Page 67 of Trying Sophie

“Fine.”

“Second, and this is non-negotiable, there will be no touching.”

And there it is folks, I thought, even as I’d guessed this is where her stipulations were leading.

“None at all?” I asked, wondering how I was going to handle the torture of being around her all day without touching her the way I wanted to.

Ever since I’d caressed her cheek outside the store, I couldn’t stop thinking about what the rest of her skin would feel like under my fingertips.

“None at all.”

“Say you stumble,” I said, offering up an unlikely scenario. “I can’t grab your hand to make sure you don’t fall?”

“I won’t stumble.”

“But say you do.”

“Then you’ll let me.”

“Okay,” I continued, pressing my luck. “What if we’re walking down the street and there’s a crowd and I get pushed into you?”

She raised her eyebrow as if to say, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I’m serious. Dublin’s a mad house. You can’t walk down the street without getting bumped about.”

I grinned and she cast me a dubious glare.

“Try.”

“Fine,” I muttered, mentally crossing my fingers. “On this non-date there will be no touching.”

“Good,” she answered, satisfied with my capitulation.

“But just to clarify, does this include no kissing you goodbye at the end of this non-date?”

“The no touching rule especially includes no kissing.”

She tried to fight the grin that exposed how much she enjoyed our banter but I’d seen it before she’d managed to hide it.

“Any other rules I should be aware of?” I asked, knowing she probably had a list a mile long she thought would keep our afternoon strictly platonic. That was fine though. I would abide by her rules and not call our date a date, but that wouldn’t stop me from treating her like it was one.

“I’m thinking,” she said, tapping the tip of her forefinger to her lips.

“Ahem …” I cleared my throat to get her attention.

“Yes?”

“If you don’t want me to think about kissing you senseless, you probably shouldn’t call attention to your mouth.”

She ripped her hand away and folded her fingers into a fist on her thigh. It nearly killed me when she bit her bottom lip and rolled it between her teeth. It was an unconscious reaction, but it was sexy as fuck.

“That too,” I remarked, staring ravenously at her mouth, my cock twitching in my jeans.

She sighed. “I don’t know if this is going to work.”

“What’s not going to work?” I asked, never taking my eyes off her luscious lips.

“You. Me. Us.”

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