Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
When I struggle to get started talking, I end up using my scripted answer even though he hasn’t asked the question. “I thought I’d try my hand at popping in on you like you have a habit of doing to me.”
He smiles. “Great. I love the spontaneity.”
I lick my lips. I wish I could say I’m as convinced.
“So…what are you up to?”
Ugh. Why do I have to make everything sound so cringeworthy?
“Just relaxing. Practice was a double today, so I iced my calves and took a shower and was just trying to decide what to order for dinner. Did you eat yet?”
“Eat?”
“Yes,” he confirms. “Food. Dinner, as it were.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t eat dinner.”
“Cool. Then I can get us both something. Any idea what you’re in the mood for?”
This feels like the perfect opportunity to add in some kind of innuendo-laden suggestion about his penis, but I’m completely out of my depth. How do other women manage to make it sound so natural when they do it?
I cough and clear my throat, clenching my fists and steadying my anxiety the best I can. I came here to do something specific, and now that I’m here, I’m going to do it. “Actually, yes. I was…well, I was thinking I’d like more of what we had last night.”
“Chinese? Okay. Did you want more lo mein and chicken or something else?”
“N-no. I meant…more of something else.”
“The shrimp? Because they were pretty good too.” He searches the coffee table, through a pile of takeout menus, sifting to find the one for the Chinese place, his phone already in hand.
It takes everything inside me, but somehow, I manage to reach out and grab his wrist, stopping him. “No… I… Well, I meant the kiss.”
“Oh.” His face transforms, lifting into a giant smile I just know is full of every egotistical thought on the planet. And still, I find it attractive. Go figure.
“I…well. I thought maybe we could do it a little more.” I shrug. “Just to…see.”
“To research?” he asks, repeating my word from the night of our first kiss.
I nod.
“Okay. And what exactly did you have in mind?”
Even though my hands are sweating and my lips feel dry, I force myself to go through with the plan. This is my chance to put myself out there, like I told my family I would, and if I don’t have the courage to do it now, I’m never going to find it.
“Well…I kind of thought, maybe, we should…have sex.”
Blake chokes a little on his own saliva—at least, as far as I can tell—and comes toward me, effectively tossing his phone back to the surface of the coffee table like it’s a worthless brick.
I swallow thickly as he adjusts himself to sit directly in front of me, his ass on the coffee table, and I struggle to keep eye contact as he presses me. “You think that you, Lexi Winslow, and I, Blake Boden, should have sex?”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t have to say it like that.”
“Say it like what? I’m just trying to make sure I’m hearing you correctly and not having a stroke.”
“You don’t have to make fun of me.”
He reaches out for my hand, snagging it fiercely and clutching it to his chest with both of his own. “I’m not. Swear, Lex. I would never make fun of you for putting yourself out there like that. I’m just…surprised. You have to understand why. It’s not like you’ve given me more than a passing glance and a flick of your fingers for many, many weeks leading up to this moment, so this is a turnaround. I’m just trying to understand and make sure you’re not asking for something you’ll regret and be angry at me for later on.”
“I’m not totally socially naïve, Blake. I know you don’t just tell men you want to have sex and then take it back.”
“Yeah, yes. I’d say, generally speaking, that’s true. But what I’m trying to say is that you can take it back, with me, if you want to.”
“I…I don’t want to.” I shake my head. “I don’t want to take it back.”
In fact, to my own shock and horror, when it comes to having sex with Blake, there’s nothing I want more.
Blake
Lexi’s eyes are wide and challenging as she stares at me from her spot on my couch, the remnants of her words lying between us.
I think we should have sex.
My heart beats fast as she intertwines the fingers on one of her hands with the other and squeezes so hard the skin turns stark white. The idea of this brilliant, beautiful woman wanting to sleep with me is exciting enough that I could pounce on it right this second and never look back.
But something tells me that would send her running for the lab, never to be seen again, and that’s…not what I want at all.