Page 36 of Fish out of Water
I should not have been listening so closely to all she had to say. I knew that wasn’t meant to be an offer, but my dick definitely didn’t.
He was more than interested in taking her words literally.
One of Julia’s brows lifted as she watched me, the dark arch slowly climbing up her forehead.
“I really didn’t know that picture was still there.” It was suddenly very important to me that Julia knew I hadn’t looked at it since the night it was sent.
She shrugged. “I’m just giving you a hard time. I’ve got like, a hundred pictures of wieners on my phone.”
And once again I couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“A hundred?”
Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling as she tipped her head back and forth. “Yeah. That seems right.”
“Why in the hell do you have a hundred dick pics on your phone?” And who were these hundred men sending them to her?
“Guys send them all the time on dating apps.” She pulled out her phone, swiped across the screen and flashed it my way, leaving me zero time to brace for the gallery of genitals three inches from my face.
“But why do you save them?” I leaned back, trying to gain a little distance between me and the one-eyed monsters staring back at me.
“When they send me one I send them one back.” She grinned at me. “And I always pick one that’s bigger than theirs.” There was a gleam in her eyes. “A dick for a dick.” She tucked her phone back into her purse and lifted her brows in question. “Are you ready to go eat?”
“I guess.” My head was spinning a little as I grabbed the keys to my car. The more I found out about Julia, the clearer it was that I’d learned nothing in the past ten years.
Dating well-connected women who read the New York Times and shopped at Neiman Marcus left me completely unprepared for the whirlwind that was Banana Pants.
Julia went to grab the door, but I caught her hand. “I’m not just staying here to keep you company.” I leaned to peek out the peephole, looking as far as I could manage before stepping to do the same out the window above the couch. I kept my hold on her, dragging her along with me as I made sure there was nothing strange happening outside. “I don’t trust you not to do something stupid.”
“Like lock myself in the closet with a naked stranger?”
I turned to her. “I’m not a stranger, Banana Pants.” I stepped in closer, loosening my grip on her hand in case she wanted to step away.
Hoping that she wouldn’t do it.
“I’ve had my hand up your shirt, remember?”
She didn’t move as I crowded her space. Didn’t flinch as my fingers came to toy with the hem of her neon t-shirt. They itched with the desire to dip under it once again. Slide across the smooth skin of her belly like they had this morning when I took the money that would have put her in a dangerous position if someone found out she had it.
Her lips barely parted, her tongue sliding out to glide over them before she attempted to cut me off at the knees. “I forgot about that.”
I leaned closer, the tip of my nose almost touching hers. “You’re a liar, Banana Pants.”
She held firm as I came in even closer. “Prove it.”
I skimmed my fingers across her stomach, barely making contact.
She sucked in a breath, but her eyes never left mine, her gaze holding as I risked another touch, the satiny softness of her flesh a torture I couldn’t get enough of.
“Seem familiar?” Another pass of my fingers over her skin.
Julia’s head moved from one side to the other in a slow shake. “Not even a little.”
Allowing her to relegate me to forgettable didn’t sit well, and it made me ballsier than I normally would have been.
I was the man who waited. Bided my time. Made sure I was wanted before putting myself out there.
But for some reason this woman made me want to step outside that.
