Page 48 of Good Girl’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #4)

ainsley

I didn’t mean to take an everything shower for sex purposes. I really didn’t.

It’s just because of a series of really odd events that I’m now standing at my fake boyfriend’s apartment building, asking to be let in, because I think I want to accept his offer to become my sex teacher.

Maybe. I’m still not sure. Probably. I think.

It started with a normal length shower. I always take one when I come home from work. But then I started—okay, continued—thinking about Linc’s proposal, and things got out of hand.

So I washed. And conditioned. And exfoliated. And shaved. And shaved some more. Before I knew it, I’d taken an everything shower on steroids that ended with freezing cold water and being even more confused than ever.

I can’t give you forever. But I can give you this…

Who says lines like that? Fictional men, that’s who. And more important, how am I, the hopeless romantic who is already having a hard enough time remembering what Linc and I are doing is fake, not supposed to fall in love with this guy? And oh yeah, he’s offering me orgasms.

The second I got out of the shower—and moisturized, because I’m not about to let this go to waste—I grabbed a notebook and a pen. There, sitting on my bed criss-cross-applesauce, head and body still wrapped in towels, I made a list of pros and cons of his offer.

Pros:

* Finally have an orgasm. Hopefully. Probably.

* Get to actually contribute to my sisters’ sex conversations.

* Not have my last sexual partner be Jonathan.

* Be with a man who doesn’t cry during sex.

Learn to give a proper blow job.

Cons:

* Will probably fall in love with my fake boyfriend.

It’s only one con, but it scares me the most. Because I will. I know me. I’ve already gone through four rubber bands since we started this.

But the pros are pro-ing…

No. I need to tell him no. That I appreciate the offer.

Even though I want to.

No. I don’t.

But I do.

I really, really do.

And that might scare me more than anything.

I take a deep breath as I prepare to call Linc to let me in, but before I can, my phone vibrates in my hand.

Boyfriend

You look really beautiful when you overthink.

I look around, because is there a secret camera? Is he tracking me? I keep looking, only to hear a telltale laugh not far from where I’m standing.

When I turn around, Linc’s standing against an SUV, his arms crossed, and the smirk on his face is making me forget the one and only con.

“How long have you been there?”

He pushes off the vehicle, and holy smokes…

why does he look so hot right now? He’s wearing what he had on earlier—perfectly fitted jeans and a black T-shirt—but somehow it looks sexier now.

And believe me, he looked good earlier—though there was the added effect of him going toe-to-toe with Jonathan.

But now? Now I might become a puddle on the sidewalk.

Because the way he’s looking at me with such intent…

with a mischievous sparkle in his eye…it’s enough to make me say yes right now with no objections whatsoever.

Or I’m just horny.

Oh my goodness…am I horny? I’ve never been before…

“Long enough to know you’ve changed your mind probably six times.”

Add another con to the list: He already knows me too well, and that’s before seeing me naked.

Oh my gosh, Linc would see me naked. I’d see him naked.

I’d see his tattoos. All of them. Including the thigh tattoo that’s haunted my dreams.

“How about we go upstairs,” he says, putting his hand on the small of my back. “Because I don’t know what just hit your brain, but your eyes are bouncing around like you don’t know which way is up.”

“Good idea,” I say as I let him guide me inside his building.

I haven’t been back here since the fateful morning.

Gosh, was that only a few weeks ago? It feels like forever.

But I remember it like it was yesterday.

Sitting at his counter, recounting our crazy night.

Katie suggesting we keep the lie going. Me insisting that we do it.

What had gotten into me that morning? Was it part of my hangover and confidence from the night before?

It had to be. Is that girl still here? Does her spirit live at Linc’s apartment?

Because I could use some of that girl’s confidence tonight as I sit on his couch, wondering if I can say yes to something that is so far out of my comfort zone it has a different country code.

“I didn’t know when I’d hear from you.”

“If you think I’ve gone a second without thinking about this, then you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

He laughs and hands me a bottle of water as he sits next to me on his sectional. “I figured you were. But how long that took before you came to a decision was up in the air.”

That’s true. I could have overthought this one until the season was up and then I wouldn’t have had to make a decision at all.

Oh…now there’s an option…

No. I need to nip this in the bud. Or I’m not going to sleep tonight. Or ever again.

“I’ve thought about it.”

“You don’t say…”

He gives me a playful wink, and he’s really lucky right now that he’s hot and I’m going insane. “Do you want me to say yes to this or not?”

That straightens him up real quick.

“That’s what I thought.” I take my oversized tote off my shoulder and pull out the notebook.

“Did you really make a list?”

“Of course,” I say as I flip the page to the rules that I wrote down for this to happen. He doesn’t need to see the pro-con list on the first page. “Did you expect anything less?”

