Page 120 of Hate Me Like You Mean It

It’ll just be us two and it’s making me nervous, because I don’t even know what we would talk about. Sometimes when that happens I kind of panic and say something not nice, and I really hope that doesn’t happen this time because then it would ruin the whole point since I’m trying to say thank you. Maybe I’ll come up with some topics we can talk about beforehand just to play it safe.

Oh, and I guess I should tell her about it and ask if she’s free on Saturday. I was supposed to do it yesterday but every time I tried my palms got really sweaty and my heart started beating even faster than when Coach Mittal makes us do suicide drills with added burpees.

I think it’s trying to warn me not to do it but I’m already in too deep.

Alice

That wasn’t heaven. I’d jumped the gun.

No, heaven was Dominic Crawford brushing my hair, then gently blow-drying it less than two hours after melting my mind with the best orgasm of my life.

Heaven was me sitting on his lap, still in my robe, while he fed me tender kisses, chocolate-covered fruits, and a slow trickle of all his remaining secrets.

And after eight years of hell, I’d argue I’d earned it.

“I want to take you out on a date,” he murmured into my cheek. “Please.”

I hummed over the mouthful of dark chocolate and fresh strawberry, and he licked the stray drop of juice trickling down my chin. My nipples immediately hardened.

If it were up to me, we’d lock all the doors and chain ourselves to my bed for the next decade.

And he was worriedhe’dscaremeaway.

“Okay,” I eventually said. “When?”

“Tomorrow night. We can press pause on the butler thing for a few hours.”

“Bold of you to assume I’m gonna agree to keep it going after midnight.”

He kissed my neck. “I’ll beg if I have to.”

I grinned. “You’llbegto serve me for an entire month?”

“With pleasure.”

I studied him for a moment, then cupped his jaw and stroked my thumb over his cheekbone. His lashes fluttered, and it made me want to die.

I traced a finger all the way down to his squishy bottom lip, then slipped off his lap so I could reposition myself and straddle him on the couch. He was in a matching white robe, though his belt had loosened significantly. One little tug and he’d be naked and at my mercy. “Tell me another secret.”

His gaze zeroed in on the deep V of my robe, his hands immediately moving to rest on my thighs.

Sweet summer child really thought we’d be leaving the house tomorrow.

“You remember when you got your belly button pierced?”

“I do.” It’d been a gift from me to myself to celebrate the colossal accomplishment of turning eighteen.

“Coincidentally enough, that was the month I rubbed my dick raw because all you did was lounge around the pool outside my bedroom window wearing seven-hundred-dollar scraps of shredded fabric in questionable weather. And when youwerewearing a shirt, it was cropped up to your ribs.”

I shrugged. “The fabric would rub and irritate it.”

Plus, our old pool was heated, and it’d been one of the warmest spring breaks we’d ever had. Was Inotsupposed to take advantage of it?

“Alice. My dick almost fell off. It got so bad that the smallest whiff of chlorine made me hard.” He sounded serious. And alittle angry. “Anyways, the point is, I was forced to steal the blue knitted one because I could see your fucking nipples, and it became a safety hazard.”

My mouth popped open. “Youtook my custom Missoni?”

“It gave me a nosebleed the last time you wore it, and I almost passed out and hit my head.Yes, I took it.”