Double Dare(114)

“So what if you do?” he asked. “The more of you to love, to taste, to fuck.”

And I gasped.

“Dirty language at the table, Professor?” I cooed coyly.

“With you, baby girl, always,” he rumbled, eyes hungry, big body already rock solid.

But the meal didn’t devolve into innuendos. If anything, Stone and I had amazing conversation, we were a really great match with similar interests and ideas.

“Where’d you get this?” I asked, taking the wine bottle in hand, gazing at the label questioningly. It was something really fancy with a name I couldn’t pronounce, Chateau D’Yquem. How do you say that? DEE-keem? De-KEM? It was expensive for sure, the label in elegant script with an etching of a crown.

Stone paused a moment.

“France,” was all he said.

“Oh you were in France?” I asked. “I’m hoping to go sometime, maybe in the next couple years. It’ll be so fun, I love pastries and I hear every other shop in Le Marais is a bakery,” I licked my lips slightly.

Stone was silent for a moment, watching the flicker of my tongue, mesmerized before replying.

“You’ve never been?” he asked casually, leaning back in his chair, that big form relaxed, sated from the food.

“Nope, never,” I replied, patting my lips delicately. “It’s expensive. Plane tickets out to Europe are now six hundred minimum and I have to save for college and all that. But,” I said with a shy smile, “I’ve wanted to go to Paris so bad since I was a little girl, you know meet my Prince Charming on top of the Eiffel Tower.”

And the big man smiled at me tenderly, reaching forward to push a tendril of my hair behind my ear.

“You will,” he murmured throatily. “A girl as beautiful as you will absolutely meet her Prince Charming one day.”

And I was a little stung because it didn’t sound right. Wasn’t Stone supposed to proclaim, “Oh, I’m your Prince Charming, I’m going to carry you off into the sunset, come with me on my white horse?” Instead, it sounded like he was saying, “You’re a sweet little girl and Prince Charming is coming, but it’s not me.”

So I frowned.

“What do you mean, I’ll meet my Prince Charming one day?” I said slowly. As much as I wanted to keep this a nice dinner and enjoy myself, I couldn’t let a comment like that just slip.

And Stone realized his error immediately.

“Evie, you’re young,” he ground out, “It’s hard to know what you want, you haven’t experienced the world. You have so much ahead of you.”

I was silent for a moment.

“Yes, but what is this then?” I asked insistently, gesturing to the dinner. “What is this food? What have we been doing in the classroom?”

He shook his head, tired all of sudden.

“Do we have to do this now?” he asked wearily. “Really, now? A define the relationship talk now?”

And I was silent for a moment. Okay, I was pushing things but at the same time, yes, I wanted to know exactly what we were to each other, what we were doing.

So I nodded.

“Mr. Phillips, what am I to you?” I cocked my head, my eyes quizzical, my body suddenly incredibly still. “Tell me,” I demanded, suddenly unable to breathe, realizing just how much his answer meant to me. This wasn’t just some one time fling for me, and I hoped, god I hoped, it wasn’t for him either.

The big man sighed again, running a hand through that midnight black hair, ruffling it so that he looked devilishly attractive.

“Evie,” he said, his voice a low growl. “You know what we’re doing isn’t legit.”

And I snorted at that. Legit was the last word I’d use to describe what we were doing. So I went for it, crass and crude.

“What are we then?” I asked. “Fuck friends? Bed buddies? Friends with benefits? A student you fuck on the side?”

And the big man shook his head, his face strained.

“No baby, we’re more than that but I can’t define it,” he ground out. “What we are shouldn’t even exist. There are no words because it’s wrong, you hear me? So yeah, what do you want me to say? That you’re my girlfriend? That we’re dating? Because you know it’s my job if I do.”

And I was silent for a moment.

“I know you can’t say we’re … dating,” my breath hitched a little. “But I can’t believe that you feel nothing for me either, that I’m just some circus sideshow for the time being.” I was doing my best to stay calm, even though the words tore at my heart.

And the big man took my hand in his then, his square palm enveloping mine, his fingers warm.