Page 98 of The Plus Ones
This place is a loft, so the only rooms that have doors are the bathrooms and bedrooms. He pulls me into the guest bedroom/office and shuts the door. I expect him to grab me and kiss me, but instead he crosses his arms in front of his chest and says, “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but whatever it is—it ends now. In case it is what I’m afraid it is, I will tell you this—Tamara was texting and asking to see me last week, but I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to see her and I wanted to spend all of my available time with you. That day before I left town, I met with her for like ten minutes by my office, in which time I learned that she wanted to pick my brain about business matters and I immediately told her that it would be better for her to talk to Chase about that stuff because I have a girlfriend. That was it. That was the last time I’ll ever see or talk to her, as far as I’m concerned.” His warm brown eyes scan my face for a reaction.
I’m still processing what he’s telling me, but it seems to me that if that’s true, then he dealt with it perfectly. And that is so annoying. “Okay… That’s interesting. I’m not sure what to say.”
“Well, I would personally love it if you’d tell me how you feel about what I just told you. Let’s start with that.”
“All right.” I cross my arms, mimicking him. Like we’re having some sort of negotiation. This is not how I had planned for our talk to go. “I suppose I’m a little surprised that I didn’t know you saw Tamara. But I also don’t need to know your whereabouts at all times, and I appreciate that you told her about me.”
He sighs, closes his eyes, and pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “I was going to tell you about it when I saw you that night. So what you’re saying is, you didn’t see us together?”
“Why would I have seen you? Were you worried that I had seen you? Was there a reason you wouldn’t have wanted me to see you with her? Hang on. Are you telling me everything?”
He scrubs his face with the palm of his hand. He does this a lot when he’s with me. “I will always tell you everything you want to know and then some—I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on, Roxy. So that’s not what you’re being weird about?”
“No.”
Look at this boy, trying to clean up a little mess that he thought he made. I need to hang on to him.
“It would be fantastic if you could tell me exactly why you stopped taking and returning my calls all of a sudden, because you’re ruining my life.”
“I told you I would talk to you here. Today.”
“Well, here we are—today! Talk to me. I need to know what the problem is so I can fix it.”
“I have a whole thing planned—geez.”
“Do you have a Power Point presentation to set up? Just start talking.”
“Not. Here.” This man is infuriating, and my clitoris is about to detonate.
He’s standing in front of the door, bigger than ever and belligerent. When I try to nudge him out of the way, that’s when he finally grabs my shoulders, presses me up against the door, and kisses me. Thank God. This is all I’ve wanted since the second I saw him. I inhale the delicious scent of him. I have been craving it for days. My hands are immediately on his face, and his hands slide down to my waist, but my mouth and tongue and teeth are basically having an argument with his mouth and tongue and teeth, and it’s everything that I need right now but also not nearly enough.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he mutters.
“I wasn’t trying to.”
“You’re a fucking pain in my ass, you know that?”
“Don’t swear around the kids.”
He kisses me on that spot, that spot on my neck, and my knees go weak. “If they can hear us in here, we’re already in trouble.”
“I’ve missed you so much,” I whimper. I’ve lost the ability to hold my head up.
“You should have called me.”
“I couldn’t say the things I have to say to you on the phone.”
“Just tell me now. Tell me everything, you wretched woman.” He kisses along my jaw and then my mouth.
I mean…would it be the worst thing in the world if we had a quickie in here while a bunch of young children and our closest friends get their faces painted down the hall?
I turn my head to the side and duck out of the way, and it’s painful to move away from those lips and those hands, but I have to do this. We need to get out of here before I try to engulf him with my vulva. “Come with me,” I say as I drag my fingers through my hair and straighten out my sweater. I glance down at his semi. “Put that thing away.”
“Great fucking idea waiting until a child’s birthday party to see me for the first time in days,” he grumbles while readjusting himself.
“Excuse me for thinking you could keep your hands to yourself.”
He shakes his head and reaches for the doorknob. “Piece of work.” He slaps me on the behind and opens the door. “Get out.”
