Page 50 of Pick Me
I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to convince him. I didn’t particularly want to drive down to Boston again so soon. These last few weekends of the season would be packed at the orchard, and Webb probably needed the extra help. And frankly, I hadn’t been in the mood for socializing since last spring.
But for some reason, I wanted to do this for him. I wanted to be the one to help him, even if he didn’t really need my help.
“Dancing. So, like.” He shot a look at me from under his lashes. “There’ll be guys? Good-looking, single men?”
Oh.Wow.
No good deed went unpunished, huh?
“I… guess? It’s a party, so there’ll be all sorts of people. Men, women if you’re into that.”
“Which you are.” He said it as a statement, but the look he gave me made it sound like a question.
“Sometimes,” I agreed, though I hadn’t been attracted to a woman in… Damn, had it really beenmonths?
And double damn, how long had it been since I’d been attracted to anyone but Goodman?
I cleared my throat. “You know, the more I think about it, we don’t need to go to this party. I can just ask Jason to—”
“Nah. Let’s go.”
“What?”
“We should go to the party. I’m game. And we can get separate hotel rooms this time. For privacy.”
“Oh.” My fingers twitched to touch him. “Yeah. Okay.”
Remember he’s a billion years younger than you, idiot.
He’s barely figured himself out.
He’s starting his career, and you’re trying to cling to yours.
He’s hot, you’re horny, that’s all this is.
Remember all the reasons you put a stop to this weeks ago.
But the words of reason refused to sink in.
“You can see if Myles or one of your other acceptable fuck buddies is free tonight. Because, I’m telling you as your friend, you totally need to get laid, Knox—” Gage laid a sympathetic hand on my bicep, and it sent a bolt of lust to my balls so sweetly painful I had to grip the counter.
I snorted. He had no idea.
“—and so do I.”
Oh.
* * *
By the time Gage and I stood on Myles’s penthouse balcony that night, I recognized that the enormity of the punishment had fuck all to do with the size of the good deed.
I also regretted that I hadn’t tied him to the bed in my hotel room or conveniently lost Myles’s address when Gage had shown up at my door in a pair of tight as fuck green trousers, a fitted patterned shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and his hair even more mussed and just-fucked than usual.
If we’d still been doing friendly erection checks, I would have told him honestly that his dick print was very, very visible, and I was extremely uncomfortable.
“You look… nice,” I’d gritted out instead, because never let it be said that being almost forty had taken away my awkwardness.
“Yeah? Okay, good. It’s thanks to Toby, my almost brother-in-law,” he’d explained, running a hand down his shirt over his flat, toned abs. “When I told him what I’d worn out the last time we were in town, he’d immediately FedEx’d me this outfit and a couple more.” He’d grinned slyly.Sexily. “He says that while he admires the ‘youthful insouciance’ of my T-shirt collection, wearing them in public makes it impossible to take me seriously. So what do you think?” He’d spun in a circle. “Does this say serious?”
