply and pressed his fingertips to the bridge of his nose.
I felt a small degree of panic slip in. I’d never seen him like this. I hope I didn’t truly cross a line. “Are you comfortable with sex, Ira?”
“Yeah, Six,” he sighed, smiling self-deprecatingly. “I don’t know why I’m acting like a damn teenager right now, I just—I just want this to come out right.”
I swallowed. “Okay. You’re scaring me a little to be honest, but okay. Did I hurt you or something?”
