Sex Says(58)

Instead, I smiled. “You’re right. And thirteen inches? Fuck me, are those moms still alive?”

“I doubt it…” she said before pausing. “Stop changing the subject! What is this?”

I yanked the paper from her hands just as she looked down to read it.

“Give that back!”

“No.”

“Oh my God, you are seriously the most infuriating person on the planet.”

“You liked me last night.” Oh, shit. Watch it, Reed, my inner voice chastised.

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t turn meek. “I did not.”

I decided maybe it was safe to test the waters. The plan was to address it eventually, after all. Christ, I wanted a repeat, not just to address it. But I had to start somewhere. “That’s not liking me? Geez, Lo. What do you look like when you like someone?”

“I hate you.”

“You don’t,” I asserted. “And if you read the paper now, it will completely ruin the game later.”

Her eyes sparkled with both suspicion and excitement. Mental note: LoLo likes games.

“Game? What game?”

I rolled my eyes. “I have a game for us to play. Obviously.”

“What’s the point of this game?”

“To have fun?” I questioned. “I thought that was the point of every game.”

“You know what I mean. Don’t bullshit me.”

“We took a step last night—”

“No.”

I laughed. “Yes. We did. You know it, I know it, your neighbors probably know it.”

“Oh, my God,” she groaned, dropping her face to her hands in embarrassment.

“But you are doing your absolute best to ensure we don’t talk about it, and I had a feeling that would be the case. So, think of this game as an icebreaker. An introduction into sex and the healthy habit of talking about it with a lover.”

She peeked at me through her fingers and sighed. “Do you ever stop preaching?”

“When all the lessons are learned.”

Her hands fell from her face, and one went straight to a determined hip. “How about you teach yourself to listen when people are talking to you?”

“Seems boring. I’d rather watch for real cues.”

Her eyes narrowed on me as she considered her options. She could throw me out, slap me across the face… Hell, I was sure she had some ideas I’d never be able to think of. But when the dust settled and the truth of her emotion surfaced, getting rid of me wasn’t the route she took.

“Fine. You can stay. For now.”

“Great.”

I waited until she’d ushered me fully inside and closed the door behind me to finish my thought. “We can skip the game if you want—go straight to the part where we have sex again?”

“Just when I think you really are different—”

“Ever think that maybe I’m just saying what you expect me to say on purpose?” I hedged.

“You’re not that smart.”

I shrugged. “Maybe not. But I am fully aware that every time I act in a way you don’t expect, and presumably don’t believe, you become more aggravated and determined to hold me at arm’s length. So maybe the answer to getting to know you, to spending time with you, is to give you some sense of safety through the expected.”

“Just stop talking.”

“Fine. Go get a glass of water.”

She stomped an adorable bare foot. “And stop ordering me around.”

“And a towel.”

“Reed!”

“It’s for the game, Lo. You can’t deny the game.”

“Jesus Christ in a bassinet,” she said in a huff.

I made my best puppy-dog eyes, and she caved.

“Water, a towel…anything else?” she called out over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen.

“Just you, Skeets.”

She stopped in her tracks.

“Reed?” she asked, and for the first time since I’d gotten to her door, her voice was serious.

“Yeah?” I asked, equally earnest.

“Call me Skeets again, and I will mutilate you.”

There was real…something…in her eyes. Maybe pain? I couldn’t pinpoint it, but I knew this wasn’t a battle worth wasting my negotiation on. “Understood.”

I took a seat on her couch and awaited her return. She handed me the glass of water from behind the couch and headed for her bedroom for a towel. I couldn’t help but stare after her, entranced by memories of the night before and everything it had been for me. That hall and where it led. This couch, for fuck’s sake.

“Here,” she yelled, breaking my concentration by shaking the towel out in front of her and then throwing it right at me. I did my best not to spill the glass of water.