“Holy cow, you know Henry V.”
“Well, I did quote you the ‘once more unto the breach’ line. Why are you surprised?”
“I thought maybe you’d picked up that line from TV or something. What the hell were you doing that you learned Henry V?”
He sighed. Fucking hell. “Drama club, okay? I went through a nerdy phase.”
Her mouth hung open. And then she snapped it shut and started to laugh.
“What?” he asked sullenly.
“It was the girlfriend, wasn’t it? Jane. Sixteen, getting a piece of pussy—you did whatever she wanted, didn’t you?”
Why did he feel heat creeping up his neck? “Go ahead and laugh—yeah, I did whatever she wanted. When it’s your first taste of sex, you pretty much do whatever you have to in order to get more. Jane had a hard-on for Shakespeare. Therefore, I had a hard-on for Shakespeare. The more I quoted those damn lines to her, the hornier she got.”
Sophie started to giggle. She slapped a hand over her mouth, but she didn’t stop. Then she stepped backward and bent over, laughing and hugging her middle. He wanted to be stern and dignified, but hell, she laughed so cutely. And it was kinda funny.
Okay, maybe a lot funny.
He tried to keep a straight face, but it wasn’t easy. Pretty soon he was laughing too, though he’d stop every once in a while and try to be stern with her.
“Sophie.”
She kept laughing, and then he laughed. Fuck.
He steered her over to the couch and let her collapse on it. Then he stood over her and told himself to stop fucking laughing. Didn’t do much good though, and he fell onto the couch too, laughing with her.
Hell, he hadn’t laughed like this in, well, forever. Other than laughing with the guys at Buddy’s Bar, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much damned fun with a woman—a civilian—that he lost his shit.
“I’m glad you’re amused,” he told her seriously.
More giggles. She peered up at him, tears rolling down her cheeks, and he thought, Fucking hell, she’s amazing.
Which was not what he needed to be thinking about Miss Sophie Nash. But he couldn’t help it because, dammit, she was pretty spectacular. Once you got past the smoke and mirrors and into the heart of the girl, she was someone you wanted to know more about. Someone you felt like you could trust.
Finally she sucked in a breath and worked on calming herself. He was still laughing too, but not as hard as she was. Together they sort of ran out of steam until all they were doing was smiling and lying back on the couch. They turned their heads to look at each other.
“Finished laughing at me?” he asked.
She giggled, but it didn’t last. “I think so. Sorry.”
“You aren’t.”
Her smile was electric. “No, not really. You had me going, Chase. All that macho Shakespeare-hate bullshit—and all the time, you could quote lines like the worst theater geek. Not because you admire the Bard, but because you wanted to get laid. I admire that level of dedication.”
He snorted softly. “Yeah, well, teenage boys will do anything for sex. Guess that proves it.”
“Oh please. As good-looking as you are, Jane wasn’t the only one willing, I bet.”
“Maybe not, but once I got her panties off, it was easier to learn some fricking lines of Shakespeare than to start over with another girl who might or might not be willing to put out. Jane was willing to put out with a frequency that made a teenage boy’s dreams come true. She was also the prettiest girl in my town, which didn’t hurt.”
Her expression softened, took on a wistful cast. “Probably blond. Head cheerleader, the most popular girl in school—all that stuff.”
By all that stuff, he was pretty sure she meant skinny. “Pretty much what you’d imagine, yeah. She also ended up having an affair with a married man who left his wife for her. It was quite the scandal.”
Sophie’s eyes widened. “Not when you were in high school though, right?”
“No. But she was only nineteen when it happened. He might have been fucking her when she was underage, but nobody knows for sure.”
“So your heart wasn’t broken, I assume?”
“Nope. By then I’d realized that other girls didn’t need Shakespeare to get them hot.”
“Poor Shakespeare.”
“I’m sure he’s unaffected by my betrayal.”
Sophie sighed. “Well, for your information, quoting lines to me will likely result in a loss of panties—but only the right lines.”
“Such as ‘Being your slave, what should I do but tend / Upon the hours and times of your desire’?”