“Because she tried to seduce me, I spurned her, and she’s never forgiven me for it.” He waited, knowing she’d laugh.
She laughed. “Oh man, that’s rich. You, the guy with sex on the mind twenty four seven, expect me to believe that. How long were you guys bumping fuzzies before you decided to move on to greener pastures?” She lifted her brow.
He had no idea what the hell that meant, but he was pretty certain he got the gist of it.
“Gerard, you’re stuck with me for a month. I’ve got nothing but time.” She tapped her fingers rhythmically on her arm.
“You don’t know me, Betty. You know nothing of me. Yes, I like sex. In fact, I love it. I know you do, any red blooded creature does. I won’t deny it.” He drilled her with his hard gaze, defying her to deny his assertion.
After a moment she blinked and looked down at her feet.
“I did deny her. She’s rather terrifying as far as females go. Those fangs,” he shuddered, “nasty creature that fee.”
Betty nodded. “I noticed those things too. She’s pretty scary for being barely a foot tall.”
“You’re taking this very well.” He cocked his head. “I’d have expected most mortals to deny what they’d seen. Run in terror, something.”
Betty plucked at her jacket. “I’m not most mortals.” She chanced a fleeting glance at him, her brown eyes huge and warm in her beautiful face.
What was it about the woman, the more he looked, the prettier she became. It was odd, and not altogether pleasing. Gerard frowned, shifting around. The blanket slipped, and like a laser her eyes zoomed to his lap. He patted it back into place. Her face flushed crimson, but she nodded in silent thanks.
She swallowed and then looked directly at him. “I swear I’ll kill you myself, Gerard Caron...”
The way his name spilled from her lips with her strange accent made his blood hot.
“But I’m a card carrying geek.”
“A what?”
Betty ran her finger along her jaw line. Why had he never noticed the shimmering green of her sculpted nails? She had such delicate fingers, long boned and finely wrought. What would that hand feel like on him? His blood hummed and his body tingled. Those fingers caressing his balls, running long and slow down his hard length.
He clenched his jaw, and glanced quickly at the wall. Gerard might no longer be able to harden, but the desire hadn’t waned. And if he didn’t watch it, he’d keep himself in a perpetual state of phantom arousal and pain.
“Oh jeez, I never talk about this.” Her eyes narrowed, and with an embarrassed twist of her lips, she got up, grabbed her bag off the kitchen counter, and then plopped back down on the couch next to him. She dug around the brown purse. “No laughing. You swear.”
Did her voice shake just now? And why was that so damn adorable? He nodded. “No laughing.”
Betty bit her bottom lip, and Gerard licked his own, wishing it were his tongue on her instead. The jacket was doing nothing to dull his desire. For the first time in his life he realized just how often he’d focused on sex and sex alone. Now that he couldn’t have it, he’d have to learn new ways to seduce and woo. The moment he thought it, he knew that’s exactly what he meant to do. He’d win his freedom by making her fall in love with him.
It might be harder without the benefit of his skills in bed, but he’d succeed. He had no choice. Mind made up, he turned to her, deciding then and there he’d focus fully on her needs, wishes, and wants.
She handed him a yellow card. Betty nibbled on her thumb, her anxiety so palpable his pulse quickened.
Gerard glanced at the card. A cartoonish picture of two men engaged in a fierce sword battle stared back at him.
“Hello my name is Betty Hart, librarian by day, and Manga superhero slash anime fanatic by night. I’m a member of the guild of Bleeding Heart Rebels and go by the name Eclipse. I’ve even been known to larp in college,” she squeaked out the last, wincing as she stared at him, looking like a frightened colt of what he’d think.
Based off her reaction, he was fairly certain what she’d just admitted to was as heinous an embarrassment as they came. Gerard scratched his chin. “And that means what?”
She covered her face with her hands. “You were supposed to be talking to me about this stuff, and here I am the one suddenly on the spot. Look,” she peeked out at him from between her fingers, “if you’re real nice I’ll show you what I mean some other day. Can we just get back on topic?”
“But this is on topic,” he grinned, enjoying her sudden display of shyness as much as anything else. “I asked you why you’re so okay with all this, and I’m not sure what this,” he lifted the card, “has to do with that.”
She snatched the card out of his hands and shoved it back into her purse. “That’s only part of it, the other part, and I guess the most relevant, is that Daddy was an astrobiologist.”