Player(56)

So I did the only thing I could.

I broke away. “Come on,” I said, wishing there were anything else I could say but, “let’s get you home.”





21





The RLC





Val

“Jizz tastes like a roll of pennies.”

My roommates burst into laughter, and I shrugged. It was true.

Rin shook her head, her red lips smiling. “Oh, man—please tell me that wasn’t the size of his dick because, if so, I am so sorry.”

Katherine snorted. Amelia blushed.

I leaned on the high-top bar table. “No, no. More like…” My face quirked. “An aluminum can?”

Amelia gaped. “But how…how would that…where would you even put…”

“Okay, okay…a steel pipe,” I amended.

“There it is,” Rin said approvingly. “That’s a visual I can get behind.”

I sighed, smiling. “I honestly didn’t think I’d be so into it. But there he was, naked as sin and lying there, exposed and at my disposal. And it was hot. He’s beautiful. I would gladly put any part of him in my mouth, if he asked me to.”

“Well, cheers to a lesson well learned.” Katherine raised her glass, and we mirrored her.

“And to steel pipes,” Rin added.

“And to not choking!” Amelia chimed.

We laughed and took a drink.

“Sam’s angling to go to the club for your birthday,” Amelia said pointedly. “Have you decided what you want to do yet?”

My nose wrinkled. “Please don’t make a big deal about it.”

Katherine rolled her eyes. “You know we will. We always do.”

I sighed, smiling because I secretly loved the attention while also not wanting to get my hopes up. A wise man once said, low expectations are the key to life, and I was inclined to believe him.

“I don’t know what I want to do, and I can’t tell Sam no, so I’m sure we’ll be at the club.”

“Yay!” Amelia cheered, even throwing her little fists into the air. “I love it there. I’m so glad you met him, Val.”

“Me too.” My mind drifted back to the night before, and that touch of uncertainty that always followed me around when it came to Sam prickled. “Do you…do you think it’s bad that he told me I didn’t have to swallow?”

Rin’s and Katherine’s faces softened into gentle smiles.

“Not at all,” Rin said. “Trust me, he wanted you to swallow. I don’t know what weird, primal part of their brains that hits, but they always want you to swallow. He was just thinking about your comfort, which is so thoughtful. Polite.”

“A polite blowjob,” Katherine said on a laugh. “Sounds like an instructional at charm school.”

I chuckled. “He really is so polite. Holds open doors, compliments me, pays for my drinks, reciprocates oral. Like, he didn’t have to go down on me after I went down on him. Not that I minded. At all.” Feverish heat slithered through me at the memory. “How have I gone my whole adult life without that?”

“Amen,” Rin said, briefly raising her glass before taking a drink.

Katherine assessed me for a minute. “What you listed out sounds a lot more like dating than it does a friend or a tutor.”

That heat in my belly flamed at the suggestion. “I can’t even entertain that thought, Katherine.”

“Ignoring it doesn’t stop it from being true,” she countered.

“How long has it been?” Amelia asked. “How much longer before the lessons are over?”

I chewed my lip. “I don’t know. I’m afraid to look.”

“Why?” Katherine asked.

“Because I think it’s soon, and the thought makes me sick to my stomach. I don’t know what happens next. I don’t feel tutored enough. I don’t feel ready. Will he still want to be friends? Will he still want to hang out with me?”

Katherine’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Then it sounds like it’s time to make a decision about what you want next.”

I snorted a laugh. “I have a choice?”

“There’s always a choice,” she answered. “Do you still see him as just a friend and tutor after last night?”

The flame in my stomach flared painfully. “By all outward accounts, yes.”

“And the inward accounts?” Rin asked gently.

My shoulders slumped. “No. Not at all. But this is what I signed up for. These are the rules of engagement. I can’t change how he feels any more than I can change the way I feel.”

“And how do you feel?” Rin didn’t move, didn’t pick up her drink, just asked the question and watched me.

“Like I put my heart in a blender and hit Pulse.”

Katherine frowned, confused. “I don’t understand if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Bad. Very bad.”

“Got it,” she said with a nod.

“What if he has feelings for you, too?” Rin asked, ever the optimist.

“He doesn’t. I mean, he couldn’t.”

“Sure he could,” Amelia interjected. “Katherine’s right—everything you two do sounds like dating.”