Plight(40)

"Care to finish the job?" I asked, a mix of seduction and playfulness in my tone as I lifted my legs and propositioned him to remove the slip for me.

He cleared his throat and gently slid my Spanks over my feet, keeping it secured in his closed hand.

I swallowed and shivered, all of a sudden feeling exposed and vulnerable, but most of all grateful I'd waxed a day earlier.

"Are you cold?" He leaned forward and swapped my Spanx for a remote control he picked up from the coffee table. "I can put on the fire if you'd like?"

Elliot aimed the remote at the fireplace adjacent to where we were sitting, flames shooting up from between the rocks at the base.

"Wow! I need one of those. We have a woodfire at home, but never any wood."

"That pretty much defeats the purpose of having a woodfire, Danielle."

"You don't need to tell me that," I sighed, reclining into the couch.

Elliot jerked when I placed my injured foot back on his lap, or more accurately, on top of his erection.

"Oh my God! Are you hard?"

"Are you asking me a truth question?"

"Yes?"

"Do I need to answer, or is the proof underneath your foot?"

I gently rubbed my heel against him, and he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, his chiselled chest rising and slowly falling again. Shit!

I stopped. "Sorry, Lots. I shouldn't tease you like that."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't give you what you might want."

"You don't know what I want."

"I know what your body wants."

"And what's that?"

"What my body wants."

He looked down between my slightly parted legs, and I had no doubt that he could see a shadow of wetness on my underwear, a shadow he'd instigated.

He licked his lips, and I snapped my legs shut.

"Why can't you give me what our bodies want?"

"Because friends shouldn't fuck. Period. It ruins everything."



       
         
       
        

"How do you know that?"

"I just do." I leaned forward and grabbed his hand. "Lots, I don't want to ruin us."

He trailed his finger down my shoulder. "I know. I don't want to ruin us either."

"So we don't fuck. Agreed?"

He laughed. "I never said that."

"This isn't up for negotiation."

"Truth or dare?"

"Don't change the topic."

"I'm not. Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Sleep with me tonight."

"No! I mean it. We can't fuck."

"I said 'sleep', Danielle. Sleep with me tonight."

Weighing up his challenge, I stared into his imploring eyes and decided that, if I kept my knickers on as planned, there was no harm in sleeping

 …  together

 …  in the same bed.

Because we were just friends, pretending to be so much more.





What I was asking for was risky. I knew that. But if all I could ever say was that I'd held her while she slept, I'd be happy.

"Okay, Elliot. We sleep and talk. That's it."

I smiled, relief flooding my body. I honestly didn't think she'd agree. In fact, I was preparing to fill her glass again in readiness for her mandatory skoll.

"No fucking," she repeated.

"No fucking," I reaffirmed. Well, maybe.

"And I get to sleep on the side of the bed closest to the window."

That was my favourite side, but I didn't argue because I planned on sleeping on that side, too. With her. On her. Underneath her.

"Then it's settled," she said, covering her chest with her arms.

"It is. So would you like to go to bed now?"

"I still have more questions for you."

"You can ask them under the covers."

Her eyelids fluttered with derision. "Can I bring my drink? I think I'm gonna need it."

She was so bloody cute, even when she mocked me. "Yes, you can bring your drink."

"You better have something I can sleep in, like an old t-shirt?"

"I have a Batman t-shirt," I admitted, unable to hide my grin.

Her jaw dropped and she pointed at me. "You lied! You said you didn't have one."

I shrugged. "Guilty as charged."

"Speaking of guilty people, what's it like  …  defending them? You defend them, right?"

"Am I a criminal defence lawyer? Yes, predominantly."

"Do you enjoy it?" She took a sip of her drink and eyed me curiously over the rim of her glass. 

"For the most part, yes."

"For the most part?"

I drank some of my bourbon then put my glass down. "I started off wanting to defend the underdog and wrongly accused, those who perhaps were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or who were a convenient target. Too often in life the wrong people fall victim because they don't know their rights or how to fight for them. I hate that. I hate that they're made scapegoats."