Shame the Devil (Portland Devils #3) - Rosalind James Page 0,77

have said it.”

She didn’t have her head tipped back anymore. She was just staring at him. “What? I’m talking about Spanx.”

“Yeah,” he said. “So am I. It’s working for me, too. Not to mention that other sexual skill of yours. Though I’ve got to tell you, that wasn’t the main thing I had in mind tonight. I was thinking that I want to see your eyes close. I want to hold your thighs, shove them apart real slow, and not let you go. I want to feel you tightening up around me, and I want to know your toes are curling when I hit the right spot. When I do it right, because, Jennifer, I am going to do it right. I’m going to do it until you beg.” He got his feet up there on the bench, against her thighs, and did a little squeezing, because he wanted her to feel him there. “Oh, yeah. The begging’s going to be nice.”

She was still staring at him like he was a Martian. “That was not sexy, what I said,” she told him. “That was the last thing from sexy.”

He, slid down a little lower and took a good look at her breasts, half-submerged in the steaming water. “Well, yeah. It was. You getting all fired up like that, yelling at me? You bet it was. And when you dropped your robe?” He sighed. “You’ve got a bruise back there, yeah. You’ve also got one hell of an ass, and if we’re going there—I want my hands all over it.” After that, he smiled at her, keeping it slow. “So, hey. How about coming over here and putting your tongue in my mouth?”

24

A Throwaway Thing

“No,” she said.

She hadn’t known she’d say it until the word came out of her mouth. She wanted to take it back. But she didn’t.

His smile faded. “Jennifer,” he finally said. “I meant that.”

“No,” she said again. “I can’t. You are feeling sorry for me. This is like the spa treatment. You’re trying to give me a good time, because as we know, I confided. Ugh. I can’t believe I confided. It’d make you feel better, because you haven’t been able to help enough today, and you’re a good person. Which is noble. It is. But I can’t help you do it. Not this way. I can’t.”

For once, he wasn’t looking charming. He was looking like he didn’t know how to be charming.

“I have to live with this,” she told him. “And I can’t. I always told Dyma …” She had to blink back the tears and take a deep breath before she went on. “Not to sleep with anybody who didn’t think he was the luckiest guy in the world to get the chance. It’d be an easy thing for you. A throwaway thing. I get it. But I can’t be a throwaway thing anymore.”

She stood up, got hit by a wave of cold air on her superheated skin, scrambled out of the hot tub without nearly enough grace, and reached for her robe. Now he’d seen every bit of her, but that was all right, too. That was fine.

She wasn’t unsure anymore, and she was always unsure. That had to mean this was right, even though it felt lousy. “I’m going to take a shower,” she told him. “And then order some dinner and go to bed. I realize you’re paying, but I’m going to tell myself that I didn’t ask you to. You wanted company, and I’ve given you company.”

“You have,” he said. His face was shut down now. “You should do what you want.”

“It’s your birthday,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m a big boy,” he said. “Go.”

He didn’t hang around. Once he was sure she’d be locked into her bathroom, he climbed out of the hot tub, pulled his clothes over his wet body as best he could, let himself out of the suite, and headed back to his room.

Nowhere he hadn’t been before. An anonymous hotel room. A shower. A room-service order.

His phone rang.

He picked it up, his heart pounding.

Annabelle.

He took a breath, pushed the button, and said, “Hey, Bug. Using it already, huh?”

“I can’t talk long,” she said. “I’m in the shed.”

“What? Why? It’s too cold out there.”

“I know. I’m the one here. I was scared Dad would hear me.”

He swung his feet to the floor. “Why? What did he do?”

Shit. Why had he left like that? He should have stayed. He should have known. His dad had felt humiliated. He’d known