Page 79 of Rules in Love
Once exorcised by waffle syrup, we again piled onto the sidewalk and headed to school. For most of the way, I walked with my hands on Iris’s shoulders, steering her through the masses as she played Candy Crush on my phone. I’d just apologized to yet another victim of her feet when she looked up at me, then held the phone into my face. “What’s that? Daddy, what is this in your phone? It kind of looks like a boobie.”
“Shit!” All too late, I made a dive for the phone, clutching and snatching it from her tiny hands. But the damage was done. Tutting smugly, Evie dropped her sunglasses to her nose to cast the evil eye at me while Jocelyn’s legs buckled beneath her. I remained silent, looking at the store windows we passed like nothing happened.
“Is it a boobie, Daddy?”
“Ahhh, yes, yeah. I think, yeah. That looks like a boobie. Someone sent it to me last night by mistake. Wrong number, I think.”
“Why would someone send a picture of a boobie on their phone?”Pray she still wonders this in ten years.
“Yes, why, Finn? Why would someone send a picture of a boobie?”Thank you, Jocelyn.
“Well, uh, well…not having boobies myself, I’m not one to answer that question. Evie, why would you send someone a picture of your boobie?” If looks could kill, I’d be sixty-five feet under.
“What? Me? God, I don’t know. It’s not my bloody boob. Jeez, I, uhh… I imagine it was supposed to be sent to a doctor…to check if it’s healed after surgery. Yeah, surgery.”
Evie’s gasping for air and Iris’s determined questioning of what type of doctor would receive such a picture were suddenly drowned out by the thumping of my heart. Fresh as the breeze that tussled her curls, I spotted Scarlett on her walk to work.
“Oh, there’s Scarlett. Gotta go, bye now, love ya!” I gave Iris a quick kiss on the head and was off before anyone could argue. “Red! Wait up,” I called, weaving through people to catch her.
“Finn? What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same. You’re not following me, are you, Red?”
“Pfft. You wish. Besides, you walked up behind me. I think an essential part of following someone is being behind them.
“Good point.” I nodded and tapped my temple. “That’s why you’re the brains behind Team Finnlett.” I smiled into a kiss and took her hand. “Now stop proving me wrong and being all cute, or you’ll make me late for work.”
Scarlett swung my hand through the air like she had no cares in the world as she almost skipped down the sidewalk. She was so damn cute. Unfortunately, her carefree demeanor didn’t last long. “Iris saw my boob?”
“Yep, Evie and Jocie did too. It is a very nice boob, Red. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“That may well be the case, but how would you like me to show everyone a dick pic?”
“Scarlett. I’ve never sent you a dick pic. Dick pics are gross.”
“They are, but that’s not the point. The thing is, it’s different for men. You can flash your…” We drew closer to our building, her anti-cock-shot rant continued, and I stole tiny glances at her lips every two or three steps and tried to pay attention. It was really hard—for once, not my cock. It wasn’t far from it, though. But it was the prospect of letting her hand go and not touching her the way I wanted when I wanted. The temptation to take what I could while I could proved too strong. As we passed beneath the neon sign from the 24-hour drugstore next door, a deep, hungry growl rumbled from my chest, and I hooked my arm around her waist and dragged her into the alley.
Wedging her between my body and the brick wall, an arm on either side of her face, I bent down and roughly captured her lips. “Sorry to interrupt.” I wasn’t the slightest bit sorry. “I just needed this before we go in,” I said when I came up for air.
“Gahh, you’re so polite. I love that about you. But there’s no need to apologize. Feel free to interrupt me with your hot tongue at any time.” Scarlett then wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me back onto her lips.
Our all-too-hot, all-too-short make-out was interrupted by a family of rats deciding my Converse was an ideal breakfast. “The vermin may be a sign that I must let you go,” Scarlett said, not fazed in the slightest as she kicked them away, “but we could bail on work. Perhaps, I could pick up some wine and some handcuffs, then drag you back to my place and do some nasty, possibly illegal things to your body. Ooh, that makes me think of all the hiding spots I could drag you into in the office.”
“I have a list, you know,” I said, shaking the last stubborn rodent from my foot. “It’s been a little game of mine for a while, imagining all the dark and private places I would ravage you.”
“You do enjoy a good exploration of my dark and private places.”
“I do. I really, really do. Kiss me again, Red.”
“Okay!”
After that one last kiss, I was painfully hard, thinking things I shouldn’t and still crushing Scarlett against the wall. Glancing to our building, back to Scarlett, and then grimacing, I whined like a brat. “I don’t wanna go to work. Tell me to go to work, Red.”
She ducked under my arm and, facing me, walked back out onto the busy sidewalk. “Go to work, Finn.”
We walked those final few paces toward our door, not looking at each other, not holding hands, not touching at all. Those paces sucked. Jason Wright approaching, looking mighty pissed for a man with a steaming coffee and jelly doughnut, didn’t make them any better. With a knotted brow, he glanced at his watch, then back to us.
“You two decided to join us, did you?” he grumped. “Nice. Maybe you could see your way into going inside and doing some work too?” Barging through the door I held open, he brushed past us, staring disapprovingly over his shoulder as he stuffed his face and then disappeared.
