Page 12 of Bang Buddies With Benefits
“Don’t forget my giant guns.” I flexed, twisting to kiss the red and black star tattoo on my biceps.
Sputtered laughter split the air, and I pumped my fist.Yes! I did it!
That adorable divot formed in Cat’s cheek, and even with the shaking of her head, nothing could dent my spirits now. “Enough to let you live to see another day, anyway.”
“That and you need me alive to sell that lie you told your coworkers.”
Worry flickered, and she reached across me and snagged hold of her clothes, her movements sharp. The retort was meant to be a joke, not a way to shoot holes through our afterglow and pillow talk—or whatever it was called when there was lots of snark and no pillows.
Was she in a competition to see if she could set the world record for getting dressed? Panties and bra in place, she was already up on her feet and stepping into her red gown, her movements as fast as if she were on the lam, and it’d simply slipped her mind to tell me.
“Hey, hold up.” I snatched my underwear from my pile of clothes and worked to catch up. I was still buttoning my shirt when she reached for the door handle.
“This was fun,” Cat called over her shoulder without looking back at me. “Let’s do it again sometime.”
I stepped forward, catching hold of her upper arm and pivoting her to face me.
“Don’t you dare feel bad for me—I don’t do well with pity, and I’ll figure a way out of the mess I made. I’ll just, uh, redirect and bluff until they forget about it.” She nodded, over and over, doing her best to convince herself of an idea her own expression couldn’t get on board with believing.
“You honestly think they’ll forget they saw us making out in the hallway? I had my hand so far up your skirt that—”
Catalina whipped up a hand in the classic stop-right-there gesture. “Okay, okay. You have a point. I just wish you didn’t.” She boosted herself on a nearby shelf and dropped her head in her hands. “What was I thinking?”
I sat next to her, and she shot me a sidelong glance. “I’m sorry I called you my fiancé. I’m sure it freaked you out, but I wasn’t sure what to do, and—”
“You think I’m upset? That that’s why I brought this up?”
The tiniest hint of vulnerability swam through the depths of her big brown eyes. “You’re not?”
“If anything, I feel bad for putting you in such a compromising position. It’s just that whenever I get a glimpse of this body”—I made a sweeping gesture—“all I can think about is getting my hands on you, and…” I swallowed. Where had I been going with this?
“If it’s any consolation, you made up for it with the last compromising position you put me in,” she said, bumping her shoulder into mine, and I couldn’t help but return her smile.
“Right back at you.”
A couple of seconds ticked by in silence, and then an idea hit me. One I absolutely shouldn’t entertain, but Catalina needed a solution, and she wasn’t the only one in a tight spot. Was I seriously considering this? Noah wanted a plan, and this was…well, it was something. “I have an idea, one I think will work in both our favors.”
A combination of curiosity and suspicion narrowed her eyes, and given what I was about to suggest, it was a fair reaction. First, I’d highlight the benefits, in the hopes they’d outweigh the cons. “You and I have this crazy strong spark that always results in incredible, mind-blowing sex. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced with anyone else.”
All she did was blink at me. Good thing I had enough ego to spare. I canted my head in her direction and cleared my throat. “This is where you agree.”
“You’re not wrong.” Hesitance filled the admission, and this was off to a rockier start than I expected. “But like I’ve told you before, I don’t do the relationship thing. It’s not you, it’s—”
“If you finish that with the cliché ‘it’s me, not you’ I’m going to shove you right off this shelf” I moved my hand to the middle of her back and raised an eyebrow, as if I’d follow through, even though we both knew I wouldn’t. I tsked. “And you sayI’mthe one with the inflated ego.”
Time to redirect before we ended up in an argument instead of a mutually beneficial arrangement. “Believe me, I get you loud and clear. The reason I haven’t responded to your last few booty calls is because I was trying out the steady relationship thing for a while.”
Catalina winced, her disdain for relationships loud and clear. “Let me guess. It was a disaster.”
“Total disaster.” The answer fell short and was an oversimplification, but the last thing I wanted to do was rehash any of it. “Long story short, it was with a woman from my hometown. We had a rocky history, so I should’ve known better, but the both of us took it as a sign that we’d reconnected after several years apart. We declared that we’d matured, and this was our second chance, even though it was more like our fifth. Anyway, it seemed to be going well. Until it wasn’t.”
“Typical,” Cat said, and I bobbed my head in agreement.
“Which brings us to the here and now. You have misogynistic bosses who think you need to… what? Be engaged to be serious?”
“Pretty much. My lack of having a special someone in my life, save Penny and Ellie, naturally—”
“Naturally,” I said with a grin. The three of them were quite the trio. Since Catalina didn’t like her worlds to mix, I’d only briefly met them one night at the Drunken Kraken, but she mentioned them often, and I could tell they were close.
