“Because I do like you as a friend, and I want to stay that way. And I also don’t want to be one more name on a list of women you’ve dated. I mean, Lisa was all over you at the party. And then there’s Cara, and she’s super sweet, but still, you used to date her. And even when I was at my sister’s I drove past Melody Olsen’s house, and you used to go out with her too. There are reminders everywhere that you date a lot of women and never for more than a few months, or weeks, really.”
Damn, that list sounded long when she rattled off the names. He was never serious with any of them, and evidently that was the big fat f**king hurdle in the way of him having a relationship with Jamie. But he wasn’t some sort of career playboy who needed or wanted a woman in every port. He simply hadn’t met the right woman. “I’m not going to lie to you and act like I’m some goody-goody choir boy. I’m not. I’m not a monk,” he said. “But I’m not going to pretend you aren’t 100 percent special to me either. I like you a lot. I have a good time with you. I laugh with you. Hell, we’ve gone bowling together for a couple years now, and I just think that’s gotta count for something,” he said, and shot her what he hoped was a sexy grin that might melt her.
“See, that’s the other thing. I don’t want to be a ‘count for something’ kind of thing. I don’t want to be a ‘why not’ woman—”
He cut her off. “I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t mean to imply let’s go out because there’s nothing better. You’re not a ‘why not’ kind of woman. I swear. That’s why I want to take you out and spend time with you. You can even invite me over to your sister’s house for your dinners and I’ll happily go. I want more.”
Her eyes widened with shock at the suggestion. She looked mortified that he’d want to have dinner with her family. She lowered her voice and motioned for him to come closer. “I know I wasn’t up-front when I ran out the other night, but I’m going to be blunt now. That was the best sex of my life,” she said, and pride burst through him with the compliment. She continued, “Plus, you’re funny, and you’re sweet, and you make me laugh, and I care deeply for you as a friend, and that’s why I want to be friends with benefits for a week,” she said, then raised her eyebrows playfully. “You like the benefits part, don’t you?”
He gritted his teeth and felt his shoulders tighten with frustration. She was calling him out but yet she still wanted to sleep with him?
Then it hit him. She wanted to sleep with him. She wanted to have sex with him, no-strings attached, for a week. He could work with that. She said he was the best sex of her life, and if he was going to have to use sex to win her heart, then dammit, he’d do that. Play to his strengths. Make her feel everything, and in doing so, make her fall for the rest of him. Rather than be offended with her proposition, he was going to run with it and ensure at the end of the week, she would want all of him.
He would have to prove himself to her, and that was part and parcel of what was so damn attractive about her. He was used to getting what he wanted. He wasn’t being cocky, just honest. He had friends, he had steady work, he had good health, and he had women when he wanted them. But there was something about having to step outside of his comfort zone that he now craved, and Jamie was the first who’d called him on his ways. He had to shed his defenses for her. Not always his first choice, but it was the only choice with her, and it was one he was willing to make.
“I can do this, but there’s one thing I want out of the deal.”
“Besides sex?”
He nodded, inching closer to her, the corner of the bookshelves shielding them, as he lazily trailed his fingers down her bare arm. “You know we have fun together, and you know we f**k well, so let’s go out once. As friends. A friends-with-benefits date.”
“Smith,” she said, but her voice was already breathy. Her eyes looked hazy as he touched her, telling him she was starting to bend.
“One date, as part of your no-strings-attached plan,” he said, now reaching for her waist, brushing his fingers across her hipbone. She shivered at his touch, and he glanced around, glad they were in a section where no one could see where his hands were daring to travel. “Let me take you out to dinner at the end of the week on a proper date,” he said in a low voice, as he played with the waistband of her skirt. She drew a sharp breath.
“Maybe,” she said, and her eyes started to flutter shut.
He moved closer and shifted her body. Her chest faced the shelves, so no one could see what he was doing as he stood behind her, grazing his hands underneath her shirt, then across her belly. “We could see a movie. Or we could have dinner and as we wait for the food I could tell you about all the ways I want to take you again,” he said.
She arched her back against him. “Yeah?”
“And then after dinner, when you’re squirming under the table, all hot and bothered and as amped up as I am, you can come back to my place, and I can f**k you senseless on the kitchen table, or up against the wall, or maybe just in the hallway because we’ll want each other so badly we can’t make it to the bedroom,” he said, his voice a low dirty growl near her ear. “And it’ll be what you want, no strings attached.”
She hitched in her breath, not answering his question about a date. But right now, he wasn’t thinking about her yes to dinner; he was thinking about making her scream yes. He brushed the hair away from her ear, his lips buzzing her earlobe. “Are you wet for me right now?”