Page 47 of Lessons in Faking
Anyway, I hadnotmissed this. If anything, it had kept me in bed a day longer, pretending I was still too sick to start catching up.
“So much.” I flashed him a smile that said the opposite and reached for the rest of the bhatura, ripping off a piece. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything more fun with you,” I added.
And it wasn’t supposed to sound like that: kind of sexual, inviting... flirty.It shouldn’t have sounded like that.I scrambled for another piece of bread.Did it only sound like that to me?
The daring glance I made as I leaned back caught a glint of amusement in his eyes. I didn’t try to look away. It would’ve cost me a hell of a lot of willpower, and I wanted to save that for when I actually needed it.
With the way the energy in the room shifted, it probably wouldn’t take long.
I was sure he’d take the tension right out of our situation with a bad joke or a mean comment that I couldn’t be sure he really meant anymore. And I was grateful because it would take my mind off... The Incidents. From his lips on mine and those strangled sounds of his—ah, fuck. I just did it, didn’t I?
“I can think of a few things.” The words sounded so casual coming out of his mouth, I hadn’t fully grasped their meaning until one, two, three seconds ticked by, and he looked my way again. “Can’t you?”
This time, my stomach actually flipped. With all the memories of past things, and Incidents, lingering touches and random acts of kindness. There was nothing I could do about it. Trust me, I tried.
I searched his face for even a hint of mockery, but the way his tongue poked the inside of his cheek to suppress a smile didn’t seem mocking at all. His gaze wasn’t ridiculing in the slightest. It felt genuine, daring, a little teasing, though not in the way I was used to.
Trying to laugh it off didn’t work. I was embarrassed by the attempt, which sounded awfully close to a nervous giggle.
“You can?”
The words just slipped out. Andfuck, if they didn’t sound as sexual, inviting, and flirty as those that had gotten me into this predicament, I didn’t know what would. My tone naturally adapted that slight drawl—the one I used to get free drinks at bars, or past a bouncer.
McCarthy smirked, slow and dangerous. “Absolutely.”
He maneuvered me on top of him, and his hands on my waist brought all the wrong memories back. I sucked in a sharp breath. It took everything in me not to acknowledge the situation I found myself in.
Straddling his lap. Still not wearing pants.
His grip around my waist tightened. I squirmed when his thumb drew circles on my bare hip.
“You know why I’m here,” he said.
And I thought,No. I had absolutely no idea. Not when I was on top of him and he was touching me and I wasenjoyingit. That wasn’t how things should be between us.
He was everywhere, all-consuming. If someone asked for my name, the only one that would make it past my lips was his.
All I did know was that I couldn’t just feel his hands on my skin or his breath on my lips anymore, but him underneath me, pressed tightly against the waistband of his jeans as I searched for more friction. Just a little more. To soothe that aching need suddenly in every fiber of my being.
His head fell back with a groan, the sound rumbling through his chest and right between my legs. When his eyes fluttered open again, he looked at me like I could give him the entire world.
I expected fireworks and tingling and the heat pooling between my legs to thank me when he seemed to finally close the distance between us. Instead, he leaned his forehead against mine, his breath right on my lips, and didn’t kiss me.
“Pearson product-moment correlation?”
I thought I must’ve heard him wrong. My breath still stuttered in my throat; I still felt him hard underneath me. So why would he—
“Define it,” he said.
“What?”
Instead of explaining, he asked, “You want to kiss me as much as I want to kiss you, right?”
I nodded.Quickly.
Was my eagerness embarrassing? Yes, absolutely. Would I regret it tomorrow? Among other things, probably. Did I care? No.Not at all.
“Good,” he whispered against my lips. “You give me the right answers, and I’ll kiss you.” He lowered his hands from my waist, skimming my hips and then cupping my ass. He was throbbing underneath me, almost pleading when he said, “And give them to me fast.Please.”
