Page 12 of Play to Win
“She’s an intimacy instructor now,” Lance added.
“Wow. I don’t remember much about her except that her parents kept her on a tight leash,” Glory stated. “Intimacy instructor is just a fancy word for sex teacher, right?”
Ethan poured vodka, green apple schnapps and a little apple juice into the shaker.
“Damn! Portia’s teaching folks how to have sex. That’s…ah…that’s really something,” Lance said.
Ethan snapped the top on the shaker and began to shake, as if his life depended on the perfect combination of the liquids inside. He moved his arms fast, creating a loud sound and stared across the bar to the walls on the other side of the restaurant where a dozen TV screens were mounted. Baseball was on a few screens, CNN on others and42, the Jackie Robinson movie on a few more.
“Isn’t it something, Ethan?” Lance asked in a louder voice.
“Yeah, sex is something, when you can get it,” he replied. “When’s the last time you got laid, Lance?”
Ethan knew Lance would never answer that question, because he’d taken a vow of celibacy after his girlfriend of eight years ran off with her trainer. Lance’s vow was only known to the brothers, so Ethan felt a little low for asking, but he desperately needed them to stop talking about Portia and her occupation. The entire conversation was wreaking hell on his mind, and his body, for that matter. He was damn near jubilant that the counter where he was making the drinks hid the raging hard-on he was now sporting.
“I’m going to take this order down and then I’m heading into the back to finish unpacking today’s deliveries. You can take over,” Ethan said after a few moments of Lance’s complete silence.
Another group came in and Ethan took and filled their drink order while sending their food requests back to the kitchen. It was fifteen minutes later when he finally made it back to the stock room. He walked past the neatly stacked rows of shelves and headed straight to the bathroom.
Ethan cursed as he locked the door and leaned against it. His head fell back, slamming into the wood with a thump, once, twice and then a third time as he closed his eyes and tried to force her from his memory. He shouldn’t have been this affected by her. Not after twelve years, and certainly not after all he’d been through. But he was. Dammit! He was totally stimulated by seeing Portia giving that blow job and kissing Portia, holding her in his arms and feeling her breasts pressed against his chest. She’d even moved her hips while they kissed. It was a slight motion, but one Ethan knew was in response to feeling his erection.
“Fuck!”
That was both a scream of rage and what he wanted to do with Portia. He gripped his length that pressed hot and hard against his thigh through his jeans. He would not. Could not. He wasn’t a horny teenager anymore and he hadn’t jerked off since he was fifteen years old. He hadn’t had a wet dream since then either, but this morning had been a pretty close call. What the hell was this woman doing to him? And how soon could he get over it, because this was not going to work. He wasnotgoing to relieve himself to the memory of her licking a damned dildo!
But he was going to continue thinking about her. He hadn’t stopped since seeing her at that hotel. And when he realized she’d thought he’d been in on the plan to embarrass her all those years ago, he hadn’t been able to get the memories of their time alone and how strange it’d made him feel back then out of his head.
She was the smartest girl he’d ever known and her eyes were the prettiest he’d ever seen. Sure, girls told him he had pretty eyes all the time. It was one of those things his guidance counselor had said would always attract girls to him. Instead of his brains, which he apparently wasn’t using since at the time of that meeting in the eighth grade, he’d been failing all his classes. But Portia never said anything about his eyes. She only talked about Algebra.
“What do you like to do in your spare time?” he’d asked her one day when he’d been walking her home from the library. “I mean, besides tutoring guys like me.”
“I don’t know any other guys like you and you’re the only one I’m tutoring.”
He’d gotten her name from a list of possible tutors in the guidance office, so he’d just assumed she had other students. Learning he was her only one was a shock, but made him feel good nonetheless.
“But what else to you like to do? You don’t play any sports.”
“No. I’m not into sports.” She’d been staring ahead, but suddenly looked over at him. “Except football. I like football.”
He’d grinned. “I love football.”
“I know.” She’d smiled at him then and something deep inside his chest had warmed. He’d felt that feeling when he was with her before but hadn’t really thought too much about it. On this day, he wondered what it meant. “I also like to read and sing.”
He’d already figured she read a lot. She was always carrying stacks of books that didn’t look like textbooks. The singing was different. He never would’ve expected that response. “Are you good at singing?” Of course she was, Portia was good at everything. “Can I hear you sing sometime?”
She shook her head so hard he thought those stud earrings would fall out of the holes in her ears. “Do you sing for your boyfriend?” That question had been a surprise to him and by the look on her face, to Portia as well. He didn’t know why he’d asked it, the words had just tumbled free.
“No.” She spoke the one word softly.
He’d wanted to ask why but they were across the street from her house by then and she’d hurriedly said bye before running the distance to her front door. For a few minutes he’d stood there just staring at the closed door wondering why no guy had snatched her up. She was a hell of a lot nicer to be around than Melissa or Cassidy and the rest of the cheerleaders. She actually spoke in full unique sentences instead of echoing everything he said and following up with an insane giggle. Of course, she didn’t dress like the other girls in their skintight jeans and tops with all their cleavage showing, but he liked her quiet style. And her tops were usually fitting enough that he got a good idea of how nice it would be to touch her pert breasts.
But that was never gonna happen. No way was a girl like Portia Merin ever gonna be interested in a guy like him from the House. She probably had her life all planned out—an Ivy League college, grad school, some high-powered career, money and success. All he had going for him was the hope that he’d at least get a football scholarship to pay his way through college. He didn’t come from a good family like Portia, but instead from an abusive father who’d finally done them both a favor and died and the snickers of all the grown-ups in town telling him he’d never amount to anything just like his dad.
Walking away that day he knew there was no use thinking of how pretty Portia’s eyes were or how he liked her smile and really wanted to hear her sing. She was too good for a guy like him and they’d both be better off if he never told her he liked her.
Ever.
When the memory faded and his mind was once again focused on the here and now, Ethan sighed heavily. He pulled his hands from his crotch and dragged them down his face, still believing that Portia Merin was too good for the likes of a guy like him.
