Trapped (Caged #2)(24)

“Tria,” Elissa said with a sigh, “he’s not with those girls. He’s with you!”

“I know that,” she said, “but I…well, I don’t have any, you know, experience.”

“Ohhhh!” Elissa drew out the syllable for way too long. “Well, you certainly have the opportunity! Just go for it!”

“Yeah,” Tria grunted, “go and make a fool of myself.

“I doubt he’s going to mind what you do,” Elissa assured her. “I mean, he’s a guy, right? From the last couple of boyfriend’s I’ve had, they’re pretty happy with whatever they can get. Besides, lots of guys think that’s really hot to be with a virgin.”

“But it’s still a risk, isn’t it?” Tria asked. “I mean, if he…if I…well, if I suck at it, then he can probably replace me in about thirty seconds. He gets all kinds of offers every time he works. They buy him drinks and ask him out all the time. If what he has here is…mediocre…why not take one of them up on it?”

“Are you serious?” Elissa said in a harsh whisper. “Aren’t you more afraid if he’s not getting any here, he’ll find it somewhere else?”

“A little,” Tria admitted. “I don’t really think Liam is the cheating type, though. I think he’d just tell me to get out if he got tired of waiting. He keeps saying he’ll wait.”

“You are crazy,” Elissa declared. “It sounds to me like you want him, and he’s happy to give it to you.”

Yeah, I almost yelled out loud.

“I’m not used to that,” Tria responded. “No one’s ever really wanted me. At least, never wanted me for me.”

“Well, I’m telling you right now,” Elissa said, “that man wants you.”

There was a pause in the conversation, and I figured I probably ought to make myself known. I was already feeling a bit low for listening in, so I reached behind me and closed the bathroom door with a bang before walking back out.

“Getting a lot of homework done?” I asked.

“I think we’re probably done for today,” Elissa said as she blushed again. She gathered up her laptop in a bag, and I wondered if Tria could fit one of those things inside the Luggage of Lucifer. I decided not only would the laptop fit but probably the laptop bag as well.

Before saying goodbye, they made plans to work on their project some more over the weekend, and Tria turned back toward me. She looked down at the ground for a minute, then walked up and slowly put her arms around my neck and her cheek against my chest.

“You smell good,” she told me.

I laughed.

“I thought I was supposed to say that to you.”

She turned her head to look at me and just stood there for a minute and stared. I didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts because I was kind of hoping she was thinking more about her talk with her friend.

She didn’t say anything about it and was actually pretty damn quiet the rest of the day and into the evening. She made dinner, answered questions if I asked them, but didn’t offer up any conversation. She just seemed to be deep in thought, so I didn’t bug her about it.

At least when we crawled into bed, she snuggled up close to me.

Tria’s fingers traced little geometric shapes on my chest, but she didn’t move her hand any lower, and I wasn’t going to press. She’d gotten me off the night before, and I wasn’t about to demand more or complain or anything. When she turned her head up to kiss me, though, I was ready for her.

I grabbed her by her waist and pulled her up until she was straddling my stomach, making sure she wasn’t low enough to get a big ass boner in her backside. She leaned back down and kissed me, and I stroked my hands slowly up her sides. I touched the undersides of her breasts, and I ran my thumbs slowly over her though the fabric of her T-shirt was in my way.

I sat up and wrapped my arms around her back. Tria’s hands twisted around in my hair again, and I started kissing down her neck to her shoulder. Though I didn’t move her T-shirt out of the way or anything, I kissed down the front of her chest where her bra strap would be if she was wearing one.

She placed her hands immediately on my chest, which I took as a signal to back away. Tria blushed, bit at her lip nervously, and crawled off of me.

I took in a long, slow breath and let it out again as Tria situated herself under the blankets.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you’re so insecure about this?” I blurted out.

“I’m not,” she said too quickly.

“Okay…” I mumbled. “How about, are you ever going to admit you’re insecure about this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said with a completely unconvincing shrug.

“Tria, for Christ’s sakes, you curl away from me like I’m going to bite you or something!”

I hadn’t meant to yell, but the whole thing really was starting to piss me off. Tria cringed a bit, and I grumbled out an apology as she continued to deny anything was wrong.

“Just tell me,” I begged. “It can’t be all that bad.”

“It’s nothing.” Tria shrugged and turned away from me with a slight sniff.

Holy shit, I made her cry.

My fingers tightened around her elbow as I tried to get her to turn around and face me again.