I laughed. “Yeah, I guess the Rodney breakup wasn’t super private.”
“I’m pretty sure every parent and student in the audience heard what you had to say about him dumping you at graduation.”
I felt myself blush. “Well, he deserved every word.”
“No arguments here. You guys used to fight like crazy.”
“Because he drove me crazy. Like, on purpose. I swear, he kept me just close enough to keep me coming back for more and far enough away that I never felt like he was really mine.”
Bodie didn’t speak for a second as he spread strawberry jelly over the peanut butter, all the way to the edges, like a good boy.
“Think he’s why you don’t date?” he asked, his face still.
I chuffed. “I don’t think. I know.” I thought about it, feeling my willpower turn into steel at the thought of Rodney. “Here’s the thing, Bodie. When I love, I don’t do it halfway. I go all the way into the fire until it burns me up. It’s obsessive. I lost myself once to someone else, and I’m not doing it again.”
He nodded and closed one sandwich, then the other. “You sure it wasn’t just Rod?”
I shrugged. “Not really interested in finding out.”
“So you’ve never felt the urge to stick with a guy, even without commitment?” He sliced our dinner into triangles and plated them.
I squirmed, and he saw it.
“I’m not asking for myself, Penny. I’m just curious.”
I sighed. “If I’m being honest? No. I used to, and I’ve tried to, which only reinforced my belief that relationships aren’t for me. It’s just fun, and I don’t need any more commitment than that. I’m committed to my job. I have my girlfriends, and they wouldn’t hurt me. I don’t need a man to be happy. I just need a man for my vagina to be happy, but that bitch doesn’t run my life.”
He laughed at that and handed my plate over. “Want something to drink?”
“Just water, thanks.”
“I’ve really only done flings too,” he said as he made his way around the kitchen. “I mean, there were a few girls I dated for a while, but nothing serious. Just never turned into more. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s so hard when you’re different people or you have different expectations. But sometimes there’s just no connection. Like when they don’t get your jokes — that’s the worst. Or they just go straight to stage five clinger.”
He chuckled and set our glasses in front of us. “It was so weird when I first started dating because I had no idea what I was doing. Like, I had no experience, so I thought I was supposed to woo, date, and fall in love with every woman I was interested in, so I tried. But then I realized that chicks were like guys sometimes too. That dating is not about wooing and love. It’s all about expectations, you know? Like some girls really do want full commitment with a ring in the future, or it’s nothing. But that’s such a weird thing to expect when you’re nineteen.”
I picked up one triangle of my sandwich. “I mean, seriously. People don’t know how to live in the now. Why do we all have to have some five-year plan that won’t even be possible to follow? Life doesn’t work that way. Everything is fluid.”
I took a bite and moaned as my eyes rolled back in my head. “I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t had one of these in forever or because I’m starving, but this is incredible.”
He smiled at me as he chewed and swallowed. “It’s the peanut-butter-to-jelly ratio.”
“You and your math,” I said with a shake of my head and a smile on my lips, wondering why he had to be so funny and smart and hot and amazing. It wasn’t even fair. “The only time I love math is when it’s coming out of your mouth.”
His smile climbed on one side. “What’s sixty-nine plus sixty-nine?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to sort it out.
“Dinner for four.”
I laughed and took another bite.
“I’m like pi — really long and I go on forever.”
More laughing, lips closed, chasing it with a sip of water so I wouldn’t choke.
He leaned on the counter, still smirking at me. “I’m not obtuse; you’re acute chick.”
“Okay, that one was bad.” I kept stuffing my face now that the hunger switch had been flipped.
“What do math and my dick have in common?”
My brow rose as I swallowed.
“They’re both hard for you.”
That time, I laughed hard enough that I snorted.
Bodie set down his sandwich and dusted off his hands. The look in his eyes made me take one more bite, a big one that I chewed hastily, figuring dinner might be over.
“Can I plug my solution into your equation?” he asked, voice low and smile crooked as he rounded the island.
“I dunno. Can you?”
“Maybe I can be your math tutor for the night.” He spun me around on the stool. “Add a bed.” His hands slipped up my thighs, opening them. “Subtract your clothes.” His hands moved higher until they rested in the bend of my hips. “Divide your legs.” He nestled between my legs, angling for my lips. “And multiply.”
I wanted to laugh, but when he kissed me, I forgot what was so funny.
* * *
Bodie
Obsessed— that was what I was.
Obsessed with her salty, sweet lips against mine.
Obsessed with her milky-white thighs around my waist.
Obsessed with her silky purple hair between my fingers.
Obsessed with her.
I’d been kissing her for long enough that she was panting, and my heart was thundering like a racehorse.
She was perfect — other than the fact that she didn’t want to date me. Yet.
I broke away, leaving her sitting on the stool with her eyes still shut and her lips parted like they were waiting for me.
“I want you naked,” I growled as I reached behind me to pull off my shirt.
When I looked down at her, her eyes were half open as she fumbled with the zipper on her skirt.
I dropped my pants and stepped out of them, grabbed her by the waist to lift her up and set her down hard enough that her ass slapped against the surface of the counter with a pop and a yelp.
My hands moved up her waist and under her Ramones shirt, pushing it up and over her head. Her lavender hair spilled out of the neck like a waterfall, and I tossed the shirt behind me. She reached for my face, pulling me to her for another kiss, and I lost myself in her hot mouth for a long moment — until she shifted, pressing her wet pussy against my shaft.
I groaned into her mouth with one hand clutching the back of her head to keep her mouth against mine while the other roamed to her breast, kneading and squeezing, my thumb playing with the barbell in her nipple until she whimpered.
That sound connected straight to my cock. I wanted to record it. I wanted to hear it on a loop. I wanted to touch her until she moaned and called my name.
I broke away. “Naked. Now.”
She reached behind her back, panting, and she unhooked her bra as I swept an arm on the island behind her to clear it, sending utensils clattering to the floor. She was shimmying out of her skirt when I lost all patience and pulled it down her legs to toss it.
“Lie down,” I ordered.