Fucking kissed … me … back.

Lips and tongue and breath, Tori gave it all. And she gave it good. Really fucking good.

Her body was still rigid with pleasure as I thrust my hips three more times, groaned into her mouth, and shot off my release.

Right in my fucking shorts.

Still …

My thoughts on this experience hadn’t changed one damn bit. Hands down, this was in my top five. Top two maybe.

Damn. What the fuck?

I slumped back, keeping hold of Tori’s neck after we stopped kissing and pulling her with me. Her head hit my shoulder. She was panting. I was panting.

Then my grip on her neck slid around to the front of her throat when she leaned away to look at me.

“I didn’t beg,” she said quickly, chest heaving and cheeks flushed.

I looked at her messy hair and heavy eyes. I saw red smeared below her bottom lip.

“Neither did I,” I told her, taking my thumb and wiping away the evidence of our kiss.

Her body went rigid with a gasp. I showed her my thumb. Seeing it, she quickly rubbed below her mouth when my hand fell away, narrowed her eyes at me, then leaned in and with the tips of her fingers cleaned off my mouth, doing this while speaking fast, “This doesn’t count. It was a freebie. Just … pretend it didn’t happen.” She dropped her hand when she was finished.

“Gonna have trouble pretendin’ the load I just blew in my shorts ain’t there,” I told her.

Her eyes went round, fell between us, and then lifted again.

“Right, um, let me just …” She pushed off from my lap and stood, raising a finger. “Hold on. I’ll get you something.” Then she spun around and hurried out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

I dropped my head back and pulled in a deep breath, relasing it slowly.

What the fuck were we doing? Pretend this shit didn’t happen? Fuck that. Was she serious?

The door clicked open. I watched Tori hurry inside with a hand full of brown paper towels.

“Here. Sorry. This isn’t the type of place to stock Bounty. These are kinda rough.” She stepped in front of me and held them out. “Better than nothing, I guess.”

I took them, jerking my chin in appreciation. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem,” she replied, clearing her throat and spinning around when I started working at my shorts.

I shook my head, thinking her reaction to possibly seeing my dick now was funny considering she’s seen it already and I just made her come with it. Then remembering how I felt about her suggesting we forget about what just happened, I got the urge to share my feelings while I cleaned myself up.

“Look, Legs—”

“I’m gonna go, I think,” she interrupted.

My head snapped up.

Tori was still facing the door, only I could see one hand was raised. She had her fingers pressing to her lips.

Could she still feel me?

“I just, I’m tired, so I think I’m gonna go home and get some sleep,” she continued.

I narrowed my eyes. Bullshit. She wasn’t tired. If anything I just woke her ass up.

Tori turned her head to the side so I could see her profile. “So bet’s still on. This didn’t mean anything.”

“Right,” I mumbled, looking down and finishing up.

“I’ll tell your sister bye.”

I balled up the paper towels and tossed them on the bench, huffing out breath as I did it.

“Jamie?”

“What?” I barked, tucking my shit away and then standing, zipping up as I met her eyes.

Tori was turned sideways now. She pushed some hair behind her ear and stared at me, looking timid. “Bet’s still on, right?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Yep,” I answered curtly, tucking my hands into my pockets. “Why the fuck wouldn’t it be?”

She nodded. “Right. I figured since, you know, this didn’t count.”

“Already forgot it happened.”

Her eyes seemed to focus in. She pinched her lips together, then she turned away and looked down. “Okay, so I guess I’ll see ya later then?”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Because I knew if I opened my mouth, I’d say shit I shouldn’t be saying, like how I’d just lied and how I wasn’t going to forget. How I didn’t want to. Or worse, how I didn’t want her to.

And admitting that shit would be just like begging.

Tori looked back at me when I didn’t speak, furrowed her brows as if she was thinking hard, and then turned away, shaking her head through an exhale that sounded as exhausted with this bullshit as I was.

She swung the door open again and walked out.

I watched her leave, standing there feeling all kinds of weird shit I didn’t want to be feeling, except for the anger. That I didn’t mind. I understood that. The other shit? No.

Fuck no. I didn’t get any of it.

I waited until I knew Tori would be cleared out and gone before I stepped out myself. I said my good-byes and paid for another round of lap dances to keep Quinn from bitching at me for leaving. Then I strode outside, got to my bike, and took off.

Not heading in Tori’s direction.

Chapter Nine

TORI

I’d lied to Jamie.

Had to. I needed to get out of there.

After dry humping against him like some sex-starved preteen and getting off, really getting off, kissing him, too, which was just as good as I remembered only better since I’d actually participated this time, I knew I couldn’t head back out to the table where Quinn and her friends were sitting and hang there the rest of the night. Jamie would be hanging out.

He had plans on staying, I was sure of it. It was his sister’s birthday. Plus, strip club. Hello. Why would he leave?

And him hanging out meant sharing a table, sitting a foot away from each other, if not inches, and I didn’t think I could handle being that close to Jamie after what we’d just did and how I still felt.

I stood in that room, facing away, while he cleaned himself up, but it was as if I hadn’t moved at all. I could still feel his fingers on my neck and his desperate pressure on my hip. I could hear his growls and smell his skin and his hair still tickled my forehead, his thighs beneath me and the way they tensed, I felt them too, and his mouth.

Touching my lips, he was there. Still.

Jamie was all over me.

I couldn’t stay and have Jamie look at me while I tasted him in my mouth and felt his dick throbbing between my legs, because I would look back. I know I would.

And I would wonder … Do you still feel me, too?

So I lied about being tired, then rushed home and showered under water too hot for my skin because I wanted to feel that long after I was finished instead of everything else.

Skin flushed and warm and muscles loose, I dried off and dressed. It hadn’t worked. I still felt him. His fingerprints and his fevered kisses. The scratch of his stubble. His pounding heart.

They were mine to keep.

But I didn’t want them. Or at least, I shouldn’t want them. Wanting them was terrifying and thoughtless. It was stupid. And I didn’t want to be that girl. Ever. Or at least, not again. I was stupid with Wes. I didn’t see sign after obvious sign of what he was keeping from me—his wife and kid. I was too caught up. And I wouldn’t get caught up with Jamie. I wouldn’t lead myself toward heartbreak again. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Honest.