Page 10 of Slide
Chapter Three
“Peanut butter and jelly,” Travis commented, shaking his head.
“Yeah. I hadn’t had one until I went to college. My roommates lived on it. Besides, I didn’t plan on having company for dinner.”
“Damn. We did too in my family. Sometimes it was breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was cheap and easy.”
Bella nodded. “Which was exactly why my mother said we couldn’t have it. It wasn’t posh enough. It was too commonplace for her children.” She picked at the crust of her sandwich. “It almost gave her a heart attack when I came home from school with a box full of peanut butter and various jellies. It was a going-away present.”
Sadness dimmed her eyes and she looked down. Travis wanted to reach out and touch her, but he didn’t know what was wrong. He soon found out.
“Those same friends no longer speak to me. They stopped returning calls and texts. For all I know, they changed their numbers.”
“I’m sorry, Bella. I can’t imagine what it’s been like, how alone you must have felt. Probably still feel.” And he couldn’t. He knew what he’d gone through, losing his savings and investments, but Bella had lost so much more.
“I know. I appreciate it.”
Travis didn’t want to think too hard about the flash of sad resignation that crossed Bella’s face. He didn’t want to think about what he was doing to her with his proposition. He only wanted back between her leg. He only wanted Bella in his arms, her lips parted in a smile, her breath on his skin in a sigh of bliss.
He was on his second sandwich and was contemplating a third. Sex always made him hungry. Looking at Bella across the small table made him hungry in a different way. She was more than he’d dared to imagine. She was quiet, humble, in some instances she was almost shy. During sex though, she was a damn wildcat, the hottest lay he could remember having in his life. “How did you know I like raspberry jam?”
Bella shrugged. “I didn’t. It’s my favorite. I sometimes like bananas with my jam too, but I wanted something smooth and creamy today.”
Travis laughed. “You fuckin’ tease.”
“I offered you marshmallow cream or bananas.”
“Yes you did. You like nuts in your peanut better too I see.”
“Nuts go with everything,” she stated with matter-of-fact seriousness.
If he didn’t watch himself, her little quips, made as innocently as she pleased, were going to cause him to choke. He knew about her naughty side, but he’d never known about the smartass, teasing, tempting sides of her. She wasn’t embarrassed by her needs and wasn’t intimidated by him, or the fact that he held a little sway over her.
He cleared his throat but found he wasn’t sure what to say. He was ready to slam her over the table, cover her in jam and marshmallow and peanut butter. He was ready to fuck her, then eat her like she was a banana split.
She saved them both from sugary sexual overload by her next words.
“You said it was negotiable.”
Their arrangement. There was nothing else she could be talking about. If he were honest with himself, he’d had no plan beyond asking her to sleep with him. He wanted her naked, every night, every day, every which way he could have her. He didn’t know how long it would take until he didn’t want her in such an all-consuming manner. It was possible that day would never come. All he knew right then was that he couldn’t put a time limit on it. “Yes.”
“And I asked you to give me until Friday. Two days from now.”
“You did and I agreed.”
“So …”
“Fuck me until Saturday morning and I’ll repair your car at cost. You’ll still owe a big chunk of change, but not near as much as I quoted you this morning.”
“And you have no qualms about extorting sex?”
“Nope.” He reached for a nipple, the one he could see peeking around the side of the table. He tweaked it, tugged it, and in that half second, her eyes started to dilate. Responsive. So damn responsive. “Not with you. Did it feel like extortion earlier? Ugly, dirty?” he asked in the quiet between them with his fingers still stroking her. “Dirty in the wrong way, I mean, but either way you didn’t act as though it bothered you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and he did his best not to flinch. Her gaze was assessing, sharp. She was sizing him up, and then she focused on his lap. He couldn’t hide his erection and he wouldn’t try. He wanted her to see how much he wanted her.
“You also didn’t let me come before. How I see things now as opposed to before might be a little different.”
“Hmm. So that’s what this is about, this little pouting session? No, I didn’t. Do you want to come now?”
