I watch as he wets his lips, considering how to answer, and I feel molten inside. Would his gaze have always had this effect on me, if only I’d looked long enough?
“Maybe.” If smoldering was real, and not just something Disney princes could do with the help of expert illustrators, then he’d be smoldering and I’d be feeling hotter by the second.
“Does this mean you’re free?”
“Right now?” He blinks a few times, like he misunderstood something. “Wait, are you asking me tohookupwith you?”
I sigh, realizing I have to literally spoon feed him. “Yes Fielder, I’m asking you if you would like to have sex with me.”
His eyes widen as he lets out a long breath, running a hand through his hair, the movement strangely fueling my attraction to him. He gives me a quizzical look as if he’s trying to solve a riddle.
It’s at this moment that I realize Grant is actually committed to his whole good boy persona far more than I thought, and that I would have to do more than flutter my eyelashes to get him to do this. This would’ve been so much easier with Andy.
“I just want to hook up. Have sex. Nothing else. Isn’t that, like, preferable anyway?” My words tumble out of me, my tone verging on begging, and I don’t miss the amusement flitting through his guarded eyes.
“Why?”
“I mean, I just assumed you operate that way with most of the gi?—”
“No, why do you just want to hook up?” He scrutinizes my face, like he’ll find an answer before I can give him one. “And with me?
I cross my arms, trying to weave a lie that gets me what I want but doesn’t reveal the truth, but I just can’t find one. I glance around, making sure no one is listening.
“Because I am…” I pause, asking myself if I can trust him not to use this against me. And despite his clear judgement of me, it’s the way he treats everyone else that convinces me he won’t. “Because I never have. I’m a virgin.”
“Right,” he says, his face unchanged, and I know my assumption back at the fire was correct—he did, in fact, see right through me. “So you just?—”
“Yes, Ilied. Obviously. So you can’t tell anyone because if Will?—”
His scoff grates against me, disdain replacing any amusement previously gracing his face. “Yeah, I got it.”
“So will you help me?”
“You mean will I fuck you to spite him?” There’s an edge to his tone, one that makes my heart beat a little faster.
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Isn’t it?” The old smirk is back, the judgmental one, and I want to wipe it off his face, bring the new, heated one back.
“No,” I only somewhat lie. “Why are men the only ones allowed to want sex for momentary pleasure? Maybe I just don’t want to be a virgin anymore.”
I watch his molars grind, watch as his jaw flicks as he teeters on the verge of answering. I feel close, so close to getting this thing I didn’t know I wanted twenty minutes ago. But I’m too far in to back out now.
“Scott was in the running, you should know.”
“Youactuallyhate Scott,” he says in disbelief. “And there’s a list?”
I hitch a shoulder up. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” I look just past him at nothing, pretending to see Scott, and wave. “Oh, there he is now. Scott!” I shout, only because he’s nowhere in sight.
Grant curses under his breath, lightly grasping my raised arm and lowering it to my side, his touch sending a shiver through me and I know I’ve got him.
“Don’t you dare ask Scott,” his voice almost rumbles, and I have to bite down on my lip to distract myself from the way it makes me feel. “Why me?”
I try hard to think of a reason that isn’tbecause I’m incredibly attracted to you even though you disdain the company I keep.
“Why not?” I don’t drop my gaze from his when I say it,leaning into every implication he could be imagining, and watch the faintest hint of crimson creep up his neck.
“I’ll text you,” he says, like he suddenly has places to be.
