Page 20 of Devil in Disguise
“Whose fault is that?” she asked.
He sighed. “Mine. Right. Text me the name of that book.”
Who got involved with a virgin, then worried he wouldn’t be able to keep up with her? What the hell was she going to expect? Because her fantasies were all over the damn map. He’d suspected for a while now that some of them were meant to behisfantasies, and now that he knew about that book …
“Text me the other books, too,” he decided to say. Getting adventurous with Dyma wasn’t a terrible thing.
But he still wasn’t up for the strap-on.
They had a split-personality relationship, was what it was. When he was home, they played video games or ping-pong or pool in Harlan’s game room, and never mind that watching Dyma draped over a pool table, her ass in the air and barely one toe on the floor, in front of Annabelle and Harlan and hermom,was his definition of a torture session.
At least he always won. So far. But then, he’d played a lot of pool. At video games,shetended to win. She’d get so pumped up by that, though, that she’d suggest “going for a drive” with him, and …
Also, last night, they’d done a video call. Just faces, but Dyma’s face while she orgasmed …
Wait. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking all this now. Very bad idea, when you were half-dressed. Especially because tomorrow, he’d be back over there, eating a family dinner, playing a video game on the couch, listening to Dyma talk and getting those sidelong looks from her innocent blue eyes, that little smile that showed her dimples. He grabbed the collared shirt from his locker and buttoned it over his T-shirt, then stuffed the tails into his Wranglers and buckled his belt.
Harlan came over and sat on the bench beside him. “Hey,” he said. “Good job out there.”
“You too.” Owen waited, because Harlan looked keyed up. He was normally the most relaxed guy you’d ever meet, but not right now.
Harlan said abruptly, “Jennifer wants to make sure Dyma’s using protection. And that you are.”
Oh. Well,thiswas new. Owen pulled on a sock. “So why doesn’t she ask her?”
Harlan scowled. Another thing he didn’t do much. “Could you make this tougher? She has. Dyma says she’s fine and Jennifer shouldn’t worry. Of course she worries. Then she tells me, likeIshould worry. I said I’d ask. I’m asking. Man, she’s pregnant. She’s got hormones all over the place. OfcourseI’m asking.”
“Uh-huh,” Owen said. “Well, see, that’s an issue I’d be real concerned about, too. If we were having sex.”
Harlan stared. Owen couldn’t blame him. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“Uh …” Harlan ran a hand over his carefully tended scruff of beard. Wide receivers. They still looked as neat and clean at the end of the game as they did at the beginning. It was easy to hate wide receivers. Harlan went on, clearly picking his words carefully, “So … it’s not just that you won’t sleep with high-school girls. Is there a, well, a problem, bro? With the divorce and all, too? Is that it?”
It took Owen a minute. Then he laughed. “Like I can’t get it up? Nope. I can hardlynotget it up by now. You know those commercials that say to seek medical attention if your erection lasts more than four hours? That’s me. That girl’s going to kill me. Just … she’s not even in college yet. Got a whole lot of living to do, and college is different. Getting away from home, new place, new friends. New life.”
Harlan was squinting at him. “So you’re sort of … setting her free.”
Owen pulled on the other sock, possibly savagely. “Yes. No. I don’t know. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I said we shouldn’t have sex until she’d started school, until she’d had a chance to look around and be sure. I don’t want her thinking later on that I took advantage of her. I don’t want Jennifer thinking it, either. I can’t exactly go back on that now, can I? Not now that I said it.”
“Man.” Harlan shook his head, then clapped Owen on the shoulder. “I always knew you were stronger than me, but …damn.”
“Yeah, well, it’s about to kill me, so there’s that.” He didn’t mention the stuff theyhaddone. None of Harlan’s business how hard it was to keep his hands off Dyma, or how little he’d succeeded.
“All righty, then.” Harlan got to his feet. “Guess that’s it. Except that it sucks to be you. I mean, I’ve got an eight-months-pregnant fiancée. Think I’d better go home and thank my lucky stars that I still …”
“Yeah,” Owen said. “You’d better do that.”
A week later, Dyma was ten days out from heading up to Seattle to start college, and he still hadn’t had sex with her. He hadn’t made the kind of promises to her that he wanted to, and what was worse—she hadn’t made them to him. He hadn’t even bought her a car.
He’d asked Jennifer what she thought about it, because frankly, he wasn’t thrilled about Dyma bicycling back and forth to work every day. She didn’t even always wear her helmet, and it drove him nuts, never more than when he saw her for himself, flying down a hill with her pale-blonde hair blown back by the wind and her skull completely unprotected.
Jennifer had said, “There’s no place to park a car up there. There’s a car-sharing service if she does need to drive. And Owen, I appreciate it, but …”
“Yeah,” he said. “I get it. If you thought she needed a car, you and Harlan would buy it for her.”
“Well, yes. I realize you can afford it. That’s not the point. It’s …”
