Page 74 of On Merit Alone
Ira laughed. “You look surprised.”
“I’mshocked,” I admitted.
“Why?” he asked, still laughing.
“Because I thought you were nice!” I said. “You’re the last person I expected this from.”
The rich sound of his laughter continued into the night as he stepped toward me. Plucking the ball from my hands, he let it drop to the ground. The echo of the dead bounces was the only sound between us as he closed in on me, his body close as he ran a hand up my arm. When that hand skated up over my shoulder, along my neck, and under my jaw, he pressed a thumb to the bottom of my chin and lifted.
When I met his eyes, they were molten in a way I hadn’t seen from him before.
“Just because I’m nice doesn’t mean I’m not wondering what you got going on under the jersey, Six,” he said. “It just means I’m usually too polite to ask.”
“And now?” I asked.
His eyes dropped low. “Now I’m not feeling polite.”
I tipped my chin higher. “You’ll have to actually win to get me out of my clothes, King. It’s funny that you think you have a chance.”
He smiled—a full on grin chock full of smug arrogance and amusement. Leaning down, he entered my space as he ran his eyes up and down my features. His lips came dangerously close to mine but didn’t quite touch. Unconsciously, I leaned forward, chasing for contact. And not missing a beat, he pulled just out of reach, chuckling. “Light work, Six.”
He broke away and I felt a rush of emptiness at that loss of connection. But I also felt a rush of excitement. I’d never done anything like this and doing it with Ira spiked my heart rate to game playing levels.
“Me first?” I asked as Ira went to stand under the hoop.
“Be my guest,” he said, motioning for me to take a shot. And that’s how our game of Strip HORSE began.
Our veryanticlimacticgame of Strip HORSE…
Every shot I made, Ira made with ease, and contrary to the way my day had gone, I made each shot just as easy.
Boring.
It wasn’t that I was trying to get naked, per se… but I did wantsomethingto happen.
It was after I made yet another shot that I put my hands on my hips and huffed. “This isn’t going to work. We’re making everything.”
His laughter filled the court and filled my chest as it always did. “Easy, Six. You want me naked that bad?”
I crossed my arms. “At least something would be happening.”
“Sorry. I’ve been taking it easy,” he admitted.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. For some reason, I thought you would be shy.”
“I’m not,” I said. “Why would you think that?”
He shrugged. “Cause you’re shy about things that have to do with yourself. I guess I thought your body was included.”
I blinked. He was spot on. While I wasn’t shy about what I had going on the outside of me, the inside was a whole different story. “Do you have, like, X-ray vision?”
He smiled. “God, I wish I did. I can never tell what’s going on in your head, and I want to.”
“I thought you wanted me naked.”
“I want a lot, Merit.”
