Page 85 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

She wrapped her hair up into a bun at the top of her head and secured it with an elastic from her wrist. “But it’d make me feel better.”

“Okay.” He let out the sigh of all sighs. A king disturbed by the wish of a peasant. “Fine.”

She smiled as he pivoted around to pick up the black box, weighing it slightly in his hand before opening it. She raced to the bathroom, not wanting to keep him any longer, and sat on the toilet. A few moments later, he strolled in behind her, and she gasped, covering herself. “Ethan!”

Grabbing his toothbrush, he barely acknowledged her. “What?”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” she overenunciated it as if he couldn’t hear the sound of her peeing inches away. “I’d like a little mystery between us, please.”

That made him turn to her, foam at the edges of his mouth as he brushed, his brows narrowed, apparently in disagreement. She flapped her hand, trying to chase him out. “I need to wipe.”

He smiled around his toothbrush, his words garbled.

“I didn’t catch any of that.”

He spat into the sink. “I said, are you really going to force me out of my own bathroom?”

She squeezed her jaw together, widening her eyes at him, and he shook his head in amusement. “Fine.” He stuck his toothbrush in his mouth and closed the bathroom door after himself, calling out, “Happy?”

Instead of answering, she finished up, washed her hands, and opened the door to find him leaning against the wall outside it. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you,” she said, all snooty, and he walked past her, dragging his fingers along her stomach, then spat one more time in the sink and rinsed off his toothbrush. “You haven’t even moved in yet,” he said, knocking it on the side of the sink, “and you’re already setting down rules.”

She wrenched her head back. “I…what?”

“It’s quite forward of you, don’t you think?” He squirted more toothpaste onto the brush and held it out to her.

She stuttered, not understanding where this was coming from, and he lifted her right hand, placing the toothbrush in it like she was his personal mannequin.

“You come in here, acting like you own the place, when you haven’t even moved in yet.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, and the cogs of her brain started clicking back into position. “Yet?”

“Yeah.” He lifted one shoulder. “I’ll let you have this one, but no more until all your clothes are moved in, okay? I want to see your entire legion of hair products in there,” he said, tossing his head toward the bathroom closet then his chin to the drawer in the vanity. “Tampons there.” Releasing his arms, he grabbed her left hand from where she had been tugging at the neckline of her dress. “I want all your clothes in my closet and your shoes next to mine, or no more kicking me out of the bathroom. Got it?”

Laney nodded in silence, too stunned to speak, so he kissed the corner of her mouth, nudging her nose with his, as if to wake her up from her trance. “Hurry up, brush your teeth. I want you naked in two minutes.”

She proceeded to brush her teeth in record time and slipped out of her dress, hanging it on an open hook on the wall, then released her hair from its bun, fluffing it out since her soon-to-be live-in-boyfriend loved it down so much. Sauntering into his bedroom, she smiled at the picture of Ethan stripped down to his boxer briefs, turning over the C-shaped sex toy in one hand while he held the directions in the other. As if sensing her standing there, he lifted his head. “Hey, gorgeous. Ready to play?”

She pointed to the paper in his hands. “You had to read the directions?”

“I am nothing if not thorough.” Then he flung the paper somewhere behind him and stalked toward her, removing his glasses in the process. “I don’t know if you remember this, but when I turned eighteen, I went out to Applebee’s with the guys.”

He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and she shook her head. So far, this memory sounded completely foreign.

“You came down before we left and caught me in the kitchen while they were all outside. You told me how your first grade teacher would tug on the kids’ ears for their birthday for good luck.”

“Oh.” She gave in to a laugh even as his fingers sank below the thin material of her underwear, dragging along the tops of her cheeks. Mrs. Tesatore gave every kid seven tugs on their birthday.

“Then you tugged on my ear eighteen times. I had to hide how hard you made me just from you tugging on my ear.”

She might have laughed if she weren’t melting against him when he nipped her earlobe before sucking on the skin below it. “Does that mean you want me to tug on your ear twenty-eight times?”

“No, I was thinking we aim for twenty-eight orgasms.”

This time, she did laugh. “That’s not physically possible.”

He backed away, grinning, as he held up their new vibrator between them. “Let’s call it a statistics and probability experiment.”

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