Page 58 of Remember Me

He snorted. “Yeah, well…I didn’t figure you’d want to sit down there with those clowns.”

“Eh. They’re not so bad.”

“These are really delicious tacos.”

He puffed his chest out and leered. “I’m the taco king, babe.”

I really hope we’re talking about the same tacos.

“That settles it. We are definitely playing dirty Scrabble.”

I squinted in confusion and he laughed. “You totally said that last bit out loud.”

I blushed but kept eating. “I would tell you to get your mind out of the gutter, but obviously mine’s there, too. What does dirty Scrabble entail?”

“Dirty words and vulgarities, what else?”

“That sounds like regular Scrabble with the right company.”

“There may also be some losing of clothes involved.”

“Oh.” I was quiet as I chewed, contemplating how transparent I should be. I wanted him to know I was there. I was ready. I was his. I swallowed and sucked in a breath, releasing it swiftly in a rush of words. “In all fairness, I should probably tell you I’d already planned on getting naked tonight.Tonight is your night, bro. If you want to, that is. If you want to wait, that’s perfectly fine. I have no problem —”

“Smalls.” I stopped stirring my food on my plate and looked up, into eyes glittering into mine. Glittering with hunger, tempered by humor and his innate calm. “Take a breath.”

I breathed.

“You finished eating?”

I nodded.

“Another margarita?”

“No, I’m good.”

“All right, then. Let’s play. Rules of dirty Scrabble are: fifty points for each dirty word you come up with. Lose an article of clothing when you don’t have a play.”

I looked at him, in his jeans and tee. He was barefoot, and I didn’t know about what was on under his pants, but even with boxers I had twice as many articles of clothing. My lips curled. “Sounds good.”

Hayes went first.

BOINK.

“Predictable.”

“Fifty points of predictable,” he replied, writing it down. “I’ll take it.”

I played LICK on his K. He returned with BOOBIES, which made me giggle like a sixth grader as I considered my options. I could do something naughty, but so far things were fairly tame. I wasn’t going to be the first to go there.

Lower lip caught between my teeth, I leaned over the game board and added ORAL to the L.

“Hmmm.” After a brief glance at my play, Hayes studied his rack.

“‘Hmmm,’ what?”

“Hmmm, somebody’s mind is in the gutter.” Carefully, he added UNT to the C in LICK. Then he looked up at me, the heat in his eyes unmistakable. “I like it.”

“I don’t think I’m there by myself.”

---