AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shrug. “Maybe to you, it was nothing.”
After all, he thinks sex is nothing.
He draws a deep breath. “Once and for all, I did not have sex with Suzannah. She and I met at a party. She latched on to me like a virus. I had a drink with her and shook her off, which is probably the only reason she’s still interested in me. She can’t stand something or someone she can’t have. And I didn’t have sex with her tonight. What we did in that room? Just talk. About the fact that she has bulimia.”
My eyes grow wide. “What?”
Rainier rolls his eyes. “Seriously, Ellis, what made you think I wanted to have sex with Suzannah?”
“Well, you were quite intent to talk to her.”
“Because I was trying to protect you.”
“And you still talked to her even though I said I would.”
“Because I saw her sneaking out of here with a suspicious bag that turned out to be filled with candy bars,” Rainier says.
I say nothing as I continue icing the cookies. There’s nothing left to say. He’s already won this argument. I thought he slept with Suzannah and I was wrong.
I was wrong.
“Sorry,” I mutter.
He taps his fingers on the counter. “So you’re actually baking because you’re jealous?”
My eyebrows arch. “Jealous? I didn’t say…”
He leans forward into my breathing room and captures my gaze.
I swallow. “I wasn’t jealous.”
Was I?
Rainier grins. “You know, Ellis Smithson, you would have been a saint if you weren’t a liar.”
“I’m not – ”
He pushes the trays aside and sits on top of the counter. Then he takes off his sweater.
My jaw drops. “Rainier, what on earth are you doing?”
He shows his back to me. “Go ahead. Write your name on me with that piping bag.”
I look at the bag in my hand. “What?”
“Go on,” he urges me. “That way, people will know I’m yours.”
I snort. “That’s ridiculous. You’re not mine. You said so.”
“I said I wasn’t yours to give,” he says.
But he’s saying he’s mine?
He glances over his shoulder and glances at the piping bag in my hand. “Go on.”
I put it behind my back. “No.”
I’m not going to write my name on him in icing. Or anything for that matter. It’s childish and… not right.
“What? Would you prefer to write it somewhere else?”
I gasp as he stands up on the counter and starts to take off his belt.
“Rainier!” I pull him back down, then glance around to make sure no one saw what he just did. “What are you – ?”
He grabs another piping bag from the counter and uses it to write my name on his stomach. I frown.
“There. See. Now everyone will know I’m yours.”
I grab a paper towel and hand it to him. “Take it off.”
He throws it away. I give him a look of dismay.
“Rainier?”
He swings his legs over the counter so he’s facing me.
“If you want it off, you have to take it off yourself.”
“Fine.” I reach for another table.
Rainier grabs my wrist. “No towels. No paper. No cloth.”
My eyebrows furrow. “What am I supposed to use, then?”
He just gives me a mischievous grin.
I see. I can tell what he’s turning this into.
“You want me to lick it off?” I ask him.
His grin grows wider.
I look at the letters of my name on his stomach. I still think this is nonsense.
“And if I don’t want to?”
“I’ll just walk around like this,” Rainier answers.
“You’ll catch a cold,” I tell him.
“Then you’ll have to nurse me back to health.”
I grab the paper towel. “I can just wipe it off.”
“If you do, I won’t forgive you.” He touches his chin. “Come to think of it, I haven’t forgiven you yet for trying to hand me off to Suzannah or suspecting me of having sex with her. Frankly, I don’t know which is worse.”
I sigh. So now it’s blackmail, huh?
He shrugs his shoulders. “What? No remorse?”
“Fine.” I throw the paper towel away. “I’ll show you remorse.”
I stand in front of Rainier. He leans back on his arms and spreads his knees.
I take off my glasses, set them down on the counter, and bend my knees so my face is at the same level as his stomach. Then I put my hands on his thighs and start licking the icing off his skin, starting with the letter ‘E’. Slowly.
I’m going to tease him and make him regret this.
At first, he stays completely still like a statue. Halfway through the first letter ‘L’, though, I feel his stomach quiver. When I lick the second, dragging my tongue close to his navel, he draws in a sharp breath.
Does he have a ticklish belly button?
I test my theory by circling that depression with the tip of my tongue even though there’s no icing there. Rainier trembles and lets out a laugh, which he cuts off with another sharp breath.
