Dirty Laundry (Get Dirty 2)

She gestures to her bust and I make a low wolf-whistle. “Mmmhmm, I can see how you might be distracting for a teenage boy because you’re damn well distracting a fully-grown man.”

I’m teasing a little, but I feel my cock as it jumps in response to my eyeful of her lush tits.

Elise laughs, her eyes darting down to my rising third leg. “Yeah, well . . . high school was fine, and then I went away to college. I was . . . serious. At least more serious than people expected me to be. I guess because I’m blonde and a bit bubbly, people expect me to be an airhead or an easy lay. So I had to work twice as hard for professors to give me the grades I deserved, and I avoided guys for the most part because every time I’d try to date someone, I’d instantly get treated like brainless arm candy. I dated a bit after college, thinking it’d be easier once the frat boy mentality ended, and I did find a few guys who’d grown out of that. Including Trevor.”

I try to hold in a growl when she says his name. I don’t even know him, but I already hate him because his name is on her tongue. “Trevor?”

She smiles, seeing right through my question with a hint of amusement. “He’s a chef, a really good one, actually. We met at a club. I was there for work . . . seeing who was out, what they were doing, and who with. He’d been there for a nightcap after a late closing. We hit it off, dated for a few months. But mostly, we just met at the club and hung out afterward.”

I hear the code for ‘fucking all night’ and it riles me up even more. I know I’m not exactly planting a flag on new territory, but I know how I feel about the thought of her with other men. “What happened?”

She smiles sadly, fidgeting with the sheet. “He had an investor dinner. Invited me as his girlfriend, asked me to entertain the wife of the investor. Be the little lady for him. And I was happy. I was fucking proud to do that for him. Until the dinner.” She shakes her head, remembering. “It was just the four of us. I thought it was going well. Everyone was talking, laughing, and when Trevor and the investor started talking figures, I was trying to help him, talking up the success he’d had, but he basically told me to shut up. Not in those words, but degrading enough. I sat there at that dinner and realized he didn’t respect me at all. Just wanted me to sit still and look pretty, just another piece of arm candy. And so I got up, excused myself to the restroom, and walked out. When he called later, yelling about how I’d embarrassed him, I just told him goodbye and hung up. I still think I should’ve yelled, fought with him about it, but really . . . what would be the point in that? I’d already seen who he was inside, what he thought of me, and I was done. Better to just move on, right? That was about a year ago, and I just haven’t found anyone who interests me since then.” Her eyes meet mine, and she blushes. “Until now, I thought maybe I’d just missed the boat on good guys.”

The silence that drops over us seems to press me toward Elise, enveloping me and urging me to take her in my arms and ignore the so-called ‘professional’ side of what we’re supposed to be doing. My phone dings, the thirty minutes up, and with a breath of relief, I cup her chin in my hand, leaning in for a sweet kiss.

“You deserve so much more than that, Elise,” I whisper when the kiss breaks and I pull back, just enough to look into her eyes. “I want to hear all the things you have to say. Truly.”

She smiles, cupping the back of my neck and scratching lightly. “And you will . . . after. If I recall, you made me a promise?”

She purses her lips, daring me to renege on the words I spoke earlier. If it were anyone but Elise, I’d think there’s no way they could go from such an emotionally revealing conversation to thinking about sex so quickly, but I can see the truth in her eyes. For her, everything was part of the foreplay that I teased her with during that first interview.

The vulnerability she shared, she needs to close it back off. We’re seeing each other in a different light, accepting the complexities, but it’s time to be vulnerable in a different way.

I kiss her softly one more time, a smacking sound as our lips caress each other, and I make sure she’s good before pulling back, my voice hardening just the way we both need. “Elise. Lie on the bed, face down, and stick that perfect ass up in the air for me.”