Replace Me (Kin #2)(23)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“Are you saying he isn’t faithful?” That was how his comment came out.

“No! He’s whipped. Ford won’t screw up what he’s got. He went too long in misery to let anything bad happen to him and Sky. She’s a great girl.”

I took another bite and answer with a full mouth. “Yeah, she’s awesome.”

“That is not ladylike.” He pointed to my full mouth.

I opened it, showing him my chewed up food. “Ahhhh.”

Joey took a large bite, chewed it up, and did the same thing. Then he looked down and let it fall back onto his plate.

I pretended to gag. “Sick!”

We both laughed.

He quickly changed the subject. “What about you? Do you have a job besides school?”

“Nope, I’m just in school full time. Eventually I’d like to have my own accounting firm, but that’s just wishful thinking.”

He looked shocked. “Wow, I never would have pegged you for a math nerd.”

I lifted up my foot and kicked him. “Shut up! I never would have pegged you for someone who was nice enough to be decent to me like you’ve been. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with being smart.”

Joey sat his plate down on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch. “True. So, do you live on campus?”

“I did for a bit, but now I’m more like a nomad. I stay between here and my parent’s house. Since Sky’s back from her other school, we’ve been able to spend more time together. I really missed her being away.”

“Did you just call yourself a nomad?”

I smiled. “I did. It seems fitting. I don’t buy groceries or clean. My clothes are in duffle bags or laundry baskets.”

“You know I have an extra room, with a bed in it. You can stay here whenever you want. Shit, I don’t even care if you use the closet in there.”

He really threw me a loop by saying that. “Are you asking me to move in here? Do I look like live in pu**y to you?”

Joey was taking a sip of a beer and it went flying out of his mouth. “Jesus Christ, woman. I didn’t say that at all. I said you could crash here , in my guest room. My mom brought over an old set. It ain’t much, but it’s a bed” Then he smiled. “Unless you’re offerin’ somethin’ else.”

I kicked him again. “I’m not!”

“I’m just sayin’. This is my first place. It’s great, but I’m not used to livin’ alone. Aside from you fightin’ me every ten seconds, we get along. I wouldn’t mind if you stayed every once in a while. Of course, if we had that kind of arrangement, we would have to discuss this new friendship.”

“You don’t get sex because I sleep in your guest room.”

“Nah, it would be the opposite. If you stayed here that much, we could only be friends; the kind that doesn’t sleep together.”

I was shocked. Joey had fought so hard to sleep with me and now he was saying that he didn’t want to. I sat my plate down and scooted over toward him, grabbing the waist of his shorts and pulling them out. “You mean to tell me that even if I begged you to f**k me, you wouldn’t do it?”

He nodded. “Yep. Relationships complicate things. I like my life and don’t want drama. You’re fun to be around and if we took things there, it would change. If I slept with you last night, or today, I probably wouldn’t have offered for you to sleep here when you wanted to. In fact, I know I wouldn’t have. It’s a big boundary that I don’t like crossin’.”

I wasn’t willing to take that for an answer, so I climbed on top of him, straddling his legs. He kept his arms at his sides, not responding to my body. When he refused to react, I rocked my hips forward and then backward.

He still didn’t react.

The more Joey fought me, the more determined I was to be with him, which was ironic, since I’d fought him for so long. I climbed off of him and removed my panties, stepping out of them before climbing back on his lap. I ran the back of my hand up his bare chest and brought my lips to his ear. “This doesn’t make you want me?”

His hands remained flat on the sofa, but I could feel something hard protruding against me. I brought my lips to his and grazed over them. “What about kissing?”

He grumbled and tried to readjust without touching me. “You’re playin’ with fire.”

I grazed his lips again. “I know you want this to happen. Are you afraid you won’t be as good as you say you are?”

His hands immediately grabbed onto either side of my ass. “Trust me, that’s not what I’m worried about.”

I pulled back and looked right at him. “What then?”

He patted me and lifted my weight off of him. I felt rejected again, but in a concerned way this time. Something was off with Joey and I didn’t understand it. “We need to just be friends. If you sleep with me, right now, you’ll hate yourself in the mornin’. This ain’t about you wantin’ me, it’s about Shayne. If you were someone else, I’d already have you in bed, givin’ you all I have to offer, but I can’t do it with you.”

I hated that he’d brought up Shayne. “Why? What’s wrong with me? Why am I different? Am I all used up or something?”

Joey leaned back and wiped his face with his hands. “This is why I don’t get serious.” He finally turned to look at me and I couldn’t help notice that he seemed conflicted again. “You think we met for the first time in Ford’s apartment upstairs, don’t you?”

I nodded.

He shook his head. “That ain’t when I first noticed you. I saw you with Shayne several times and knew I wanted you even then, but also knew it was wrong. You were taken and seemingly happy.” He looked down, like he was ashamed to continue. “When I found out you’d broke up, I was happy, because I knew I could make a play at you. The more I got around you, the more I realized you were different. I’d never seen someone that made my dick hard with just a smile. Those deep dimples of yours make me f**kin’ crazy. When you’re sad, I find myself carin’ and wantin’ to make you forget. It scares the shit out of me knowin’ that I can’t f**k you, because I know I’d get lost in you, Lacey. I’m too damn stubborn to do it to myself. I’m happy where I am in life. I don’t want complicated.”

My body was shaking and I wasn’t sure what to say to his confession. He’d noticed me before I knew he existed. He’d wanted me even back then and the reason that we weren’t in his bed was because he actually cared about me and it scared him.