Page 103 of Seven Year Itch
My cheeks heat as I realize what I just suggested. As much as I love experiencing these new things with him, I hate that it means checking off another box. Another box checked means anotherstep closer to our little arrangement being over. I press my lips together and eye the menu, trying not to let my mind wander.
“I’m starving. Can we eat here before we head up to your place?”
“Absolutely,” Calder replies with a delicious glint to his eye. “Let’s see if they have any apple pie.”
We order burgers and have a second round of drinks, talking animatedly about our days. It feels shockingly comfortable being immersed in Calder’s world like this. Hanging at his favorite bar, eating a meal with him, talking about work. It’s not the first meal we’ve eaten together, but it’s the first meal we’ve eaten in an establishment, and I can’t help how my mind wanders to wondering what it would be like if we did this more often.
What will it be like when we’re done with the list? Will we really just go back to how we were before? When I see him around Max and Cozy, will it really be like we haven’t had mind-blowing sex?
It is mind-blowing for Calder too, right? It sure seems like he’s not losing any steam on things, but maybe he’s like this with every girl he’s slept with, and I’m just another warm body.
My mind is racing so much that I don’t hear the question Calder asks me.
“So, can I?”
“Can you what?” I ask around a french fry.
“Can I be your plus-one to this award thing?”
My chest swells with emotion over that question. We haven’t talked about this for a few days, so it’s surprising to me that he’s remembered and wants to go. That’s a little date-ish, isn’t it? “You really want to?”
“I know I don’t want you to go with anyone else,” he replies, reaching over and placing his hand on my thigh. “You’re mine until we cross this finish line, right?”
“Right,” I tut as a knot forms in my throat. At this rate it’s shaping up to be quite a finish, and I have no idea how I feel about that.
Chapter 33
Sex Shack
Dakota
“Name something you might hurt yourself riding on,” Steve Harvey says on the TV in Calder’s shop.
“A cactus! A tree stump. A budget airline seat!”
Calder stops varnishing a piece of furniture in his workshop and hits me with a look. “You get that it’s answers that are most common, right?”
“Yes.” I pop a kernel of popcorn in my mouth, my legs swinging from where I’m perched at the butcher block countertop.
“But you’re always wrong. Like every time. You haven’t guessed a single answer correctly this whole evening.”
“So?”
“So...” He sets his paintbrush down and wipes his hands off on his jeans as he walks over to me. He grips my legs to spread them out and he positions himself squarely between my thighs, his hands scoring my flesh as he hits me with a devastatingly sexy look. “You should probably be embarrassed.”
“Shut up.” I reach for a handful of popcorn and toss it in his face.
We’ve grown far too comfortable with each other ever since our hot tub confessions over a week ago. It’s turned into a bit of a free-for-all in our enemies-with-benefits department. He sends me dirty texts during the day that usually make it impossible for me to not drive up the mountain to see him that night. He even stopped by my store one day for lunch, and let’s just say... I put the Be Back in 10 Minutes sign up on my front door real damn quick. There’s something completely irresistible about Calder when he’s in his dirty clothes from working on a job site all day.And shower sex has been checked off the list like three times now with all the sleepovers I’ve had up here.
Sleepovers were never specifically listed in our plan, but they weren’t ruled out either. Trista seems to be enjoying watching me do my drive of shame as I make my way back down the mountain in the mornings. The one downside of sleeping with a man in a very interconnected family, I suppose.
But we haven’t even discussed the PowerPoint checklist in a few days, and I’m pretty sure we only have one thing left before we head back to the sex club.
Have sex at my house.
For some reason, both of us seem to be avoiding that challenge. I’m not sure what Calder’s reason is, but I know mine, and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Randal.
I’m afraid if I bring Calder back into the scene of the crime, we’re going to backslide into the miserable people we were seven years ago.
