Enemy Down - Cathryn Fox Page 0,14
just fine,” I tell him, but there is this totally weird part of me that likes his attention. Ridiculous, I know, considering I can’t stand him. But I also can’t stop thinking about what he said to me, about being cared for. For as long as I can remember Mom and I have been taking care of ourselves. I wouldn’t know the first thing about handing myself over to someone.
But you want to, don’t you, Maize?
“Yes, you can, but I can help you get to the door, too,” he responds.
I just shake my head. Kaitlyn had said she heard Christian never participated in the auctions. A stupid thrill goes through me and I quickly shut it down. He feels guilty. He’s only my ‘benefactor’ because he’s responsible for my fall. He does not want to sleep with me, a point he has made a few times, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Perfectly!
I try to slip away when he puts his hand on the small of my back, partly because I can walk without his help and partly because it’s arousing things inside me, things that are foreign—things that are settling deep between my legs. Gawd… What the hell is wrong with me?
Oh, just that you would like to have some good sex, just once in your life, and God’s gift to women here has a reputation a mile long.
“Are you going to be this annoying all semester?” I ask.
“Probably.”
“Lucky me.”
“That is entirely up to you,” he says and when I hear what almost sounds like want in his voice, my gaze flies to his. The corners of his mouth twitch. What exactly is he saying to me? That getting lucky—with him—is up to me. Yeah, okay, I’m clearly still concussed. Or not.
We climb my front steps and he when opens the door, I turn to him. “So are you going to tell me what I need to do?”
“I’m thinking on it.”
“I am not taking money that isn’t earned.”
He steps closer, crowding me, and my pulse jumps in my neck. His gaze drops like he can see the steady throb in my neck and he wets his mouth. Does he want to kiss me or something? God, there I go with the ‘something’ again.
“How about I text you later, with a list.”
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll be waiting for that.” He holds his hand out, and I stare at it. “Phone.”
“What for?”
“Do you always have to question everything?”
“Yes.”
“Good to know. I want your phone so I can put my contact information in.”
I nod and fish it from my pocket. His hand touches mine, his skin warm and rough against my wrist, and once again my mind wanders. What would his hand feel like on my naked body? I clear my throat, and his lids lift, those mesmerizing blue eyes full of curiosity.
“Something the matter?” he asks.
“No.”
I stare at his big hands as he puts information into my phone. A second later, his pings. We stand there staring at each other for an awkward moment. For some unknown reason, I can’t seem to step away. He’s like a big magnet, and I’m a scrap of metal drawn by his force.
He breaks the quiet. “See you later, Maize.”
The slow sexy way he says my name sends tingles down my spine and I resist the urge to say, not if I see you first, because I will be seeing him. “Bye, Christian.”
I step into the house and shut the door. I press my forehead against it, and put my hand on the wood, sensing he’s still standing there. Pull yourself together, girl. I shake my head, push off the door, and hobble up the stairs. I head down the hall, and there’s no tiptoeing and trying not to wake Kaitlyn when my boot makes more noise than a pirate with a peg leg. I have no idea why that makes me chuckle, madly, like a woman who escaped an asylum. Maybe it’s my way of letting the stress of the night go.
Did I really go to an auction and sell myself to Christian Moore?
Yeah, I sure did, and I wish to hell I regretted it more than I actually do. Ugh.
Kaitlyn’s door opens and she looks at me like I might have grown a second head as I try to stifle my laughter. “I guess tonight went well, then?”
I sober quickly. “It was horrible.”
Her gaze goes up and down the length of me and she grins. “Maybe I should have stayed and watched.”
She walked