“Sorry? Are you kidding? I’ll eat whatever you don’t and get dessert on top of it.”
She laughed. “Consider this an official challenge. We have to set a time limit though.”
“I’m up for it. What are you thinking?”
“It’s six fifteen now. Two hours?”
“No problem.”
She smirked. “You’re on.”
“Is there some kind of wager involved?”
“Do you think there should be?”
Oh yeah, I did, but everything I could come up with involved Blanca being in various stages of undress.
“Your face is expressive.”
I looked up from the oysters. “Is it?”
“Very.”
“Are you saying you know what I’m thinking?”
“I’m saying that if you’re thinking what I think you are, you shouldn’t eat any more of those oysters.”
I sat back in the chair. “This is just a trick to keep them all for yourself, isn’t it?”
Blanca slowly shook her head. “Since I’m thinking the same thing you are, I shouldn’t have any more either.”
I laughed out loud and so did she, and then we polished off the remaining so-called aphrodisiacs.
If we’d wagered, I would’ve lost because she was right, there was no way I could finish everything she’d ordered, even with Blanca eating her share of it.
“You bested me, woman.”
She rubbed her belly. “I’m so full I have to go to sleep.”
“Go ahead, I’ll clean up.”
“I can help.”
“Nah, you ordered.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Thanks for today,” she said, leaning down and kissing my cheek. “Thank you for respecting me enough to tell me what’s going on.”
“You deserved to know. It’s your life.”
“Sleep well.” Blanca waved behind her as she walked out of the kitchen.
I thanked her even though I had no intention of sleeping. Truth be told, I couldn’t wait to get started on her book. The minute she told me the kind of books she wrote, it was almost all I could think about.
I put away the leftover food, double-checked the doors and windows were secured everywhere but the room Blanca was in and then remembered I hadn’t put the teams’ cell numbers in her phone like I’d meant to do.
“Knock, knock,” I said, tapping lightly on her door and hoping she wasn’t asleep yet.
“Just a sec.” It took her a minute to open the door and then it was only a crack. “What’s up?”
I told her why I was there.
“Give me another minute, okay?”
I rested against the wall and tried my hardest not to allow my mind to imagine everything she might have been doing before I knocked. Instead, it raced with it. Had she gone into her bedroom intending to take care of any desires brought on by our conversation about the oysters? I knew as soon I was alone, that’s what I’d be doing.
I groaned when all I could picture was Blanca under her bedsheets, one hand between her legs, the other playing with her nipples. I reached into my jeans to adjust myself at the same moment she reopened her door. My hand froze where it was and time seemed to stand still as she looked from my eyes to my groin.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” The idea that she was teasing me was almost enough to make my problem go away, until my eyes met hers and I saw the heat in them. I slowly moved my hand.
“I, uh, wanted to check and my make sure your bedroom window was secured.”
She took one step closer. “You could’ve asked me to do that myself.”
“I also meant to give you contact info for Cowboy and Wasp.”
“Why?”
“Just in case you needed to reach them for anything.”
She took one more step. “Anything?”
I grabbed her shoulders and spun her around so her back was against the wall. “No. Not anything,” I said, my lips close enough to hers to touch. “What were you doing in there?”
She raised her chin. “Book research.”
“Jesus,” I groaned before my mouth came crashing down on hers. I put my hands on her ass, digging my fingertips into her flesh, and lifted her. “Put your legs around me,” I demanded. I instinctively ground myself against her heat. “I’ll take care of anything you need, Blanca. Do you understand me?”
“Will you?” Her arms tightened around my neck and I kissed her hard, My tongue delved in to slide against hers; my body pressed hers against the wall. Lust warred against my conscious when she slid one hand under my shirt while the fingers of the other wove into my hair.
When she rolled her hips, I came as close as I had in over a year to having an orgasm brought on by another person. Not able to resist another second, I slid my hand inside the back of the sweatpants she must’ve pulled on in order to come out of the room to talk to me.
I moaned in frustration, knowing I had to stop, when my fingers brushed up against the soft lace of the panties that clung to the curves of her perfect ass. I broke our kiss with a nip at her bottom lip and lowered her legs to the ground.
Blanca’s chest heaved, her eyes glazed over, and her lips were damp and swollen.
Before I changed my mind, I walked into her bedroom and checked the locks on the windows. “I’ll give you those numbers tomorrow, angel,” I said, when she met me at the door.
“Are you seriously about to say good night to me?”
Knowing that if I touched her again, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from fucking her senseless, I put my hands in my pockets. “Consider what just happened more book research.”
Yeah, it was an asshole move, but it would have been far worse had I followed through and had sex with her.
