Page 43 of Out of Sight

“No. I don’t date much, remember?”

She sighed, rolling off me.

“Should I call Jim and ask him to bring some back with him when he gets home in…” I paused to look at my watch, but I wasn’t wearing it anymore. “Well, whenever he gets back to the safehouse.”

“No, definitely not. Do you remember what he said in the hotel in Portland when you made that joke about the magnum condoms? I can just imagine the teasing!”

“And not the fun kind of teasing either,” I winked at her.

“Oh, you put that smoldering-sexy look away, mister. The moment is over now!” But she was still smiling, her nails still gliding over my torso.

I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her. “Fine. I’ll just stare adoringly at the top of your head then. Will that do?”

“Yes.” She rested her hand on my chest, holding my heart. “How did I not know how kind and gentle you were when we met? You haven’t changed that much in the last five days, have you?”

“You were too busy throwing books and shit at me to notice,” I joked.

She laughed. “True. I had a few preconceived notions to get over. But you weren’t like this at first. I’m sure of it.”

“I act like a jerk to protect myself sometimes.”

“How very self-aware of you to know that.”

“Well, I’m not very subtle. But I don’t worry about protecting myself so much anymore. Now I only think about protecting you.” She squeezed me tightly, placing a kiss over my heart. “Plus, hitting on you made you so angry, which was really cute and a great distraction for you when you were feeling scared or overwhelmed.”

She sighed deeply, her grip on my arm relaxing as her eyes closed.

“I could run into town for the condoms,” I suggested.

She laughed. “We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile here. I can just imagine the looks you’d get if you showed up, sweating up a storm after sprinting a mile to the store just to bring a pack of condoms to the register. That would definitely cause some gossip and giggling among the locals. Plus, Jim doesn’t want us leaving the house without him.”

“True,” I admitted, nuzzling into her neck. “Maybe we could just do some hand stuff then?”

She giggled again. “You think you’d be satisfied enough to stop? I know I wouldn’t be.”

“Fair enough. Mouth stuff then,” I teased as I lowered my head to her chest.

She playfully pushed my head away. “We’ve waited this long. We can wait a little longer. We’ve got all the time in the world to be together.”

“And at least now you know for sure that I wasn’t lying.”

“Lying?” She stiffened.

“Not lying,” I emphasized. “I donothave a micropenis, and you can tell Jim that, too!”

sixteen

Claire

“Claire,” he murmured, reaching an arm around my waist and cuddling up behind me. “What a great way to wake up from a nap.”

“Definitely,” I hummed back, content to feel his arms around me. I heard Jim puttering around downstairs and instantly felt more alert. I remembered our clothes strewn everywhere.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“You.”

“Oh? Exactly what part of me are you thinking about?” he asked, pulling me firmly against him.Speaking of hard.

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