Page 146 of The Bet
“Don't you believe me?” Because he needed her to.
“I believe you,” she replied, slowly. “You've been living the life of a monk, or trying to show me that you have.” Her voice turned playful, provocative. “God knows I've wanted to see your goods, Stone.”
He turned his head away, grinning at the ceiling. “You won't be able to handle it, Laronde.”
“No?” she asked, a challenge implicit in that one word answer.
“No.” Jeez. Even having a normal conversation was filled with so much innuendo it was giving him a hard-on. The anticipation, the slow-burn of them getting to know one another, was so much sexier than a quickie with a girl he barely knew.
“Why don’t you let me see,” she asked, moving her hand down, trying to slide it into his lounge pants.
He placed his hand over hers, halting her, as he’d had to so many times before, wondering why he couldn't come clean and say what he needed to. Heck, he'd just tried to initiate the conversation with the bar charts and his little white lie, and here they were moments later with her hand trying to snake into his pants.
On any given day and moment, if the slate was clean, and his conscience cleaner, they'd be having full-on dirty, delicious, mind-numbing sex.
But he could not go there yet.
“Why are you being so coy,” she asked, settling her hand on his chest again. A safer zone. “It's not like this is your first time.” Her voice was hard-to-resist, and downright sexy, and he felt a twitch in his pants.
“Just,” he said, because he couldn’t tell her the truth. “I want to get to know you properly.”
She leaned over and kissed him then. Her soft lips, sweet and tender, brushing against his. “Awww, that is so sweet.”
Being in close proximity to her clouded his thoughts. Lying like this on the bed was not the way to have that conversation. It had to be sitting down. Talking. In a position that wasn't conducive to touching, or kissing, or fondling.
Somewhere like in a church would do it.
“Well, since you're not going to let me strip you naked and ride you,” she said, very, very slowly, so that each word dropped into his brain and lingered there, “I should get home. I have to finish off something for the online course guy. He's dropped it on me last minute, like he usually does.” She slipped off the bed and smoothed down her clothes.
Focus on the online course guy, he told himself. Not on her riding you naked.
He swallowed, slowly rising to standing, both his body and his manhood.
“Do you need to do his work? You've got so many other jobs going on now.”
“Only for a few months,” she said. “I've told him, only until Easter. Cara wants to go away to Cancun next month, a bunch of us friends are thinking about it, and I’ve managed to save up a good chunk.”
His ears pricked up. “You're going to Cancun? Is that for spring break?” He'd heard all sorts of stories about students on spring break.
“Not for spring break. Earlier. Cara wants to go with a couple of our friends. I'm not so keen, but I'd like to get away. I might go home and see my family.”
“What about my offer to go to The Hamptons? It still stands, and you can ride me naked there, Laronde.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Now there’s an offer I can’t resist.”
Because it was her, because he could never be too careful, he wasn’t sure if she was joking or being serious.
“I don’t want to rush anything with you,” he said, keeping his distance, before she came up to him and tempted him with her touch. “I think it’s nicer to get to know one another slowly.” For a change.
“I’ll think about it,” she promised, walking up to him.
“You've got to go home for online course guy, remember,” he told her, as her hands skirted around his waist, and she pressed herself against him, soft, and sweet-smelling, and hard-to-resist. And she was giving him seriously blue balls each time he saw her.
“Hold that thought, Stone,” she said, leaning up to kiss him, and taking all of his resolve with her.
~ ~ ~
“And to think this was the girl who swore that Xavier Stone was the biggest of all the assholes she’d ever met.”
