Page 57 of Touch Me

Alex nods. “So hot.”

I take my bottom teeth and bite my top lip.

“No, Jesus Christ, you look like a Rottweiler.” Ashley shakes her head and puts her hand over her face. “Your bottom lip. Take your top teeth and bite the corner of your bottom lip. Like this.”

She bites just the corner of her lip and squints, then ends with a little smirk.

“Oh.” Giving them my best effort, while feeling stupid as hell, I can’t fight the little jolt of excitement I get when they all smile and Alex bumps my shoulder.

“Yes,” they exclaim in unison.

“Much better,” Ashley praises. “Now with only your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yes. Make eye contact,” Ashley instructs. “Squint a little and throw in a little tongue darting out to wet your lips. Drives men crazy.”

I turn toward Alex and try to mimic what she just did. Alex flinches back.

“Too much. You look like you want to eat me.”

I throw my hands up. “This is useless. It won’t work anyway. He isn’t interested in me like that. Can we just drop it?”

Jen reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Of course. Sorry. We didn’t mean to pressure you.”

Ashley sinks down in the booth and covers her face. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Jen asks, looking around. She scans the crowd, and her eyes stop at a group of guys at the bar.

“Is that–”

“Yes. It is. Don’t look. I don’t want him to see me.”

I look over my shoulder toward the bar. “Who?”

“I said don’t look. The guys at the bar. The one in the gray suit. I met him here a few weeks ago, and we hooked up. Worst decision ever. He was horrible in bed and hasn’t stopped texting me since.”

Jen whips her head around, brows scrunching. “You gave him your number? You never do that.”

“I know. He met me at my place, and I gave him my number to let me know when he was there so I could buzz him in. My intercom still isn’t working.”

“He’s cute,” I say. “You don’t want to see him again because he was bad in bed? Maybe he was nervous.”

Everyone turns toward me, mouth gaping.

“What? Maybe it would get better if you did it a few times.”

Ashley rolls her eyes. “He worked my clit like he was scratching a lottery ticket.”

“Gross.” Alex shudders.

Ashley balls up a napkin and throws it at Alex. “Oh, you shut up. Not everyone is afraid of vagina.”

“I’m not afraid of it. It’s just... icky.” Alex rubs his hands up and down his thighs, trying to wipe away the heebie jeebies or something. “They're all wet and weird looking.”

I stifle a laugh.

Jen narrows her eyes at Alex across the booth. “You’ve never even touched one. How would you know they’re wet?”

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