“You’re sighing like you have the weight of the world on you.”
“Oh. No, I’m fine.”
He kept his gaze on hers for a long moment before returning it to his book.
One thing her new shrink had suggested was that when Blair was having a big emotion, she should call someone and tell them about it. To date, Tiffany had been the sole recipient of such calls. And while by “big emotion” Dr. Rankin probably hadn’t meant “horny SSR,” Blair decided to give it a try. It wasn’t even the horniness so much as it was how strange it was for them to be here, so close, without saying a word about what had gone down last time they were together.
“Actually,” she said, and he looked up. He must have seen something in her face. He put his book down on the floor next to his untouched tea. “I’m finding it a little weird that we haven’t talked about the fact that the last time we spent an evening together, it ended with us making out.”
“You keep saying that—‘making out.’ But don’t you think we did more than make out? By my estimation, if someone has an orgasm, it’s sex. Do you agree?”
“Yes. Yes I do.”
He nodded, his expression mild, untroubled. She didn’t know how he did that. She was… exceedingly troubled. She still felt like she was at a precipice, but apparently she was standing at the edge alone.
Or maybe not. After another few heartbeats, he said, “Do you… want to do it again?”
“Yes. Yes I do.”
Chapter 24
Stuckness
Jack didn’t know what to say. He was without words. Partly because he couldn’t believe he’d just propositioned Blair Kellermoon. Perhaps he had used his allotment of words for the day—for the week? For the balance of his lifetime?—doing that.
Partly because Blair Kellermoon had said yes.
But mostly because he didn’t have moves. Most of his sexual entanglements, be they short-term things or his relationship with Emily, had not been initiated by him.
But then he rethought things. Had he propositioned Blair, or had Blair propositioned him? He had said the words. But only because she’d touched his foot with her foot.
She’d touched his foot with her foot.He sounded like a teenager. But also, having his foot touched by Blair’s foot had made himfeellike a teenager. Her toes were little blocks of ice, but through some strange alchemy they had set him afire.
Perhaps they had propositioned each other.
Regardless, someone was going to have to make the first actual move here. And it was his house.
It occurred to him that this would be the first time he’d had sex here. In this condo, the ill-advised purchase of which wasn’t goingto come back to bite him after all—at least not yet—because Blair had helped him write his second book.
There was something poetic about that.
“What are you grinning about?”
He got up and extended a hand. When she set her book on the coffee table, he said, “Bring it.”
“Why?”
“In case we want to do some postcoital SSR.”
She cracked up, but she picked the book back up. Took his outstretched hand. “PCSSR. Mrs. Billings would be horrified.”
He pulled her up, and something came to life inside him, just like before. Unlike before, he was in command of his wits. He made a decision that this time was going to be different in one important way: He was going to take his time.Theywould taketheirtime. Even if it was torture. Especially if it was torture.
He pulled her closer and bent over and whispered in her ear, “We are going to do a lot of things that would horrify Mrs. Billings.”
She huffed a little sigh. It was a quiet, measured sigh, but the particular mix of relief and resignation it imparted just about undid him. He was already hard. He started walking them toward his bedroom. He was going backward, tugging her along, keeping her close. She stared at him as she walked, her eyes wide.
He flipped on the overhead light on the way in. He wanted to see her secret gray roots. He was smart enough, though, not to say that out loud. She made a face he interpreted as an objection to the sudden illumination, which was fair. He reached around her and turned the light back off, chuckling.
