Starfire (Peaches Monroe #3)(13)
Author: Mimi Strong

“Buzz kill,” he said. “I’ll call her. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.”

“You could just date us both at the same time.”

Why did I say that? The orgasm must have loosened me up to a very strange place.

He frowned. “Should I date other people because you’re still seeing that actor?”

My eyes widened in horror. “It was just a joke,” I said. Damn it, I always got so weird after a sexual encounter. If I wasn’t grabbing my clothes and fleeing the scene, I was saying something stupid, or impersonating a cleaning lady.

“I guess we are adults,” he said. “We just need to have some rules.”

Oh, shit. Was he serious?

He scrunched his face and adjusted the front of his pants again. “I’m not thinking clearly, am I?”

“Want me to chop that tree down for you?” I flashed my eyes at his crotch.

He cleared his throat and got to his feet, then sat next to me. “Chop down my tree?” He sounded alarmed.

“Bad metaphor. It’s just that you have a lot of wood in there.” I held up my hands next to my mouth and stuck out my front teeth like a beaver.

He chuckled. “Is that… your beaver face?”

I felt my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Jokes are supposed to diffuse tension, not make it worse!

He leaned over and nibbled my neck. “I am looking forward to seeing your lips around my cock.”

MEOW! BA-WANG!

The lights flicked on, bringing our stark surroundings into reality.

Nodding, he said, “But our time’s up.”

I blinked up at the fluorescent lights, high overhead, as they buzzed and flickered to life.

Adrian unlaced and slipped off his roller skates. He flexed his socked feet, which were quite large—not that I should have been surprised.

I scooped up my roller skates and knee pads, and pointed with my chin to our shoes, several steps down the bleachers. “Are you able to walk straight with that bouncy castle in your boxers, or do you want a piggyback ride?”

He squeezed my hand and started stepping down, his untucked shirt covering his stiffness. “I have a bouncy castle in my shorts? Please. You’re the bouncy castle,” he said slyly.

“I’m more like a water park.”

“If you’re the water park, what does that make me? The family of four with a coupon for all-day fun?”

“That depends on how much you like water slides.”

We stopped to pick up our shoes, then made our way out to the rental desk, joking the whole way about height restrictions on rides and other innuendo-laden metaphors.

CHAPTER 6

Before I knew it, we were pulled up in front of my house, sitting in Adrian’s mother’s nice car. It had a sweet leather interior, and still smelled new over the mild scent of Cujo’s dog blanket on the back seat.

“What kind of mileage do you get in this thing?” I asked.

Adrian raised his eyebrow. “Didn’t your father ask my mother the same thing over dinner a few weeks ago?”

“Hmm. I think he did.”

The engine was still running, and Adrian didn’t seem to be preparing to get out and walk me to the door. What the hell, Adrian? It wasn’t even ten-thirty.

“Great staff meeting,” Adrian said.

“Full of surprises.”

“Listen, Peaches, about the thing I said earlier, about us dating other people, I shouldn’t have gone there. Just because I’m afraid of commitment, that’s no excuse to dick you around.”

I waved my hand. “Pfft. Commitment? Nobody’s getting married, okay? Honesty is way more important to me than commitment. I don’t think I’m in a place where I want to get locked down either, you know?”

He gave me a sidelong look. “Are you saying we should keep it casual, and date other people?”

Squirming in my seat, I said, “I don’t know what I’m saying. My teeth feel loose from those drinks we had. I think my double was a triple.”

“Your teeth are loose? I can’t say I’m familiar with that expression.”

My hand went to the latch and pushed the door open. My legs were jumpy all of a sudden, like I wanted to run away from Adrian and this conversation.

“What’s next?” he asked.

“What’s with all the questions?” I asked. “This date was much easier when you had my boobs in your mouth.”

He licked his lips and smiled, speechless.

I edged my way off the seat, pushing open the door.

Adrian turned off the engine and got out of the vehicle, rushing around to my side like a gentleman. I kept walking toward the lighted porch of my house. The night air was cool enough on my bare legs that I didn’t want to linger outside without a jacket.

As we walked to the house and up the steps, I made up my mind about what I wanted. I liked Adrian, but I couldn’t be sure things were over with Dalton. There was something about the sexy actor that couldn’t be pushed out of my heart by another guy. The more I thought about Adrian’s suggestion to date other people, the more it seemed like having your zero-calorie cake and eating it, too.

“You should take Golden out tomorrow night,” I said matter-of-factly, as we walked up the porch steps.

“Is this a trap?”

I poked him in the chest. “I’m serious. She’s a sweet girl, and she really likes you. But you have to be completely honest. And then on Monday, I’ll make you dinner, and we can have another staff meeting. We have a lot of bookstore business to discuss.”

He gazed down at me affectionately, then tucked my hair behind my ear. “Discussing… your perfect, gorgeous, raspberry-shaped ni**les in my mouth?”

I clamped my hand over his mouth. “I have nosy neighbors,” I whispered.

He glanced suggestively at the door. “Here we are again.”

In a flash, I remembered us being there, not twenty-four hours before. As I thought of him leaving me, my body heated with indignation.

“Not tonight, loverboy,” I said.

He made a face, shrugging my words off. “Fine. I didn’t want to come in anyway. I have to work in the morning.” He fake-yawned, watching me out of the side of his eye.

“I’ll see you back here Monday. Make it seven-thirty, since I have to work at the bookstore all day and straighten out whatever disaster my incompetent co-worker has made over the weekend.”

“He’s not incompetent, just inexperienced.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to teach him a thing or—”