Jock Rule (Jock Hard #2)(46)

“Um…no.”

“Yeah you are—you should see how ruddy your skin is.”

She turns to face me, coffee cup in hand, eyes in gorgeous, narrow slits. Should I not have called her complexion ruddy?

“No, Kip—this is rug burn.”

Well shit.

That’s not cool.

I laugh to myself, not stupid enough to say it out loud.

“You mean beard burn.”

Teddy snorts. “Let’s be honest, it’s the exact same thing. I might as well have dragged my face and crotch across the carpet last night.”

The visual almost makes me laugh.

“That wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.” I grin, moving toward the coffee that’s already brewed in the pot. Fill myself a mug, dump in a bunch of creamer, drop in some sugar, and lean against the counter, watching her.

Stir it with a spoon, sipping every so often as she regards me.

“It doesn’t look terrible,” I try, lying.

“Two minutes ago you asked why my face looked ruddy. Ruddy. Of all the words in the world to use.”

“I mean…” It does though.

Dark red patches mar her otherwise beautiful skin like a rash, and I wonder what it looks like between her legs, on the insides of her silky thighs. Wonder if she’ll let me have a look-see in the light of day.

“Could you not stare?”

“I can’t help it.” I laugh. “I’ve never done that to anyone before.”

She scowls. “Yeah, because you’re a freaking giant covered in hair. I cannot believe I made out with a guy they call Sasquatch. I mean, really Teddy?” She sounds appalled at herself.

“Technically, you didn’t make out with anyone—I made out with your vagina.”

She frowns harder. “You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

I smirk into my cup. “Maybe. I mean, it’s not the end of the world.”

“What am I going to say to my friends when they notice this?”

“Can’t you cover it up with makeup?”

“Mariah is going to see me without it.”

“So?”

“So! What am I going to say?”

“Tell her we made out and I went down on you.” I shrug my shoulders. “What’s the big deal?”

Her mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. “I…I can’t…”

“It was oral, not anal. I don’t see what the big deal is.” Why is she acting so damn strange about this? “You can’t tell your friends I went down on you?”

“No. I mean…yes. I mean no.”

I stare, waiting for her to make some fucking sense.

“I can, I’m just not going to. They wouldn’t understand.”

Those chicks? The ones who get laid by someone different every weekend? They would applaud Teddy, not judge her for it.

My lips tighten into a straight line.

“If I said something about this—about us—they would keep asking for details, and then I would feel…weird, because we’re not, you know…seeing each other or whatever.”

I can see that happening. “I guess.”

Teddy ducks her head again, hiding her face. Hiding her feelings and shit.

“Plus,” she ventures slowly. “It’s not like…” Clears her throat. “It’s not going to happen again.”

It’s not?

Because I can still smell her on me—on the whiskers of my beard—and if she hadn’t been sitting at the counter when I came up from the basement, I would have climbed back into bed with her, under the covers from the foot of the bed and woken her up between her legs.

Woken her tight ass up with my mouth on her delectable pussy.

Yeah.

I’m gonna want more of that.

“You can’t un-ring a bell, Teddy Johnson.”

“What?” My reference is clearly lost on her.

My wide shoulders shrug again. “You heard me. The deed is done—we can’t go back so we might as well keep doing it.”

“Um, I get we can’t go back and undo it, but it doesn’t mean we have to keep doing it. We should probably—”

“Too late.”

“But—”

“Nope.”

“Stop doing that.”

“Next time you come over, I’ll probably purposely cut the line for the furnace so it’s freezing cold.”

Teddy rolls her eyes and it’s adorable. “Like I’d fall for that.”

“Worth a try.”

“What are you saying? That you want to have me over again?”

“Don’t you like being here?”

“Yes, but I’m not going to come just so we can fool around.”

“We’ll watch movies too. And eat.” Each other, obviously.

“Kip.”

“Teddy.”

She stands, frustrated by the conversation. Grabs the jacket off the back of her chair and tosses her ponytail. “I should go.”

I study her across the counter. “All right. Let me grab my keys and put shoes on.”

She knows not to argue; we’ve had this conversation once before. Plus, it’s colder than a witch’s tit outside and I know she won’t want to walk home. Not that I’d let her.