Page 45 of The Playboy SEAL
I think I have, but she just didn’t recognize the song. It’s criminal. I tighten my hold on her waist.
I shrug. “What can I say? Sometimes I don’t have thegreatest material to work with. You should give me some better lines.”
She spins in my grasp. “Quite the opposite,” she says. “I like the challenge. I should walk around quoting Shakespeare. You’d never be able to rap anything ever again.”
I kiss her to shut her up. “You don’t give me enough credit,” I growl into her mouth. “You really want to wait until tonight? At my house?”
She moves her lips against mine, and it’s a whisper of carnal pleasure. She’s not kissing, just brushing, and my dick responds immediately.
“I’d like that,” she says.
And that seals the deal. I would have gone to town right now against this glass, on the floor, sofa, or her bed would have worked as well, but if she’s asking this of me, I’ll make it happen. Not because I think it’s what I’m supposed to do, I realize. I want to.
I nod and gently push her to arm’s length. “I’m leaving right now. I hope you don’t find it in bad taste. I want to fuck you, you understand? Also, I’m technically allowed to fuck you. You’re in my arms with your hands wandering my body. You want it to be special, something I don’t understand but will relent, but I have to go before I trip and fall and my cock ends up buried inside your pussy, you understand?”
She bites her lip. “You understand I want that?”
Blowing out a breath, I let her words hit me square in the dick. “Come over later. We’ll have dinner.” The doorknob in my hand, I peer at her over my shoulder. She hasn’t moved. I’d fathom she hasn’t taken a breathsince I last spoke.
“And we’ll do it?” she asks, eyes wide.
I chuckle. “Oh, we’ll do it all right.”
I shut her apartment door and suck in a deep breath. The rules are exhausting. Relationships are exhausting. Not only am I worried about what I want and feel, but I almost have to anticipate what she is feeling as well. If I don’t want to come off as a dick, that is. I have too many other dick tendencies to not give this my best effort.
As I drive to Tahoe’s house, I find myself hoping Teala is in fact an awful lay.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Teala
Because neither ofus has any clue what we’re doing, there’s a lot of gray area and awkward questions. Against my better judgment, I’m at Charlotte’s house, and my girlfriends are all staring at me like I’m a marmoset at the zoo. Eyes squinted, like maybe I’m a figment of their imagination. Let’s be honest, they’re also in complete shock.
“One more time. No sex? You haven’t had sex with him?” Jasmine asks. She’s the one who called the emergency meeting. Jasmine shakes her head while Charlotte laughs. “It’s unbelievable. We thought for sure you’ve been screwing that man the entire time.”
“I didn’t think she was,” Carina interjects, her voice soft and soothing.
I fake mock outrage. “Thank you, Care. Someone who doesn’t think me a liar!” I am, but not about what they’re suggesting. No need to correct that minor oversight. “I’ve followed your advice implicitly. It’s the fifth date tonight, and we have plans,” I explain. Normally I’d waxpoetic about dicks and sex just to jar my friends and shake things up, but talking about having sex with Macs is different. The thought makes me shiver. “It’s hot in here, Charlotte,” I add. I fan myself with my hand. I’m turning a bright shade of chartreuse.
Carina lays a hand on my back. “It’s going to be okay. I know what you’re feeling right now.”
I look at her like she’s mad. She’s living with a SEAL whom she hasn’t fucked yet. I saw her boyfriend, Smith, from afar once, and afar is how I want to keep him. He’s scary and beautiful, but by Carina’s accounts, he’s also the nicest man on the damn planet. I didn’t get one of those. I probably wouldn’t want one of those either. “Things have a way of working out whether you think they’re good ideas or not.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Don’t do that, Care. That thing when you’re trying to make it seem like you’re wise and all-knowing, when you just know how to throw words together to make the biggest impact.”
Carina smiles and looks down at her lap. “I can’t help it.” She laughs then, and I’m relieved I didn’t hurt her feelings with my jest. “It’s a good sentiment, though. Regardless of my…talents.”
Charlotte clears her throat. She bumped the thermostat down and grabbed a veggie tray from the kitchen. “It’s leftover from my leggings party last week. I wouldn’t eat the ranch, but the veggies should be good,” she explains. Charlotte works from home as a web designer, so a leggings party sounds like something she’d embrace fully and truly.
Carina crunches a carrot like a little rabbit.
Jasmine thanks her with a snide remark about cleaning out her fridge once in a blue moon, then she turns to me again to pepper me with questions. Vegas is brought up, and they’ve hailed me the winner—Charlotte, begrudgingly. “There’s really no way to prove she isn’t lying. I saw the way that man looked at you, Teala,” Charlotte squalls.
Jasmine chimes in, and they get lost in a conversation about Macs’s looks. I’m not even mad because they don’t over exaggerate any one detail more than another.
My watch pings a message, and I glance down.Photo from Macsis displayed on my wrist. The three words make my heart pound. I try to be casual as I bring my arm to my lap and tap the message to bring up the photo. It’s a photo of his neatly made bed. My insides turn to molten lava, and Charlotte could crank the AC down to arctic level and I’d still feel hot. I click it off quickly.
The urge to tell him that photosareequipped to say more than words arises, but I squash it. It would ruin the moment, and what a moment it is. My friends are dissecting my love life as they compare it to their own. Carina is lost in a text message, smiling like a lunatic, but she chimes in when they start a conversation about kissing.
