CHAPTER 32
Damon wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong, but Marlie kept giving him odd looks, as if puzzled by his existence. After her win on Thursday night, celebrated by the best blowjob he’d ever received, he helped the Mavericks win on Saturday.
He’d celebrated by giving her many orgasms later that evening before hanging with his parents to give Marlie space and time to finish grading her final exams.
Finally stress-free, Marlie had joined him in a magical week of dating. They went out, attended shows and movies downtown, and watched more scary movies at her place when not falling in love with Larry and Bird.
A night out with Jeff and Will—imagine that—had produced laughter and an insider view of how competitive the Reynolds siblings could be. And Will and Jeff still hadn’t told Marlie they were dating.
She had to suspect something. Then again, she seemed fixated on Damon, for which he couldn’t complain.
The woman must have taken lessons from her mother on how to interrogate a guy. She now knew everything about him, from his shoe size (13) to his favorite color (gray), number (1), sports teams (obviously the Raptors), and food (pizza).
With Jeff watching Larry and Bird for them this weekend while Damon took Marlie to the Portland game, and his home, he had nothing but time to get her to admit she liked him a lot more than as a temporary friend.
Damn. Could she not see how much he loved her? Everything about her appealed to him. Even her tendency to make a big deal about him putting his shoes in some stupid shoe basket by the door, not in the closet, which he did at home all the time.
“What now?” he asked, feeling her gaze on him on their drive to Portland. “You want more dicking? Because I can and will do it, you know. Let me pull over at Government Camp and I’ll ball ya good, sweetness.” He normally stopped there anyway to hit the restroom on his trips to Hope’s Turn. The midway point, Government Camp in Mt. Hood, gave him a place to stretch his legs.
She rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh, and pretended to bury herself in her book again. Yet she’d been on the same page for too long to be seriously reading the thing.
“You need to hit the bathroom?” he asked.
“Might as well.”
They stopped and made use of the facilities. Then, because he always ran into someone who seemed to know him, especially in Oregon, he signed a few autographs and took photos before rejoining Marlie in the truck.
“You seem freaked out,” he blurted as they started out again. “Are you okay with going to the game?”
“Freaked out?” She huffed. “By whom? You?”
“Whom. Nice. I see what you did there.”
She just looked at him.
“Hey, I know I scare you. Just admit it.”
“Maybe once, when you followed me out of a restaurant after I broke up with my boyfriend to ask me out. Yeah, then you were a little odd. Now I find it endearing.”
He beamed.
“But you’re still weird.”
“Maybe, but I went to your basketball game and enjoyed myself. Hold on. That is weird.”
She shot him the finger.
He ignored her and continued, half to himself, “I mean, I kind of had to or your family would disembowel me.”
“Even Irv?” she said dryly.
“Well, maybe not your dad. He’s cool. Your mom still wants to arrest me for something. I can feel it whenever she sees me. In fact, I think she’s been following me. I’ve seen her around Morgan’s office and once at the veterinary clinic, when I took the kittens back for Jeff to look at them.”
She shook her head. “I don’t ask questions. I don’t want to know. And no, I’m not scared of Demon Sinclair. But it’s bizarre when we see people who gush over you. I mean, you’re just you.”
“Right?” He nodded.
“But you’re also kind of famous.”
