“I can’t.”
“Again?” He laughed, shaking his head.
Years ago when he asked for my number I said the same thing but for different reasons—lives at risk and all that jazz.
I sighed. “I like you. I’ve liked you for longer than is probably healthy, given the minimal amount of time we’ve spent together, but I like to win the guy fair and square. I don’t want to be the dirty little secret. And if you’re willing to cheat on one girl, then you’re willing to cheat on any girl, and that just makes me sad because I’ve had you on this huge pedestal since we first met. Now that you’ve asked me for my number, you’ve just been knocked down quite a few notches, and while you’re still incredibly sexy—excessively so really—I think what you’re trying to do here is just ugly.”
“Cage, can we get your autograph?” one of the groupies asked, standing directly behind him.
He turned, not looking the least bit upset about their intrusion, and autographed a purse, a hat, and a shirt, although not on the bust where the skank requested he sign it. After a few quick pictures, they took off in a fit of squeals and giggles.
“So…” he turned back to me “…you won’t give me your phone number this time because of my ‘girlfriend?’”
I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t even like her. The night of Everson’s party she acted like Trzy was the plague and anyone who doesn’t like Trzy will most likely not like me, so she can choke to death on her uppityness for all I care, but that still doesn’t mean I want to take her cheater boyfriend.”
Cage narrowed his eyes a little. Why did he have to smell as good as he looked? It was like sitting at the dinner table staring at my favorite dessert and listing all the reasons I should not eat it. I wanted to eat him. Yes, that’s what I thought. I. Wanted. To. Eat. Him.
“Trzy is your cat?”
“Uh huh.”
“And I’m the cheater boyfriend?”
I shrugged, giving him the if-the-shoe-fits grimace.
He nodded slowly, eyes pinning me with a world of thought behind them. “Well, here’s the thing: I don’t have a girlfriend, so either you’re going to give me your number or you’re going to kiss me again. What’s it going to be?”
Poof.There went my panties.
Two big gulps later… “She wasn’t your girlfriend?”
“She was.”
“But she’s not now?”
“She’s not.”
“Why?”
The one! He was available. It was too much to take. Inside I died a little. There was a ninety-nine percent chance of me blowing my second chance at one of mytwoones, which was a mathematical phenomenon.
He smirked. “You’re nosy.”
“I am.” I bit my lips together.
“We weren’t that serious, and I wanted to ask for LakeJones’s number without being a cheater boyfriend.”
I continued to bite back my smile along with my need to run, jump, and scream. On the outside I remained Iceland. Okay, maybe not Iceland because there were cooler places than Iceland.
Antarctica. I was just that cool.
“Choose.”
“You choose.” My grin broke free before I could catch it.
Cage inched his head toward mine. The kiss, he wanted the kiss. All the air got sucked out of the car. My lungs called 9-1-1 while the gallop of my heart made it impossible to hear anything but my own pulse. I closed my eyes.
“I want your number,” he whispered over my lips without touching them.
