Page 45 of The Home Grown
“It wouldn’t be very good of me to let you sink yourself into oblivion on the premise of keeping up with me. Let’s not kid ourselves—I’m double the size of you.”
“You,” she says, pointing her index finger into my chest, “do not know who you’re dealing with.”
And just like that, I turn on the flirting. There’s something about knowing she’s not interested that only makes me want to pursue her more. The thrill of the chase—I can’t helpmyself.
“Ellie—come on, we both know that I’ll win, or we’ll end up in bed together. Drinking lowers inhibitions, intensifies emotions and?—”
She scowls at me.
“I will not end up in bed with you. You may have a queue of women ready to crawl between your sheets, but I’m not one of them.”
And without so much as a second thought, she takes another shot, wincing as she swallows.
“I told you … I’m closed for business,” I say.
“Right. The whole ‘no sex before marriage thing’. Or is that another ploy to coerce me into bed with you? It’s the ideal scenario for you, I guess.”
“Just because I want to sleep with you doesn’t mean I’ll coerce you,” I say. “I could win you over with my charm if I really wanted to … failing that, there’re always the mental images I could concoct. Right. Up. Here.” I tap my temple, and she tuts.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what? I’m not doing anything.” I muster my dirtiest grin to get a bigger reaction out of her.
“Trying to flatter me. And whatever you’re thinking. Stop that too.”
“We both know you’d fall into bed with me, given the right circumstances,” I say.
I’m kidding at this point. There’s no way she’dactuallysleep with me, but since I’m trying to make light of this unique situation, I figure it can’t hurt to joke.
“I need another drink,” she says.
“If that’s what it takes…”
That wins me a scowl. And you know what? I quite like angry Ellie—all set on being pissed off.
Imagine if she wanted to tie me up and do semi-mean things to me.
Damn.
Despite the booze in my system, my dick wakes up to the thought of being restrained to the bed and having Ellie bossing over me, denying me an orgasm until I’m begging for it.
I filethatin the bank for later as she brushes past me.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I say.
She’s looking through the bottles of alcohol in her collection and stops at a fancy looking gin.
“Because you’re not keeping up?” she snipes back.
Johnny’s voice rings through my head … thepartying and late nights need to be done with…
But watching her pour herself a drink is all the encouragement I need to ignore it. I’m competitive by nature and there’s no way I’m losing here.
I sink another shot while Ellie grabs a bottle of something else before pouring a measure into her glass.
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough, anyway? Maybe you shouldn’t mix…”
“I know when I’ve had enough. I don’t need a guy telling me what to do—especially one who’s led me on.”
