The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,32
told her so. Playing with fire left you burned. Jolene never learned. But she came by it honest because her mama had never learned either.
After sucking in some air, she did actually push on his chest, wanting to break that connection.
“Sorry, am I crushing you?” He pulled out and collapsed on the opposite end of the couch. Then he grinned at her. “Well that was interesting.”
“Yep.” She sat up and pushed herself off the couch on wobbly legs. Feeling vulnerable and hating it like hell, she just headed straight towards the powder room off the living room without another word.
Splashing water on her face, she stared at herself for a minute in the mirror. Her cheeks were red and she had a post-sex glow. “Get it together, girl,” she murmured. “He ain’t all that and a bag of chips.”
Except that he was. He was the damn chips and the hot sauce on top. She jumped when he pounded on the door.
“You all right?”
“Yes, I’m peeing.” She lifted the toilet lid with a loud clang to prove her point.
He walked in while she was popping a squat.
“Get the hell out of here!” she yelled, outraged. Some things were just private.
“What? It’s not a big deal.” He lifted his cock into the sink and splashed water on it.
“You know, the shower would work better.” Men were just nuts. She had no other explanation for why he was doing what he was doing. Though she had to admit, it was a good view of his tight ass. “You’re giving me stage fright.” She rested her arms on her knees and felt as awkward as she had changing in the locker room in seventh grade.
He snorted. “You, stage fright? That’s ironic. And I don’t want to take a shower. I want to lie back down with you for a little while still.” He turned and winked.
“Sometimes your logic is ass-backwards,” she said wryly, abandoning her project and standing up. She shoved past him to wash her hands.
He smacked her ass with a loud pop. “This is the only ass I’m interested in.”
Jolene stared at him. She had let down her wall and let him in a little bit and she’d thought when they were staring into each others’ eyes that he was feeling something and now he was acting like a twenty year old at a frat party. Not that she’d ever been to a frat party, but she could imagine. He didn’t even sound like himself. He sounded light and happy and ready to brag to any guy who listened that he had just gotten laid.
It wasn’t the reaction she was expecting, but at the same time, it was a safer one. Light banter she could handle. True emotion might do her in.
Shaking her head at him, she left the bathroom and went for clothes. Firmly covered again in fabric, she padded in to the kitchen. “I think we need to save the fishing for tomorrow. We still haven’t eaten. I need to fix some dinner.”
“That’s probably wise.” Chance pulled on his boxer briefs but wandered into the kitchen looking sexy and sleepy, his hair falling in his eyes. “Can I help?”
Jolene reached for the bottle of wine. “Open this. Pour me a glass. Throw my phone in the pond.”
He took the bottle from her. “You have no idea how much I would love to toss your phone into the pond. Or into a garbage disposal. Or down the sewer grate. Off a roller coaster. Set it on fire.” He got a gleam in his eye just talking about it.
She raised an eyebrow and she pulled open the refrigerator and got out the fixings for a salad. “I had no idea your feelings about my phone were so violent.”
“They really are. That thing is attached to your hip.”
Rolling her eyes she made a face. “You don’t see it anywhere near me right now, do you? Besides, I have a job, you know. People need to reach me.”
“I have a job too.”
“You’re also Buck Rivers’ son and a man. People forgive you a delay in response the way they won’t just another bottle blonde from the sticks.” It didn’t make her angry. It was just the facts. She had to be available twenty-four seven and she had to stay on top because if she tumbled down, she’d never climb her way back up.
“I don’t believe that.”
“Then you’re as naïve as you are cute.”
“I’m not cute at all.”
“The hell you’re not.” Jolene efficiently chopped romaine