Page 39 of Beg Me

God knows you don’t always get the choice.

He shrugs again. “Maybe it would bother me. But if someone has it in them to cheat on you, then it’s better if they do it sooner than later. Saves time that way.”

“Well, while I appreciate you sharing your logic with me, I’m not here for a therapy session,” I say, refocusing. “I’m over him. I’m just here because I need someone to go to war beside me in three weeks so I can put Jasper in his place and close this part of my life.”

“Oh, I’ll go to war beside you any day.” He grins mischievously. “But you haven’t exactly asked me yet.”

I stare at him as his smirk settles in for the long haul.

This bastard. A slow smile slips across my face. He really thinks I’m going to beg.

“You see,” I say, leaning forward so that my cleavage is on full display. Two can play this game. “On the court, I’m in charge. You probably need to know that from the start.”

His gaze drops to my chest.

“Understood?” I ask, feeling the power shift slightly in my favor.

“Understood.” His eyes lift, meeting mine with a heat so potent that I gulp. Guess the power didn’t shift after all. “But we aren’t on the courts right now.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that I offered to be your partner—a few times, to be exact—and you turned me down. Now, here you are, sitting in front of me, expecting me to agree to it without you ever asking.”

I roll my eyes again. “What do you want from me, Jory? Do you want me to get on my knees in front of you and beg?”

“If you get on your knees, begging isn’t what you’ll be doing.”

His gaze pins me to my seat, daring me to move. His green irises shimmer in the light and are filled with an unspoken challenge. I’m not often speechless, but I have no comeback on the tip of my tongue.

Holy fuck.

A part of me, the part that hasn’t had sex in over four months, wants to drop to the floor and make him prove it. My core clenches at the thought of having his dick in my hands, then in my mouth, and then shoved deep inside me as I come all over it.

But the other part of me, the one still barely in control, puts a halt to it.

I’m not here to complicate my life even more. I’m here for one thing. I need to get it and leave.

“While I’d love to make you put your dick where my mouth is, so to speak, that’s not why I’m here,” I say with as much confidence as I can muster. “I came here to see if you’d play pickleball with me. If that’s a no, then fine.”

I start to stand but am stopped with a carefully lifted brow.

“You know I’ll do it,” he says. “I would’ve done it even if I didn’t get the pleasure of teaching your ex a lesson.”

I grin. “He really needs to be taught a lesson. If you smashed him in the face with a ball three or four times, it might not be enough.”

Jory chuckles. “So what am I getting out of this, anyway?”

“I don’t know. What do you want?”

I know exactly what crosses his mind. Men only smirk like that when they’re imagining one thing.

Finally, he sighs. “I want you to tutor Gus. Every hour of practice is an hour spent sitting with him and working through his math packet. That puts you in complete control of your time and investment.”

I would’ve done that for free. “Deal.”

“I need to take a cold shower,” he says, adjusting himself. I make a point not to look at his groin. “Then we could meet up at the park and get a game or two in.”

This is music to my ears.