Page 75 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“Well, did you have sex, or not?”

She cleared her throat hard. “Um. Not… exactly? Kind of?”

I raised my eyebrows sky-high. “How do youkind ofhave sex?”

She buried her face back against her hands. “Oh, Jesus, I’m not explaining it.”

“Explain it or I’ll ask Stella, andshe’llprobably explain it.”

“Oh, god, she would.” She slumped onto the table, face still hidden. “We didn’t… exactly… do anythingtoeach other…”

It took all my willpower not to laugh. “So you masturbated together, is what you’re saying.”

She spoke in tongues for a hot second before she managed, “I mean. Iguessyou could say it like that?”

“At the same time?”

“Is that important?” she squeaked awkwardly.

“Very.”

“Um… no.”

I rested my arms on the table, leaning in, feeling myself beaming. “You first, or her first?”

“Me… first,” she mumbled into her hands.

“Oh, damn. That’s good news.”

“It is?” She looked helplessly up at me through her fingers, and I laughed.

“I mean, look at the situation. She went out with you. Took you back to her hotel room and told you to touch yourself—”

“Jesus, BB, that’s not what happened!”

I raised my eyebrows. “Isn’t it?”

“It’s—” She hid her face again. “It’s just a bit of an… oversimplification…”

“So that’s a yes. Told you to touch yourself—I assume she watched—and then she got herself off, too. Because of how much it turned her on. And I assume you watched.”

“I’m not answering that.”

“You watched, right?”

“Of course I fucking watched,” she groaned. “Jesus Christ, she’s so fucking hot I don’t know what the fuck ishappening.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know what the fuck is happening?” I laughed. “You got off together. I mean, you basically had sex, just sex for a girl who’s still nervous about being with a girl. You had sex with the girl of your dreams, and you spent the night with her. I don’t see the problem.”

“She wants to—” She hugged herself, looking away. “She asked me if I wanted to get dinner.”

“That doesn’t sound like a problem.”

“I saidno,is the problem,” she groaned, burying her face in her hands, collapsing back on the table. I stopped, raising my eyebrows high.

“You said no?”

“There’s something wrong with me…”

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