of the fact that he would expect her to shed her clothes next, and she didn’t have the body he did. Not even close.
She was too soft in places she shouldn’t be. Her boobs weren’t perky. They weren’t sagging yet, thank God, but they weren’t the kind you could bounce a quarter off. Her abdomen was squishy because she didn’t exercise enough and she enjoyed her sugar. At least her hips weren’t big, not that it was much in the way of reassurance. She wasn’t huge or anything, but she wasn’t one of the super slim women or the curvy ones who looked lush and beautiful. She was just sort of in between and . . . blah.
“Give a mint to know what you’re thinking right now,” Steele muttered.
“I’m blah,” she blurted out.
Then she closed her eyes. She needed better social skills. This was what happened when someone grew up in an isolated environment, shut off from most of the world, never having friends or interacting with other people. They became a blithering idiot the first time they tried to interact with another person on an intimate level.
“Blah?”
The incredulity in his voice soothed some of her frayed nerves.
“Yeah, blah. You’re gorgeous. I mean perfect. And I’m just blah. We don’t match up very well,” she said in a serious tone. “Gorgeous male specimens such as yourself do not have sex with blah women. They don’t have to. They can have sex with gorgeous female specimens, so why would they settle for blah?”
His lips flapped up and down a moment and he looked so exasperated that she felt sure his next move would be to start pulling at his hair. “You’re shitting me, right?”
She shook her head solemnly.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered.
“You don’t call a woman an idiot if you have any plans to have sex with her,” Maren retorted.
“You’re an idiot,” he said calmly.
She had nothing to say to that.
He gestured down. “Look at this. Do you think I get this hard for ‘blah’? That I’m so horny and desperate that I’ll fuck anything with a pussy? Jesus Christ, woman, I’m a goddamn walking hard-on around you. Haven’t you ever noticed?”
“N-no,” she stammered out.
“You’re an idiot,” he repeated.
She frowned. “Okay, I’m really not liking that word.”
He sighed. “Okay, you’re clueless then. Completely and utterly clueless.”
She probably couldn’t argue that point because well, it was true. She’d had no idea that he was remotely attracted to her. It still stunned her.
She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “So let me get this straight so we’re on the same page. We have sex tonight. You leave at eight. And we never speak again and pretend this never happened. Do I have it right?”
“Didn’t say we’d never speak again,” he rumbled.
“Yes, because we spoke so much before,” she said sarcastically.
“I want you out from under my skin.”
Well, okay then. That was that. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being used as an exorcism of herself, but sex with Steele wasn’t something she was going to pass up. It wasn’t like opportunities cropped up for her in Bumfuck, Costa Rica. And she damn sure wasn’t going to admit how long it had been since she’d had sex. Better to let him think he’d been the one to go longer without it.
“Whatever works for you,” she said with a sigh.
She started to undo her pants, but Steele put his hand out and wrapped his fingers gently around her wrist.
“No, let me. My fantasy. We’re doing it my way.”
She wanted to say, Hey, what about my fantasy, but this was definitely her fantasy too, so he could have at it. And the idea that she was his fantasy . . . Whoa. Heady stuff. She could live with that. She liked it a whole lot.
He bent over the bed and pressed her backward until she was flat on the mattress. Then he unfastened the fly of her jeans and began to peel the pants down over her hips.
Nerves bubbled in her belly and chill bumps raced over her exposed skin. This was nerve racking. He was naked, and she was okay with that. Definitely. But the idea of her being naked? Of being utterly exposed to him? Of having him see her without clothes? Ugh.
“Relax,” he murmured as he pulled the pants free of her legs.
“Easy for you to say.”
He leaned down and kissed her belly and the flutters increased, rising into her throat. He made what should have been something so simple incredibly