Page 16 of When In Rome
I nod, not understanding where his line of questioning is going but it’s making me curious enough that the embarrassment over showing him so much is starting to fade.
He flips my skirt up causing me to squeal and make a grab for the end of it but it’s too late. “And these…what do you call these?”
His hand moves up my leg, so he is actually touching the band of my panties where they lay against my hip.
“Underwear?”
“Not just underwear though. Aren’t they called thongs or something like that?”
He runs his fingertips up under the edge of the strap.
“How…?”
“When we were wrestling for the second…no, the third time and I got a swat at that very nicely curved backside, and it was bare. The only reason I mention any of this is to show you we have already passed the first stages of courtship and went right to an intimate level with one another from the very first moment we met Sunshine. People don’t have to wonder if this is a real thing because we’ve already done the real thing. Not on purpose, or willingly necessarily, but still done. You coming home with me and sleeping with me, isn’t really a far-fetched idea.”
His hands linger on my skin. “We’re not sleeping with one another though. That won’t be happening. Even if I do come home with you, we won’t be sleeping together.”
He smiles like he might just have gotten away with something. “We’ll do whatever you want us to do, Sunshine. After all, it is you doing me a favor. Technically, I owe you.”
“Alright, fine. I’ll help you. It works out for me anyway because I can stay close to Summer.”
“Are you going to be alright going back to the apartment?” I fidget on his lap and don’t meet his eyes. Am I going to be alright going back? To the place where I shot a man?
“If you do,” he tilts my chin up so our eyes meet, “have trouble going back to the penthouse, we’ll go back to the hotel, and I’ll look for something else for us.”
“I don’t…,” I wet my lips because they feel too dry before continuing in a soft voice, “I don’t want to cause problems…”
“Really? Are you sure you don’t want to cause me problems? You seem to be so damned good at it.”
He moves closer to me with every word until both of us are whispering and staring into one another’s eyes.
“Maybe…a little bit.”
It wouldn’t take very much for our lips to touch, just one more slight move, one of us making the slightest effort to go just a breath more.
I don’t know who makes that move - and maybe it doesn’t really matter which one of us it was - but in the blink of an eye his mouth is on mine, the tip of his tongue nudging the seam of my lips like he is asking for permission to come inside.
Is this him showing me we will only do what I want to do? Do I want him inside? Do I want to know what Roman tastes like? I close my eyes and open my mouth, giving him -and myself- the answer.
Chapter Fifteen
Roman
Would I have been happy sitting in my office, on my couch, with my hands on Nolia, just sharing simple sweet kisses? Yeah. Am I going to let this opportunity she’s given me pass me by? Fuck no!
As soon as she gives me entrance, I tilt her head and take her mouth with my own, exploring the depths and hidden secrets of her sweet cavern. She’s shy at first but eventually relaxes against me and starts mimicking the things I am doing to her with my tongue.
I couch my next words carefully, “Sunshine, you don’t kiss a lot, do you?”
After I ask, I quickly move my mouth down to her neck and start kissing her there before coming back to her mouth. Her reply is instant though, like she didn’t have to think about it at all.
“Guys don’t like kissing girls like me?”
That takes my sense of disbelief skyward. What the hell does that mean? “Girls, like you?”
“Hmm, yeah.” Her lips cling to mine before she continues, “Johnny Randell tried in sixth grade, and I hit him in the crotch…after that, not a lot of boys tried.”
Does that mean…?