Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(11)

“Ooh.” She winced. “Did you pencil them in with makeup while you waited?”

“Of course not,” he said defensively.

“Too bad, then. Not embarrassing enough.” She waved her hand. “Next story, please.”

Louis smothered a smile. “I have two older sisters. They’re twins and they’re terrifying.” He shifted, hoping he wasn’t shooting himself in the foot with this next story. “When I was in fifth grade, they were crazy into the Backstreet Boys. They played the album so many times, I . . . kind of started to like it.”

“Getting warmer.”

“Oh come on. That’s pretty bad.”

“Remember the tourist that wanted a picture with me outside?” She waited for his nod. “He suggested a more creative use for my torch.”

“Point taken.” Louis racked his brain, but all he could think about was how good she looked sitting on his desk. How badly he wanted to step between those thighs and relive the kiss heard round the world. He’d hook his hands under her knees and scoot her to the edge. Grind against her until she begged him to rip those jeans off and give her the real thing. And he would. He’d give it to her as long as she needed. Your dick is getting hard. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it.

“Are you thinking about me naked, Louis?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm.” She took the final bite of his sandwich. “I’m owed a properly embarrassing story, and I don’t have a lot of time. I have an audition this afternoon.”

“Audition?”

She nodded. “This might come as a shock to you, but I don’t do this full time.”

“You’re an actress.”

“I’m trying to be.” She gestured to the costume on the floor. “Obviously it’s not going well. Yet.”

Even though he had more questions, she seemed disinclined to discuss it anymore. Plus he was running out of time. Find out more about her later. “Okay. At my high school graduation, I tripped on the way to accept my diploma. My foot caught on the robe and I just”—he slashed his hand in the air—“ate shit.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m not finished.” He moved closer to her as subtly as he could, stopping when her eyes narrowed. “When I fell, I knocked my front tooth out. I sat there bleeding while everyone searched for the missing tooth so they could rush it, and me, to the dentist. But they never found it.” He tapped his front tooth with the tip of his finger. “This one’s fake.”

Only this girl would look delighted over his worst moment. Her smile sent something winging through his chest. “I can’t even tell. It looks just like its neighbor.”

Louis resisted the urge to hide the tooth by closing his mouth. “Did I pass?”

Roxy grabbed a pen off his desk and put it between her lips. Watching him under hooded eyes, she took his arm and rolled up his sleeve. When her fingertips made contact with the sensitive underside of his arm, there was no way of preventing The Reckoning any longer. His pants felt so tight all of a sudden that he had to work to keep his breathing even. She knew it, too. He could tell by the way her mouth curved around the pen. Torture, perfection. If this girl could get him hard merely from touching his arm, he was in bigger trouble than he thought.

After finishing the task of rolling up his sleeve, she plucked the pen from her mouth and started writing on his skin. “Okay, Louis McNally the Second. You’ve got my number. Don’t blow it.”

“Thank you.” Taking a risk, he planted a hand on his desk and leaned in. “But I want a date. I want to look at you when I’m talking to you. Not an iPhone screen.”

Hell if it didn’t make his entire morning to see her affected by his closeness. “I’m a busy girl.”

“Make time.”

Her pupils expanded just slightly, letting him know she’d liked that. Liked being ordered around, even if he suspected she’d rather eat nails than admit it. He filed that away for future use.

“I’m not free until Saturday.”

The perks of being a lawyer gave him a pretty good idea when people were lying. Briefly, he debated calling her on the fib but decided to let her play hard to get. As long as he got her in the end. “Saturday, then.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number on his arm, not taking any chances that the number was fake. She laughed under her breath when it became clear what he was doing. When her ring tone went off—“Money Maker,” by the Black Keys—he could feel the stupid grin on his face and couldn’t do a single thing about it.

Roxy slid off his desk, brushing against him. Just enough to ensure he’d need to go home on his lunch break and work off some steam. Solo-style. Louis watched transfixed as she took his phone and opened the camera application. She snapped a quick picture and handed him back the phone. “There. Now you can look at me when we talk.”

“You’re trying to make me crazy, aren’t you?”

She winked at him as she bent over to retrieve her costume. “Count on it.”

Christ. It was usually breasts that did him in. With Roxy, he didn’t know where the hell to look. So much f*cking trouble headed my way. He joined her at the door. “Good luck at your audition.”

“Thank you.” She started to leave but turned back. “You’re not the only one who’s been thinking about that kiss, you know.”