“Actually, I didn’t,” he says as he inches closer to me, his hand going across the back of the couch. “All right, Ainsley Mae, lay it on me.”

I turn toward him and do my best to resist the sexy smirk he’s giving me. “Okay, if we’re going to do this, and I’m going to say if because I don’t want you thinking this is a done deal?—”

“I never would.”

“Good. Then, in the hypothetical if we were to do this, we need rules.”

That takes him back a little. “Rules?”

“Yes, rules,” I say. “Because this is already very out of my comfort zone, and if I have rules, it will help me not feel like I’ve been body snatched.”

He can’t hide his grin.

“This is serious, Linc! Are you going to be my sex teacher or not?”

He coughs and sits up straight. “Yes, ma’am. Please, tell me the rules.”

Part of me—the one who’s chicken about actually going through with this—hoped that my threat of rules would make him take his offer back. I mean, he has a bad-boy reputation. He has to hate rules, right?

Apparently not.

“Well, okay,” I stumble a bit because I truly didn’t expect him to go along with this so fast. “First, I guess, isn’t a rule, but more of a general understanding of how this would work.

Do I ask for things? Do you come up with a lesson plan?

And if there is a lesson plan, are there tests?

Do we have certain areas that we concentrate on per night?

Is it go with the flow? Do I come over here, or you come to my house, with the intention of?—”

I don’t get a chance to finish my sentence because as I’m reading from my scribbled notes, the notebook is ripped from my hand.

“Linc! What are you doing?”

He doesn’t even look at my notebook before throwing it to the side. “Fuck your list.”

My mouth drops open, and I don’t have time to be stunned because before I know it, Linc’s hand is behind my neck, pulling me in for a kiss that’s so sudden, and so hot, I’ve lost all brain capacity.

Holy frick…

All thoughts of lists and rules and guidelines are gone from my brain as I sink into Linc’s touch. Yes, we’ve kissed before. But this is different. Intentional. Every swipe of his tongue, every nip of my lips, is Linc showing me that he knows exactly what I need.

And I know he does. With every fiber of my being.

He pulls me up to his lap, his hand still on my neck and the other now holding my back as he deepens our kiss. My arms wrap around his shoulders, wanting to feel him closer as our tongues explore wherever they want.

Goodness gracious, this is a good kiss. No, a great one.

Epic. I haven’t kissed many men—shocking, I know—but with each one of them it took time to get the rhythm right.

Which way were our heads turning? Were we using tongue?

Me wondering why they were biting my lip, because from what my sisters told me, there wasn’t supposed to be biting.

But this kiss? I don’t know how Linc’s doing it, but there isn’t a thought in my head. All I’m thinking about is how his lips taste—like mint and trouble and pleasure—how his hands feel as they pull me closer to him. How my body is heating more and more with every swipe of his tongue.

“Linc…” I hear the moan come out of my mouth before I can stop it.

I’ve always been too shy to vocalize any feelings or sensations during sex—and I’ve never really had any that made me want to—but I can’t keep his name inside as he starts kissing across my cheek and down my neck.

My head falls to the side, wanting to give him all the access he wants as he starts gently fluttering his lips at my pulse.

He has to feel it quickening. My heart is pounding, my body throbbing.

Everywhere.

And I mean everywhere .

Linc slowly starts laying me down on his couch, and I feel his body weight on me as he pulls back his kiss.

“Well, that’s one way to get me to stop thinking.”

He laughs and kisses the tip of my nose. “I’ll have to remember that the next time I see those wheels turning.”

The next time…there’s going to be a next time.

I’m doing this. We’re doing this. Holy frick, I’m doing this…

“Hey.” As promised, he leans down for another kiss. “Stop that.”

I wrap my hands around his neck, gently playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. “Easier said than done.”

“I get that. And I’m not saying I don’t want you to think at all. I quite like it when your brain starts spinning.” He pauses to kiss me again. It’s like he can’t stop. “I don’t need a list to know what you need, Ainsley. I just need you to want this. And to trust me. Can you do that?”

Since the moment I met Linc, I knew I could trust him. That first night, I trusted him with my safety. After that I felt confident enough to be willing to live a lie. And now I’m trusting him with my body.

Now my heart? That’s another story.

But I’ll worry about that later.

And that right there may be the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

“I can.”

He smiles back as he looks down on me, his fingers gently pushing aside a lock of hair behind my ear. “Good. Then let me take care of you. That sound good?”

I nod as I bring tug him closer. “If I want something, am I allowed to ask for it?”

His grin is downright sinful. “Of course. What do you want, Ainsley Mae?”

“I want you to kiss me again.”