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I hold my hand up to her. “Don’t be. I did say you could use it too. What are you reading?”
She holds my gaze for a moment, then decides to stay put, settling back into her seat.
“Nothing you’d be interested in.” She sighs, closing her eyes and resting her head against the headrest.
“Based on the page I read in that one book, I actually think I’d be very interested,” I say, my voice huskier than I’d like it to be.
She cracks one eye open to look at me, then closes it once more. “It’s a marriage of convenience between a boss and his assistant.”
I grin, folding my arms across my chest. “A bit taboo. I like it. How’s the sex?”
Jasmine’s eyes shoot open in shock. “Jesus, Elio. Do you have a filter? You can’t ask me that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m me, and you’re you,” she tries to explain.
“Meaning?” I prod, knowing exactly what she means.
She levels me with her stare. “You’re a friend of my father’s. You’re older than me, and experienced at that. We definitely should not be talking about sex.”
I push off the counter, walk to the edge of the hot tub, and rest my elbows on it, not caring that it’s soaking through my long sleeves. “Tell me something. Is it because you’ve never been kissed and it makes you uncomfortable, or is it because you’re daddy’s perfect girl?”
Her mouth gapes open. “Who told you that?” she nearly whispers, looking less relaxed than she did before.
It makes me feel like an ass, but I’m too curious to stop. “Apparently, it’s a known topic around campus, which pisses me the fuck off, by the way. But is it true?” I ask, my eyes bouncing between hers to try and get a read on her.
She does the same, a small sigh escaping her as her shoulders drop. “Yeah, it is.”
“Do you mind me asking why?”
I don’t think she’s going to answer me after a full minute of being silent, but then she gives in. “Growing up, I was thrown into every extracurricular you could think of. My parents wanted me to have the opportunity to try and learn anything I possibly could, which is great and I’m thankful for it. On the downside, I didn’t have time for many social interactions. So by the time I was in high school and started noticing and becoming interested in guys, it felt like I was too late. Everyone had their first kiss already. Some were even having sex. It also didn’t help that all the guys at my school were idiots. So from there, I decided that I didn’t want to kiss just anyone. I didn’t want to kiss some guy only to get it over with, not when he’d probably laugh at how bad I was at it, or claim he stole it from me before another guy could. Now I still feel the same way. I want to kiss someone who stimulates my mind, not only my body. I need someone who wants to kiss me, not to claim what has yet to be taken.”
It’s the most she’s ever said to me in one sitting, and I hang onto every word. It’s fascinating to me to learn and uncover the person she truly is. One small detail she needs to learn, though? Someone can very much want to kiss her and claim her at the same time.
“Thank you for telling me that.” My voice is silvery, much softer than it was minutes ago.
“You probably think I’m weird or whatever, but it’s me. Like it or not, I don’t care.” She shrugs her shoulders, the movement creating a rippling effect in the water.
“I don’t think that at all.”
“What do you think then?” she asks, moving over to the seat closest to me and peering up at me with those damn eyes that intrigue the hell out of me.
It takes every ounce of my self-control not to look down at her cleavage. I swallow, forcing away the thoughts of yanking her top down and sucking her nipples.
A smile creeps up on my lips before I can stop it as I tell her exactly what I think. “I think you’re a smart, beautiful, fascinating woman who likes to pretend she’s this perfect person all the time. But underneath it all, you’re messy, and there’s more to you than what meets the eye. I’m a smart man, yet you evade me. It drives me wild,” I breathe, the next words tumbling out of my mouth before I can stop them. “You drive me wild.”
Her luscious lips part, sucking in an audible breath. Suddenly, she stands, and it’s the worst fucking thing for the erection I’ve been trying to avoid having. Her bikini covers the areas I want to explore the most, exposing her lean stomach and slim legs while accentuating what I know are her perfect tits and her small, perky ass.
From this angle, with my elbows resting on the ledge and with her standing, she towers over me for once. I thought it would make me feel inferior, but I find myself liking it. I don’t mind her having the power, not one bit.
In fact, it only adds to the blood rushing toward my cock.
“You know what I think?” she asks, sauntering over to the opposite end, grabs her glass of rosé and finishes it. Setting it back down, she turns to me. “I think you like to pretend that you’re better than everyone so that you never get hurt. You can’t get hurt if you don’t trust anyone to let them get close enough, right?”
This I already knew, so it doesn’t hit me the way she thinks it does. “Tell me something I don’t already know, dolcezza.”
The term of endearment started as a joke because she’s not very sweet toward me, or at least, she wasn’t. But now…I don’t know how long it’ll last in a teasing manner before it turns into something else.
