Page 60 of The Wildest One

“Then I don’t think there’s any problem here.”

She stared at my right eye before shifting to my left, going back and forth until she said, “You’re just asking for one night?”

I smiled. “We’ll start with one. But if you’re here for longer, I’ll take as much as you’ll give me.”

“Beck …” She put her hand on my chest. She just rested it there; she didn’t push against it. “This is a horrible idea.”

“Was it a horrible idea when we did it in Boston?”

“Boston was Boston.” Her fingers curled. “This is …”

“Another chance.”

She shook her head. “Don’t say that.” Her head didn’t still when she added, “There’s no reason why I should do this.”

“And there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.”

“But there are. There are actually so many reasons.” Her hand dropped down and landed on my abs, her thumb running down each of the grooves. “Fuck.”

I moved my mouth toward hers, allowing only inches between us. “Tell me you want me to take my hands off you and back away, and I will.” I tilted her face up. “But if you don’t tell me that, Jolie, I’m going to walk you to my car right now. I’m going to take you home with me. I’m going to lick every inch of your body, and I’m going to make you come all fucking night long.”

FOURTEEN

Jolie

“Babe, what’s going on? Are you okay?” Ginger whispered as I pulled her into the restroom, taking her into the corner so it didn’t appear as if we were in line for a stall.

“I … don’t know.” I placed my back against the wall and positioned her in front of me, my hands immediately diving to my forehead, holding it as though my brain were about to fall out.

“I’ve been watching you guys—” She put her hand up, like she had to defend herself. “I swear I wasn’t trying to. I just can’t help myself. You went from talking, to touching, to practically getting it on, to bolting over to me, and then you dragged me in here.”

I used the wall to hold me up and grabbed the drink from her hand, downing it in one gulp, and I set the empty on the floor next to our feet. I wiped my lips, letting the burn of the alcohol die a little before I said, “He wants me to go home with him.”

“That’s obvious.”

“And the whole Africa thing? He wanted me to go with him, he even invited me through text.” I paused. “He showed me onhis phone how he’d thought the text went through, but it never got delivered. Therefore, I never got it.”

Her eyes became big again, like when she’d spotted him here tonight. “So, this whole time you thought …”

“Yep.”

“Whoa. Doesn’t that change things?” Before I could reply, she added, “Are you going to go home with him?”

I shrugged. “I told him I needed a second. I’m … freaking out.”

She pushed my hair off my face. “Don’t freak out.”

“Of course you would say that.”

“How do you feel about everything?”

I banged the back of my head on the wall, and when that didn’t feel like enough, I did it again. “That man mesmerizes me. It’s like he puts me in this trance, and I can’t focus on anything other than him. And maybe when I first met him, it was because of who he was, but now that has nothing to do with it.” My eyes closed as I admitted, “It’s the way he makes me feel. It’s what he does to me. It’s the person I know he is.”

“That makes him the most dangerous man alive.”

My eyelids flicked open. “You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? If I do go home with him, I’m going to get everything I want. And that means I’m going to get a taste of that peanut butter, and then the mouse trap is going to come right down on me and crush me.”

“Are you seriously calling yourself a rodent? And Beck is one of those scary rat traps found all over Boston that snaps when you touch it?”