Page 43 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“Looks like you had a good time,” Dean said, tossing the cards on the table after boxing them up.

“Was it fun?” Hank asked, throwing some napkins into an empty pizza box.

Laney cleared her throat and tamped down a smile as she hung up her coat. “Yeah. A lot of fun.”

Seth snorted. “A party with a bunch of moms was fun?”

Giving in to her laugh, she nodded. “Yeah. It was a sex toy party.”

The room fell silent. A record might have scratched.

“Awhatparty?” Hank croaked.

“A sex toy party.”

Ethan couldn’t take his eyes off Laney, her cheeks rosy, a smile so wide, he couldn’t help his own from growing. She looked downright giddy.

“That’s a thing?” Hank asked, pulling out his phone. “I’m texting Angela.”

Seth backhanded him. “You missing out?”

“Fuck, yeah, I am.” He got up from his chair in a huff and grabbed his coat. “See you guys later.”

“So, Laney,” Seth said, “find anything there you liked?”

Dean pressed his hands against his ears. “Nope, nope, nope. Do not like.”

Laney only clucked her tongue. “Even if I knew you well enough, Seth, I wouldn’t tell you.”

He inclined his head, and she sauntered upstairs, barely sparing Ethan a glance. If she was worked up from this party, he had to know.

Ethan cleaned up the empty pizza boxes then used the excuse of needing the bathroom to go upstairs. He knocked on Laney’s door at the end of the hall. She opened it, already having changed from her jeans into cotton pajama bottoms and a T-shirt.

“Hey,” he said, leaning against the doorjamb, attempting to keep the desperation out of his voice.

She held up her hand, blinking a few times. “I’m having a déjà vu moment.”

“Yeah?” He was too. With her face washed of makeup and her hair all tied up on the top of her head, she looked younger. More like her eighteen-year-old self. Back then, he had often sneaked away to Laney’s room to talk whenever he was at the Hargrove house. He remembered one time sitting on her bed while she put her laundry away, and he’d seen a pair of her panties with pineapples all over them. She’d tried to cover them but hadn’t been quick enough. Her whole face had flamed, and he’d thought of her in those underwear for weeks on end. Even when he’d still been dating Madison.

Similar to years ago, he stepped into her bedroom and sat down on the mattress, the pale green comforter all twisted up on one side. “So, tell me the truth. Was this really a sex toy party, or are you giving us shit?”

She sat next to him, laughing. “I swear.”

His eyes widened. “You can’t give out information like that to a guy and then not explain.”

“What do you want to know?”

He lay back on the bed, his arms forming a pillow under his head, and she followed, staring up at the ceiling. He turned to stare at her profile. She was gorgeous. Her full lips, the little mole by her nose, the arch of her brows. When he was a kid, not yet fully grown into his body, he didn’t think she’d ever look at him with desire in her eyes, so it was a fantasy come to life when he’d finally been able to touch and kiss her. And now?

Now, he thought there might be a chance of death by asphyxiation for how his blood roiled for her, up from his groin to his stomach and throat.

“What do you do?” he asked her. “Test them out?”

She shifted to her side, her cheek in her hand, grinning. “Not there. The woman who ran it talked about some products, demonstrated how they worked. We were allowed to try a few things, lotions and oils, stuff like that.”

He nearly swallowed his tongue. “What, uh… Did you end up purchasing anything?”

She bit the corner of her lip, nodding.

---