‘Maybe there won’t be a next time if you can’t learn to keep your mouth shut.’ Oh, fuck, I think I just implied I want to do this again. And I do—I’d be mad not to. But I can’t afford to make this a thing. Not now. Not with him.
As I stand, I grab his T-shirt from the floor and throw it in his general direction, I hope, because I can’t look at him now. Not without him reading all the thoughts from my face. ‘Hurry up and dress. I need to leave soon.’
‘Does this mean I don’t have to bring pizza next time?’
‘I didn’t say there was going tobea next time,’ I reply, studiously avoiding looking at him as I gather wet towels and other sexual detritus.
‘Yeah, love, you kinda did.’ He stands, dropping his T-shirt to the bed. In two languid steps, he takes the towels from me, dropping them back on the chair, and my traitorous body loves it as he takes my hips in his hands.
‘I want to do this again,’ he says, sort of shimmying my body between his fingertips. ‘Look at me, Chastity.’ So I do. It’s hard not to when he uses that tone. Smooth, confident, and uniquely him.Flynn Phillips, why are you so irresistible?‘I’m just puttin’ it out there,’ he says. ‘No pressure. I want to see you again, and I don’t want to have to wait six months this time.’
‘Flynn ...’ His name sounds ridiculously long as I sigh.And not for effect.
‘We don’t have to give it a name or make it a thing unless that would help.’ He ducks his head to catch my reluctant gaze. ‘Would it help? You wanna call this a friends with benefits deal?’
‘How can we be friends,’ I mumble, ‘when we don’t even like each other?’
‘Duchess, how can you say that! I like you,’ he says, his hands falling to grip mine. ‘How can you not like me?’
‘Well, you’re very annoying. And you have terrible taste in porn.’ The latter is mumbled against the coarse hairs of his chest as he pulls me in, banding my back with his strong arms.
‘Next time, we’ll compare. How about that?’
‘I didn’t say there was even going tobea next time yet.’
‘No, but you will.’ He kisses the top of my head, pulling away. ‘Gonna see if I can rinse the fig juice out of my T-shirt.’
‘Did you get the bus here?’
At the door to my bathroom, Flynn turns with a quizzical expression. ‘Are you asking if I got the bus, holding a pizza? And a motorbike helmet?’ His mouth twitches, presumably to restrain his smile.
‘Who’s going to see the stain on your T-shirt if you’re riding a bike?’
‘The way I ride? No one. But I’m also going out.’
He doesn’t elaborate, and he looks totally suspect as he turns, walking into the bathroom. I can’t help but feel annoyed. Men can be such twats. I’m sure women can, too, but given the fact that I’ve never dated a woman, the point is moot. I stomp out of my bedroom, my mood having taken a slide, but at the top of the stairs, I note my jeans slung over the bannister, and I remember I’mnotdating Flynn. He doesn’t need to tell me...things.
Chapter 15
CHASTITY
While I meet the girls once a month for brunch, we also get together for a slap-up Sunday lunch. This one is usually a family affair with partners and children and whoever else might be around. I don’t think my friends really know how much I appreciate being involved. But family isn’t always blood, I feel. Unlike my own family, these people accept me for who I am, quirks and all. There’s no favouritism, no sniping, and no underhandedness. Just friendship and acceptance.
‘Where are the menfolk?’ Slipping my jacket from my shoulders, I take my seat at the long table at the back of The Drunken Duck, an old English pub that’s a firm favourite of my friends due to the outdoor play area. It keeps the children amused, especially on days like today. Though it’s chilly, spring seems to have sprung overnight. Or maybe that’s because I’m wearing rose-tinted orgasm glasses today.
I thoroughly recommend!
‘The rugby season is just around the corner,’ Ella says, looking up from the menu. I’ve no idea why she’s looking at it because she always orders the same thing.Roast beef and Yorkshire puddings with lashings of horseradish. Yum.‘Training started up this weekend,’ she adds.
Both Mac and Keir, along with their friend Will, play for the Dissenters, an amateur weekend rugby team, though they seem to take their commitment very seriously.
‘No Sadie today?’ Sadie is Will’s wife, and the pair are new parents to a beautiful baby boy.
‘They’ve gone to Scotland to visit that drafty old castle,’ Ella explains.
Will recently inherited his father’s Scottish lands and titles, making him Lord Travers and a peer of the realm. Not that you’d know it to speak with him. The man is irreverent above everything else.
I keep my disappointment to myself as Paisley slides me a pre-poured glass of fairly decent red. Sadie and Will are a lovely couple, but I was mostly looking forward to my Sunday lunch quota of heavenly newborn baby cuddles. I know my friends wouldn’t guess in a million years that spending time with them sometimes leaves me with an empty feeling for the next day or two. Itiswonderful to see Paisley and Keir so in love, and by extension, their friends, but it does make me all the more aware of what they have, and I don’t.Love. Partnerships. Children.
