“Don’t discount foreplay. It’s not only about the act itself, but the build up as well.” ~Johnny Outlaw
“I’m so stuffed,” I say, rubbing my belly and moan while sprawled across the couch.
“Told you they make a great burger,” Dalton replies from the other couch.
“I could totally sleep right now.” I pull a blanket from the back of the couch and cover up before closing my eyes.
“You look comfy. You planning on staying a while… or even the night?”
“I’m becoming quite partial to the palace in the sky.” I yawn, my food coma coming on fast.
He shuffles around the table and picks me up. My eyes go wide, and he says, “Let’s move this to the bedroom.”
He carries me into the room and I don’t resist, but I do tease. “You do remember that I have a reputation of being a sex-crazed hussy, right?”
With a hard chuckle, he tosses me onto the fluffy, white bed in the middle of the extra-feathery down comforter. “I’ll take my chances. Now hop in.” He walks into the bathroom and shuts the door.
I’m not a shy person when it comes to stripping down to my bra and panties. They cover just as much as most bikinis, and living in California, I’m in a bikini quite often. After undressing, I scramble under the covers before Dalton comes back out. I fall back on the mattress with the pillows anchoring my head and attempt to pose all pretty, propping myself up at an angle with my hand behind my head. It feels wonky, but he walks out too soon for me to readjust and try a different position. Eyeing him, I say, “Maybe I shouldn’t trust you. What if you were trying to fatten me up all along so you can have your gluttonous ways with me?”
Wearing only a fitted pair of boxer briefs and all of his tattoos finally revealed, he slips under the covers and rolls onto his side, breaking into laughter. “I’d say you watch too many scary movies or read too many fairy tales. If I was your friend, I would have advised you not to come up to my room. As for me, I’m glad you came. At this point, you’ve had plenty of opportunity to escape; I’m not holding you captive. I would however be disappointed if you left.”
“I’m already feeling a little captivated.”
“I’m a little captivated myself.”
“Just a little?”
“More than a little.”
“More seems to be a running theme between us.”
“I like more,” he says, looking very relaxed. “More’s good.”
Fighting the shyness sneaking in, I reach over and run my finger over his shoulder—the one with the Texas flag and just below it, the number forty-four which is much smaller. The hula girl is centered right on his bicep. He has a tiger over his heart; it’s very detailed and seems familiar, but I can’t place where I would have seen it before. “You have three tattoos on this arm and none on your other,” I say, noticing.
No long response or explanation. Just a simple reply, “Yeah.”
Moving on, I drag my finger over his abs to his other side. He rolls onto his back so I can get a better look at the tattoos on his ribs. Three guns, identical, slanted downward. As I rub my finger over them, I ask, “Did these hurt?”
His eyes follow my finger as I trace. “The guns?” Out of the corner of his eyes, he looks at me. “No. I got them at different times.”
“No pain. Impressive.”
“I was drunk,” he says, “I didn’t feel much of anything at the time. The next morning was a total bitch though.”
Looking back at the guns—old-fashioned with black barrels and brown-handles—my curiosity is piqued. “What kind are they?”
“They’re .45 Colts.”
“Why did you get them? What do they represent?”
He smiles—sleepy, but amused. “That’s for another time. Are we gonna sleep?”
I move closer and his arm comes around me. “Yes, let’s do this and get it over with so I can start that long walk of shame across the hotel to my tower later.”
“The walk of sex-less shame? Is that what we’re talking about?”
“It’s happened before… to someone, not me, of course, until now, but it happens. It’s real. The shame and humiliation a girl will carry with her from the rejection associated with a guy tempting her to his room with the insinuation of sex, but instead gets her to eat a huge, delicious cheeseburger and then to top it off, sleep with him, but not the sex sleep but real sleep.”
He kisses my forehead. “There’s no shame in this.”
My cheeks heat and his words make me smile. “None whatsoever.”
Then he pulls me closer and we fall asleep…