My mind made up.
I could hardly believe I agreed, but I couldn’t deny it any longer. What Matthew was offering me sounded amazing. I didn’t want touching and love. I didn’t want a relationship and all the extra bells and whistles.
Only sex.
I wanted to feel him just once.
Maybe then I could move past this strange obsession I had with him and get back to living my normal life.
My mind was a mess, screaming for me to stop and take it back, but my body was primed and ready, begging me for the one thing I refused to ever indulge in. It was time I let go and give in to some pleasure, and something told me Matthew would know exactly how to please me.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure I could randomly have sex with a virtual stranger. I didn’t want to be swept off my feet and fall in love or anything like that. I wasn’t expecting sweet sentiments or considering Matthew to be my precious moment. I knew what he was offering, and I was glad the option of more was completely off the table, but I at least wanted to get to know him better before we did the sex thing.
“But I have a few ground rules,” I stated.
His lips moved from my ear and down my cheek. As if I’d done it a thousand times before, I tilted my head and readied myself for his mouth to touch my neck.
“Name them,” he said across my chin.
I was melting.
Right there in a bathroom that smelled like disinfectant and cleaner.
It was the oddest place to make such a massive decision, but my body had taken full control of the war inside me, and I was done fighting it.
“I don’t go around just screwing anyone. I want to at least get to know you first,” I said.
He pulled back, his blazing, heated eyes moving over my expression.
“But no relationships and dating?”
I wanted to laugh at the bit of fear I saw on his face.
“No. I just want to know you before we ...”
How was I supposed to do it if I couldn’t even say it?
“Before we fuck?” he finished for me, his brow lifting, mocking me and my inability to even speak the action.
I nodded, biting my bottom lip.
His eyes followed, moving across my mouth.
“Deal.”
He backed away from me, giving me a second to breathe before he pushed into me once again.
“I’m going to make this good for you, Red.” He plucked at another of my curls until the roots of my hair tingled and those tingles moved down the back of my neck. “When I’m done with you, you’re never going to want to leave me alone. Promise not to become obsessed with me?”
I chuckled, the sound deeper and more raspy than usual.
“That won’t be a problem,” I said.
And it wouldn’t.
It didn’t matter if my body was already longing for his touch. I knew myself. At least, I thought I did. And I knew at some point, whether it was before or after the sex, my mind would send out the reminder, and I would once again hate men, including Matthew Ellis.
NINE
MATTHEW
THE THIRD TIME WAS DEFINITELY A CHARM. Especially when it came to Red. She melted under my touch as I had wanted her to, and within minutes, she was folding for me. Her response to me was addictive. I was high on her dilated pupils and the flutter of her chest where I knew her heart was beating wild and fast.
She was aroused. I had awakened the sexual deviant inside her, and I was anxiously waiting for the moment I roused the sleeping beast.
Her nipples pointed at me, choosing me to bring them pleasure. I wanted to dip down and taste them through her shirt, but I had a feeling that once I tasted her, I’d never slake the thirst she would bring forth in me.
“So you’ll go out with me?” I asked, knowing the answer already.
Seeing the surrender in her eyes.
She nodded, her teeth once again plunging into her perfectly pink bottom lip.
“This isn’t a date, though,” she blurted.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“I’m serious, Matthew. No picking me up at my apartment. No flowers and all that crap. Just us meeting somewhere public and getting to know one another.”
This girl was perfect.
I didn’t want any of that bullshit either. I could do without all the flowery phony shit. I just wanted a night with her. A night where I could climb inside her and lose myself.
“Give me your number.”
She stared back at me unsure before she finally pulled out her phone and prepared a new contact.
We exchanged cell numbers and readied to part ways.
“Text when you decide what you want to do. Name the place and I’ll meet you there,” she said.
“What if that place is my bed?”
She rolled her eyes, obviously annoyed with me. “A public place, please.”
“What’s wrong, Red? Don’t you trust me?”
She chuckled as she moved away from me to the bathroom door. “Nope. Not even a little.”
At that, I laughed. “Smart girl.”
“Always,” she said.
She pushed the door open and left the room without saying goodbye.
I shook my head and arranged my throbbing dick to a more comfortable position. Red was going to give me a run for my money. She would be a ton of fun.
No pun intended.
“SO WHO IS THIS GIRL?” Jonathan asked.
He held up the gun he was about to sell and looked it over with a keen eye.
I hated being in the room when he conducted his gun business. I trusted him, and obviously, he trusted me since the kind of sales he was doing could get him real prison time, but I didn’t always trust the shady characters he did business with.
“No one you guys know,” I said from the corner I was tucked in.
They didn’t know Shannon, and as far as I was concerned, they never would.
Jonathan and Curtis wouldn’t understand my fascination with her. And I knew as my eyes moved over the petite blonde snuggled up to Jonathan’s side with her wide innocent eyes perusing the extensive array of guns in front of him, women with a little extra ass and an exceptional brain would never be something he was into.
Not that I cared.
I didn’t.
But I’d known the brothers long enough to know they never sugarcoated shit. They were blunt without regard for whose feelings they hurt. I wasn’t mean enough to bring Shannon around them. For her sake. Not mine.
“You’re taking her on a date?” he asked. “Since when do you date?”
A tiny bit of jealousy dripped from his words, which made no sense.
“No. It’s not a date. We’re just hanging out.”
It wasn’t a lie, but I didn’t feel the need to go into detail about why we were hanging out. They didn’t need to know I was basically auditioning for sex with this girl, arranging an interview before I pounded into her. They wouldn’t understand why I wanted her badly enough to jump through hoops when I could have any woman I wanted.
Hell.
I didn’t understand it myself.
“Yeah. Whatever you say, dude. Sounds like a date to me.”
He picked up yet another gun and turned it to look it over. “Curtis,” he called his brother over. “Tell Jacob I’m ready to make the run when he is.”