Page 52 of Unbossly Manners

“Noted.” He sank into the cushion beside me. “Wasn’t your date tonight?”

“I need more lessons.”

“What happened?” he asked alarmed.

I dropped my forehead in my palms. “He wasn’t hard.”

Jackson choked on his beer.

“You okay?” I patted him on the back.

He nodded and wiped his mouth. “How far did you go with him tonight?” he asked.

“We made out in a booth at this bar. His hand went up my shirt, my hand went to his crotch—over his pants—but he was soft. Not even a chubby.”

Jackson covered a laugh with the back of his hand.

“It’s not funny.”

He wiped the laugh off his face. “I wasn’t laughing at you. I just haven’t heard that term in a long time.”

I shook my head. “You got hard just by talking about sex. Making out with me and touching my body didn’t do anything for Derrick.”

Jackson sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. I glanced around his apartment—papers strewn on the coffee table, his laptop open, his TV had an old sitcom playing on mute.

“Shit. Were you busy? Selena’s out of town again, and I needed someone who could make me feel less like a failure. I was so confident at the start of the date. And now I feel like a piece of shit pie.”

Jackson shifted. “You’re being too hard on yourself. You hardly needed any guidance in the bedroom.”

“I barely participated in the first session. We didn’t even kiss. I didn’t do anything to you. What if I’m an awful kisser. What if you were only turned on because you haven’t been with someone in months and months and months.”

“Easy now,” he said.

“It’s true, right. You haven’t had sex in over a year, and you’re all frustrated because Kat kisses you and then runs off to fuck her new boyfriend. You probably had the worst case of blue balls in the history of balls.”

“You’re being kind of mean.” Jackson stood but I put my hand on his arm and he sank back down.

“I’m sorry.”

I was hurting and it seemed I wanted to shoot daggers into Jackson and make him hurt too.

Jackson was still.

“Why did you come here?” he asked, the muscles tense under his tight shirt.

“To feel better.”

“How?”

“I want the sureness I had when I left here the other day. The confidence that made me go out on a date with the hottest man I’ve been out with probably ever.”

Jackson closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

“Don’t act like it’s weird that I came here, wanting this. It’s our deal, right?” I slid my fingers down his arm, my breasts brushing his shoulder, and rubbed my thumb over the ring he wore. “You’re using me, too.”

His hands balled into a fist. His jaw ticked and his eyes slid to mine. They were hard and intense and it was kind of sexy.

“Let’s go.” He didn’t look enthused. He looked mad.

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