Page 28 of Storm in a Teacup
“Whatever,” Atti spits before stomping away.
Ben does not remove his hand from me as he rotates me toward him, pulling me back into the dance. I appreciate that he does not ask me if I’m alright. I’ve been asked that enough for tonight.
We keep dancing until my feet start to kill me and I need to go sit. Ben and I find a little couch to rest on, me leaning against him. Soon enough, Amber and Imani join us, followed shortly by Paul, cheeks flushed and dark blond hair somewhat dampened by sweat. Ben lights up when he sees Paul, who sits down next to him—and I don’t miss the way Ben’s eyes drag over Paul’s chest now that he’s stripped down to a fitted T-shirt.
Ben wraps his arm around me as he and Paul pick up a conversation from earlier. I’m happy to just lean against him, feeling safe beside him. My eyes are heavy as I drink more water.
The night eventually wraps up, so we head back to our respective hotels and residences. I did what I hoped to accomplish—my feet are so numb that they don’t even hurt anymore, so the walk is not bad. Even though the streets are well-lit enough for me to make it to our hotel without assistance, Ben holds my hand the entire way. And I let him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ben
“I’m going to shower the club off of me,” Linny says once we’re in our hotel room. She sits down on the bed to yank off those boots. God, I love those boots.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll shower too when you’re done.”
Once the bathroom door is closed, I sit down weightily on the bed, falling to my back with my feet still planted on the ground. Linny said Atti was an arsehole, but I’m not sure I understood the full extent of it until tonight. The way he speaks to her, that bastard. If he speaks to her like that now, he certainly spoke to her that way when they were together. How her cousin let him in the wedding party, I’ll never know.
Soon enough, Linny steps out of the bathroom in pajama pants and a little tank clinging tightly to her breasts. It’s an effort not to stare, but I am a gentleman.
We switch places so I can shower off the sweat of the night. I was planning on using the hotel-provided body wash, but I spy Linny’s sitting on the tub’s edge. She smells so good. I pour a little bit of it in my palm and rub it up and down my arms, the scent of her filling my nostrils. It was all I could smell as she spentso much of the evening sitting on my lap.
I finally let loose on something I have been resisting so strongly the entire night, growing hard at the thought of her. I shouldn’t be having these thoughts. She said very clearly that she does not want to date me, and it would be incredibly unfair of me to pursue something with her while my heart is stuck on someone else.
Yet, the memory of her soft lips comes back to me. Her breast under my hand. Her ass pressing into my lap, her full body reclined on mine. I get a whiff again of her body wash and can’t help it when my hand closes around my cock. She’s just right outside the door, so I work myself as quietly as possible, mind on that fiery red hair and bright blue eyes the entire time.
I finish up in the shower soon after, getting out and toweling off. I dress and reenter the now lamp-lit hotel room to find Linny in bed, sitting up on her phone, gold-rimmed glasses on her face instead of contacts.
“You look cute in glasses,” I comment as I drop my dirty clothes in my suitcase and pretend I didn’t just wank off to her in the shower.
“Thanks,” she says, hardly glancing up.
I pull my own glasses out of my bag and put them on. “‘You look cute in glasses too, Ben,’ is what you’re supposed to say.” I astutely push the tortoiseshell frames up my nose.
She finally looks up at me for real and says in a monotone voice, “You look cute in glasses too.”
“I don’t believe you,” I say with a sigh, climbing in the bed beside her. “I only need to wear them when reading, or driving, or watching TV. Even so, I don’t wear them as often as I should. Contacts and I don’t agree, and these slip down my nose too much.”
“Oh yeah, that’s annoying. I hate when mine do that, which iswhy I prefer contacts if I’m leaving my house.”
I turn on my side toward her, glasses askew under my palm. “So, how shall we do this? Put a barrier of pillows between us?”
“We’re adults. I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Oh, so youdowant to cuddle. Got it.”
“Literally not even close to what I said. I’m not a cuddler.”
“That’s shocking. You cuddled pretty well on my lap tonight.”
“Well, that was an extenuating circumstance.” She puts her phone down on the nightstand. “Tomorrow morning we’re doing the spa thing, and then afterward I should go see my dad since I’m in town. You can head back to Edinburgh whenever you feel like it.”
“Okay,” I say, flipping to my back. “I’m gonna go to the stag thing. It’s been forever since I’ve played football. I mean, Andy’s a prat, but the rest of the blokes were nice. Especially Paul.”
She ignores my snub of her ex and raises her eyebrows. “Paul, huh? You mean Paul was nice or Paul wasnice?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “A bit of both, to be fair. Not that I’m going to do anything about it since he thinks you and I are dating.”
