“No.”
“I’m imagining my hands gripping it as you ride my face. Head thrown back in ecstasy as you use my tongue to get yourself off.” Silence stretches like an elastic band around us, and the longer she leaves it, the harder the snap is going to be. “Would you enjoy that, Eleanor?”
“No.”
“Have you tried it?”
There’s a beat where she debates lying to me. “No.”
Good girl.“Let me know if you want that to change. No strings.” That’s a lie. “I’m down the hall.”
She drags her bottom lip between her teeth.Yes, my little hacker, it will be as good as you are imagining. Better, even.I’m not gloating for no reason. Making sure she enjoys it as much as I do is common fucking sense.
“Good to know,” she responds. “Now for my ground rules.” She spins and her nipples graze my chest. I close my eyes and lick my lips. Fucking tease. “If my bedroom door is closed, it means you should knock before entering.”
“In all fairness, I did knock.” My body sways toward hers, neither of us backing down from this game of chicken we started. “I didn’t know you had headphones in.”
“Inside this apartment, I am Eleanor; the cold bitch hacker you are sheltering because you owe a mutual friend a favor. I get the town needs to see us as a couple, but they aren’t here.”
My eyes widen as I plot a hundred ways I can push her to be outside with me. “There’s a slight problem with that.”
“Which is?”
“We should practice.”
Her head cants to the side. “Practice what?”
“Being a couple so you don’t flinch in public when I touch you.”
Her mouth pops open before closing it. She frowns like she’s sorted through some kind of complex equation and doesn’t likethe answer. “Okay.” I feel like I’ve won a battle. “What are you suggesting?”
To make good on the promise to have you coming on my tongue.Fear and desire battle in her eyes.Too much.“Let’s start with a little light touching. Something appropriate for being in public, of course.”
“What’s appropriate?”
Doesn’t she know? Wait. “Have you never been in a relationship?”
“Once.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
Hardly long enough for her to get a realistic feel for what being in a relationship is like. “What happened?”
“He saw the real me and decided we weren’t a match.”
Fucking idiot. “We’ll take it slow. But for now, let’s start with rule one. You’re wet, trouble. Go change.”
I force myself to move back to let her escape. After she scampers away, I spin toward the refrigerator and freeze. The pair of panties Charlie stole are pinned to the door with magnets, along with a message.
Consolation prize.
I snatch the underwear off the door with a smirk while Charlie grins at me from the floor. “Mine,” I tell him, and I don’t just mean the panties.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eleanor
