Playing It Safe(28)

After that, he doesn’t say a peep. Instead, he sits there and stares rather unaffected by the myriad of reasons I’ve just supplied him. Beyond gratified at leaving him speechless for a change, I take the opportunity to start gathering my things and stand up to leave.

“Thank you for dinner, and I’ll be in touch with you and your niece later this week with details about the party.”


“And where do you think you’re going? Shouldn’t I get a chance to respond after your little speech?” he asks.

Sighing in defeat, because I would feel like a real piece of crap if I didn’t let him speak, I wave dramatically in his direction, letting him know to go ahead with his side of the story. Then he smiles, a languid smile as if he’s been waiting for his chance all along. I can’t lie; I’m curious. But you know what they say about curiosity—it kills stupid-ass cats every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

“Shall I start at the beginning?”

“Sure,” I offer. “By all means.”

Alex crosses his arms and leans back in his chair without a care in the world. “As much as I do love your rather vivid description of ‘f*cking each other’s brains out,’ which there is no doubt in my mind would indeed be the case, your excuse of not wanting to ruin our friendship is ridiculous. Who says we can’t stay friends?”

“Are you asking me to be your f*ck buddy?” I ask, wide-eyed and totally thrown off by his question.

Choking on his words, he says, “No! Jesus Christ, how did you get that from what I just said?”

Before I can answer, he continues. “You know what, don’t answer that. Let’s move on to Marisa instead. She is not, nor has she ever been, my girlfriend. Does she think she is? I have no idea, and honestly I couldn’t care less if she does. I take her out every so often as a favor to my parents for reasons I’d rather not get into right now.”

“So you’re saying that if by some miracle we started dating, you’re still planning on fulfilling this mysterious favor and taking her out occasionally? Because I’m not cool with that, like at all. I don’t share, Alex.”

His full-wattage smile garners an appreciative tingle from my body that I’m almost ashamed to admit. I said almost, dammit. I’m still not on board with this whole thing, so my body is entitled to feel all kinds of tingles that he doesn’t have to know about.

“I don’t share either, Julia. Not that you would know that about me since that’s part of, what did you call it, outside-of-work Alex?”

“It’s true though. What do I know about you other than what I’ve seen here today?”

“That’s something that can easily be remedied, so stop hiding behind that excuse. Moving on. Sabrina.”

The name hangs in the air between us because I know everything about what transpired between them, from the making out to the almost tit-grabbing. I wasn’t lying when I told him that she tells me everything. She told me every single gory detail. At the time, I was living vicariously through her because I’d always had a thing for him, but I never said jack shit about it to Sabrina. And don’t get too excited about me saying I’ve always had a thing for him. Because if you saw this man, you’d want to be all over him like a cheap suit too.

“Sabrina and I are friends, that’s it and you know it. I can’t lie and tell you that at one point I wasn’t attracted to her. I was. She’s a beautiful woman, but that was a long time ago.”

At that point, he stands up from his stool and starts to take a couple of steps toward me. What the f*ck am I doing? If he takes one more step … dammit, it’s too late. He’s standing right in front of me now, and I did nothing to move out of his way. I suck.

“Since we’re being so honest with each other,” he notes while taking his index finger and hooking it under my purse strap. He slides it off my shoulder and hangs it on the back of the stool. “There are some things maybe you should know because I couldn’t bear it if you continued to labor under a misapprehension. First of all, why don’t you ask me how long I’ve wanted you? Better yet, ask me when was the exact moment I knew I had to have you.”

He brings his hands up to cup my face and tilts my chin up so that I’m forced to look into his eyes, which are giving nothing away at the moment.

“I don’t want to know,” I answer him.

“Yes you do, and don’t lie to me again,” he says in a rough, low voice that does all sorts of things to me. He lowers his head so that his mouth grazes my ear, and the little slut that I am moves a hair to the side to give him better access. “If you ever lie to me again, I’m going to bend you over my knee and spank you raw. Do you understand?”

With almost a whimper, I muster a weak nod because in my mind I’m already thinking of ways that I can lie so that he can carry out his little threat.

“That’s much better. Now, the last thing on your list was … I can’t remember,” he says playfully. “Care to remind me?”

“I don’t want to be sloppy seconds.”

“You’re not and could never be sloppy seconds to anyone. Plus, who said it would even be sloppy?”

He’s got me so wound up and a far cry from a few minutes ago when I was about to bolt out the door. I bring my hands up to hold on to his wrists when he starts to trail his lips lazily across my cheek before reaching my mouth. What little resolve I was holding on to is dissolving as if I were standing in a vat of quicksand.