I stared at her, biting back a smile. “Are you trying to say you want to seduce me?”
“Oh grow up, I’m just saying the more specific we can be the more believable. It’s called acting.”
“Why is there something specific that you like?” I felt my mouth spread into a wide grin.
She shakes her head slightly as she looks down at her cup of coffee. “No, I mean. I-I don’t know.” She starts fiddling with the white paper napkin on the table.
And then it hit me. “You’re a virgin?”
She gave a soft, humorless laugh. “That’s funny.”
“You are, aren’t you?”
Her eyes lifted to mine, sad and defiant. “No. I’m not a virgin.”
Then why the hell did it feel like she’d never been touched? Like every inch of her had been guarded for so long, it forgot how to want?
“Then how do you not know what you like?”
She crossed her arms, leaned back. “Is this some kind of sex questionnaire or a way to get to know me?”
I almost laughed. Almost.
“You’re right,” I said. “We’ll never have sex, Melanie. So we don’t need to waste time figuring that out.”
But the lie tasted bitter in my mouth. Because if there was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about, it was exactly what it’d feel like to know every inch of her.
14
MELANIE
Pain ricocheted through my chest like a bullet the second he said it.
We’ll never have sex, Melanie.
It was supposed to feel safe. Reassuring. Instead, it clawed at something buried deep inside me—something raw and ugly. Rejection wasn’t something I was used to. I delivered it. I didn’t receive it.
“Right. Ya, of course. This shit is complicated enough.” I forced the words out, my voice sounding lighter than I felt. Like I was trying to laugh off a sucker punch.
“Unless you want to tackle my favorites,” he said with that damned smirk, the one that made my stomach twist with the kind of fluttering I had no business feeling.
I hated how easily he got under my skin, how even that tiny lift of his lips could send heat pooling low in my belly. I hated it even more because I wanted more of it.
“I think I have an idea what you like,” I murmured, wrapping my hands tighter around the warm mug, using it as armor.
“Ooh, now this conversation’s starting to get interesting.” He leaned back, cocky and completely at ease, stretching out like he owned the air between us.
“Please do share, princess.”
“You’re a guy. Men are simple creatures.”
“Isn’t that what makes us men?” He folded his hands behind his head, the movement pulling his shirt taut across his chest.
I tried not to look. Failed.
“Glad to know you’re cutting down your own kind. But yes—eat, sleep, repeat. And blow jobs are the best treats,” I said, letting the words drip from my tongue like honey edged with venom.
He chuckled, deep and rough. “Did you just make that up? And there ain’t nothing wrong with a good blow job here and there, is there?”
