Chapter Nine
“I can feel you freaking out from over here. Stop it,” Fin ordered from the kitchen.
While I eventually moved from the wall back to my desk, he was right, I was freaking out. But what was I supposed to do? I had never, in my entire life, been kissed like that. And a small part of me wondered if I would ever be kissed like that again.
I wanted to be. I wanted to be kissed like that every single day for the rest of my life. In fact, I wanted to campaign for kisses like that, go on a world tour proclaiming the necessity of being kissed and taken and dominated like that. That kiss had changed my entire way of thinking.
But it was attached to a boy that I really just wanted to get away from. So that made things confusing. Which in turn, made me freak the hell out.
“Ellie, I’m serious, stop it,” he commanded, his deep, rumbly voice skittering deliciously over my skin. “If I would have known it was going to make you completely shut down around me, I never would have done it. It was just a lesson, nothing more. Alright?”
I knew that. Those were things I knew immediately. And while Fin, being the man that he was, might want something one-nighter-ish to happen between us, he wasn’t expecting it. But if it did happen, that was all he as expecting. One night. And that was not happening. Not ever.
“Ellie, for real, are you Ok? I feel bad now.” Fin’s whole demeanor had changed. I could tell he really felt bad about the kiss and I was being stupid about it, letting him think I thought it was than it was.
“Oh, no.” I mustered up all the sarcastic energy I could. “You’re not going to apologize are you?”
“What?” he asked on a surprised laugh.
“You shocked me, that’s all. Don’t be a girl about this,” I turned to shoot him a grin I barely felt and caught his widened eyes as he took in my playful expression. “It was just a kiss. It didn’t mean anything. I’m probably not even the first girl you’ve made out with today.”
Did I sound jealous?
Ack! I hope I didn’t sound jealous!
“Don’t do that,” Fin scolded while walking back to his seat next to me. “Don’t do that whole ‘Fin’s a manwhore’ thing and downplay what happened between us.” He actually sounded kind of pissed and I was more confused than ever.
“Whatever, Finley.Nothinghappened between us.” I muttered that, hoping he would get the hint and drop the subject. When his head swiveled around to face me and his eyes glinted dangerously I realized I had wounded his pride. Again. “Except for hottest kiss of your damn life.” And mine.
Fin broke into a huge grin, his eyes immediately relaxed and his hand shot out to grip my bicep and shake me playfully. “I never know what you’re going to say next, Ellie Harris. You’re nothing like what I expected.”
I smiled back at him because it was impossible not to. He was infectious, contagious, a freaking pandemic. And not that I wanted to paint him as a disease when my heart was suddenly hammering frantically in my chest and my skin was tingling every place he touched me, but he was kind of a disease. He just happened to me, no matter how I tried to protect myself from him. And I wasn’t sure there was a cure for him.
Dang it, I was starting to like him. And I felt like such a fool.
“I’m almost glad you lost all that money, Ellie. At least I get to keep you around for a while,” he grinned playfully at me but reality came crashing back with his words and my smile faltered.
“Yeah, me too,” I pursed my lips and rolled my eyes. Gently tugging my arm back from his hold I said, “Now let me get back to the work you have me doing, so I don’t owe you that money for the rest of our lives.”
Fin was quiet after that and so was I. But all in all it was a productive night. I finished his rules and regulations document, set up a spread sheet of the past year and half of winners and winnings. Which, holy cow, Fin only took a percent of the winnings and he was doing more than alright. No wonder this was so important to him. But I had to wonder again, why the money he wanted from me was so important. He should have tons of money, especially if he wasn’t paying for school.
I also continued to monitor players for some of the upcoming games, the more suspicious ones. I learned something very important tonight, and that was my generation puts way too much of their lives posted on the Internet. I even had to go back and check through the last of my own genius-level posts. Did I really need to advertise to the world how much I loved coke from the soda fountain? No probably not. But still it was better than baring my innermost secrets for my entire friends list. Come on, people!
Like, maybe if you want to join an exclusive poker game, don’t complain to the entire internet world that you’re flat broke…. I just shook my head and crossed them off my list.
Denied.
This job gave me the false impression I wielded some kind of super power, but I just went with it. I was actually having fun.
When Fin went to the bathroom I checked his Facebook account and tried to see if I could get a girl over to the apartment while I was still here. I was excited to watch that play out and see firsthand how Fin would react.
Was I testing him?
Maybe, if I answered truthfully. But I argued to myself that it didn’t really matter because there was nothing between us and I didn’t want anything between us. I just wanted to be friends. And because we were just friends, if even that, I wasn’t testing, I was just kidding. This was just a practical joke.
Besides, it didn’t matter. There were no fish biting tonight. I clicked off as soon as Fin reappeared in the hallway and pretended to be watching the end of the last online game. There were only two players left, both trying to win the remaining hundred dollars.
“I think I’m done for the night,” I announced.
