Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 119005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
“Nope. Just being up front.” This time I started walking, and she had to hurry to catch up with me.
“You want to sleep with me?” Her voice was several octaves higher than normal.
Trying not to laugh, I nodded. “Absolutely.”
“How? Why? What?”
“How? Well, usually a man’s penis is inserted into a woman’s vag—”
“Not that!” She smacked my arm playfully, laughter in her voice.
I ignored her, grinning. “Why? Because you’re sexy as hell, and I’d quite like to hear how you sound when you come.”
Not to my surprise, she raised an eyebrow. “A wee bit arrogant to think you could make me come, no?”
I chuckled, pleasure zinging through me at the challenge. “Oh, I could make you come multiple times. As for the what? I’m not sure I understand the question.” My look dared her. “Can you honestly say you don’t want to sleep with me? Hate sex is supposed to be amazing.”
She stopped again and waited for the couple coming toward us to pass before she said, sounding almost hurt, “I don’t hate you. Do you hate me?”
Christ, I wanted to, but she made it impossible. “No. I don’t hate you, Beth.”
The hurt in her eyes dimmed and with it the ache it had caused in my chest.
I reached for her hand. “In case anyone’s watching.” It was such a bloody pathetic excuse.
Exhaling heavily, Beth slipped her hand into mine. I squeezed it almost unconsciously. Then we walked back to Loverose Lane.
“I do … I am attracted to you,” Beth admitted. “I always have been. But I’m looking for something real with someone, and a hookup with you … it would only complicate everything. Especially … well … I think we’re finally getting to a good place. Friends, perhaps?”
Friends.
The word sounded ridiculous when it came to Beth.
But if she wanted more than sex, I couldn’t give her that. “Okay.” I squeezed her hand again. “But if you ever change your mind about scratching that itch, I live right upstairs.”
Her nod was quick and uncharacteristically self-conscious, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
The walk back to our flats was quiet. We didn’t speak, but I knew we were both thinking about sex because this invisible tension crackled around us the entire time.
And when we stopped at her apartment door and she finally looked in my eyes … my skin felt too tight and too hot, and I knew by the flush high on her cheeks she was turned on too.
To my disappointment, she choked out a good-night and fled our attraction with a fumbling, hilariously awkward attempt to get into her flat. I almost brushed her aside and took her keys off her because every second she lingered was a second that pushed me toward begging her to change her mind.
Thankfully, she shouted triumphantly, “Got it! Night!” as the door swung open, and she fell inside. She’d been in such a hurry to get away from me, she tripped over her own fucking feet and fell on her hands and knees.
Before I could help her, she kicked out with a foot, yelling, “I’m okay!” and the door slammed shut in my face.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or groan. In the end, I did both.
And when I got home, I took a very long, very cold shower.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
BETH
Sunday dinner was a quieter affair than usual. Elle was working on a school film project with her friends and staying for dinner at one of her friend’s houses. Luke was in Paris for a long weekend with Afonso, and Aunt Hannah and my cousins had been hit with a stomach bug that had taken all of them down except Uncle Marco, who was looking after them. That meant it was me, my parents, Aunt Ellie, Uncle Adam, Grandma Elodie, and Grandpa Clark. At twenty and eighteen years old, respectively, my cousins Will and Bray were missing out on Sunday dinners more than I was lately.
“Will has been working overtime to help pay his rent for next semester at Glasgow. I don’t think we’ll see a lot of him this year.” Aunt Ellie gave me a sad smile. “I miss him.”
Uncle Adam reached over to curl a hand over hers. “He’s promised to visit more.”
Aunt Ellie nodded but didn’t seem hopeful. “And Bray leaves for UCL in a few weeks and won’t be home until October. He’s spending a lot of time this summer with his friends since they’re all scattering across the country. I’m already feeling empty-nest syndrome.”
Brushing his lips over her temple with such tenderness it made my chest ache, Uncle Adam then whispered something in Aunt Ellie’s ear that reddened her cheeks.
I grinned down at my plate.
“They’ll come back, sweetheart,” Grandma Elodie told her daughter, oblivious to whatever shenanigans my uncle was murmuring in his wife’s ear. “You and Braden did.”
“We didn’t leave Edinburgh. Neither has Beth.”