“I’m screwed.”
The statement seemed simple, but as Reid navigated through traffic to get to the restaurant for the endorsement dinner, he had no clue what Sarah was talking about. They’d talked the previous day for about five minutes to make sure he had her address and they agreed on a time for him to pick her up, but when he tried to continue the conversation, she’d claimed she was busy. Knowing that she had moving and shopping planned, he didn’t question the decision to end the call. Her simple statement made him think he should have pressed a little harder.
“Is that something you’re going to elaborate on?”
Reid looked over to his passenger and tried hard not to stare at where her dress cupped her breasts, leaving the tops of them to stick out a little. When he’d seen her at her door, he instantly knew he was going to need a giant pail of ice poured on him if he had any hopes of hiding the erection the skintight dress caused.
It didn’t help that her gorgeous hair hung in ringlets around her face, just asking to be tussled. The ruby lipstick on her lips only made him think about those lips wrapped around the part of him at war with his pants. He was in trouble.
“I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it. I just can’t clear my mind right now. Hopefully, a glass or two of wine will make me a little less distracted.”
Reid was already distracted enough himself, but he wanted to know what was going on, especially since she seemed to avoid the subject of the ex on the phone. He’d been kicking himself for not making sure she was okay, and it wasn’t going to do him any favors if he had to use his imagination to figure out what was going on.
“Why don’t you go ahead and tell me. It sounds like you need to talk something out. Some people say I’m a good listener.”
The dead silence that followed his words made him think Sarah was fine figuring out things on her own. She was an adult, so that was her right, but Reid wanted to know what was eating her up.
“Fifteen times,” she muttered under her breath.
It was so soft that Reid wasn’t sure he heard it. They were getting close to the restaurant, so he needed to pay attention to traffic, which made it hard for him to turn to see if her lips moved.
“Excuse me?”
He figured the question was the safest approach in case he was hearing things. His brain had already started scrambling to try to figure out what fifteen times meant.
“Fifteen times,” Sarah said a little louder. “That is how many times I have fucked my ex-boyfriend in the last forty-eight hours. Fifteen times.”
Reid let the words hang in the air. He got the message, and yet he still got turned on when she said the word fucked. For as pure and innocent as she seemed, the word coming from her lips did something to him.
“And let’s not even start counting the number of times I’ve said fuck now. I never said that word out loud before, and now it’s all I can think about. I am totally screwed, figuratively, and literally. I don’t think I’ve had this much sex in an entire month before and now it’s like any time me and him are in a room together and there’s a surface we can get freaky on, we’re doing it. Should I be worried about my vagina turning inside out or something? Is that possible?”
Sarah’s hand reached over and grabbed Reid’s arm with a grip that was surprisingly strong for as little as she was. None of the rant was anything Reid wanted to hear. In fact, it was the exact opposite of good news in his book. He didn’t have plans set in stone of a romantic fling between them, but he had decided he was going to dip his toes in the water and see what was possible. Hearing that she was getting freaky with the idiot was the cold water he needed to get a certain part of him to relax a little.
“I’m not a doctor, so I can’t really give you advice about the vagina thing. As far as the other stuff, I’m not sure I can help. If you guys are getting back together, isn’t it a good thing that your sex life is taking off?”
Reid didn’t know what to say, so his words were slow and barely strung together. He’d known there was an attachment with someone else on her end, but the fact that she didn’t stand him up for their date made him think the other guy wasn’t in the picture.
“No, it’s not a good thing. I don’t want to be with him. It just seems I can’t help myself. The guy cheated on me. Isn’t there a saying about once a cheater, always a cheater?”
“Yeah, but I suppose it doesn’t always matter when there’s history between two people. What about his boyfriend. Maybe it’s too personal to ask, but is he involved in all this sex?”
It didn’t make a difference, but Reid was trying his best to get caught up to speed. Plus, reminding Sarah of the other guy in the picture couldn’t hurt as far as making her lean away from getting back with the ex.
“God no. Aaron says he broke up with him and he’s trying to convince me we should get married. I challenged him to prove to me that he only wants me and that I’ll be enough for him. All that’s got me is dirty filthy sex over and over. Maybe it’s just the fact that the sex has moved to another level that has me so confused.”
Sarah’s hand remained on his arm and she squeezed even tighter as she contemplated her words. Reid wasn’t going to step into the mess, so he kept his mouth shut. He hoped in the roughly ten minutes they had before they got to the restaurant that Sarah had worked the distraction out of her system. He needed her to focus on pretending to be his girlfriend, which was going to be next to impossible since they hadn’t taken the time to even pretend to get to know each other.
“That’s got to be it. I know deep down that I love him still, but he cheated on me. I have to put a stop to the sex until I can think clearly. Or maybe I should just find someone to have sex with so we’re on equal standing. Technically, we’re not back together, so it’s not cheating, but I think being with someone else would tell me if what I’m feeling is just great sex or the connection I’ve always been looking for with him. Don’t you?”
Not knowing exactly where the line of thinking was headed, Reid still didn’t have a clue what to say. Did she want him to be the test subject in her little experiment? Because if that was the case, he was pretty sure he’d be game. He’d already thought about hiking up her dress and sliding into her, so he could be ready for that in a moment’s notice. It sounded like everything was just hypothetical, which made him cautious to get his hopes up.
It was hard not to. Meeting Sarah had brought a distraction into his life that he hadn’t anticipated. As much of a test as a romp in the sack would be for her, he saw it as a chance to quench a thirst that had started. He just had to hope it would dissipate so he could return his focus where it needed to be.
“So, this was not the conversation I thought we were going to have,” Reid started as he tried to figure out what to say. “We’ve kind of just met and I’m not someone qualified to give out relationship advice.”
“The question is whether you’re qualified to show me a good time. If things are back on track with Aaron, I won’t need a stand-in for the wedding, which means I’m doing you a favor in exchange for nothing. Since you’re a guy, who from what I’ve gleaned is unattached, I’m requesting you put your talents to the test and help me figure out if I’m crazy.”
Reid was starting to worry that Sarah may be a little bipolar. She seemed so sweet and innocent when they met, but there was a wicked woman underneath those layers and she frightened him.
“Don’t you think the option of just not having sex with him is the better one? Like I said, I’m no expert on relationships, but I figure if you do decide you want to be with him, it’s not going to help matters if you’ve slept with someone else.”
“You’re right. That’s not who I am. You can’t believe how mortified I am that words just keep coming out of my mouth. I’m usually painfully shy, but he’s turned my brain into mush. If you could just pretend I haven’t said a word, I would really appreciate it.”
Sarah loosened her hold on his arm. Reid felt the loss of touch as a giant wall might as well have appeared down the center of the car. That wasn’t exactly the response Reid was looking for.
“I don’t want to kill the conversation totally, but maybe we can pick it back up after the dinner. We should probably go over a few things before we get to the restaurant.”
“I assume it’s time for you to tell me what’s up with the endorsement deal. You drive a fancy car and have what looks to be an Italian suit, so I assume you’re some athlete or movie star I should be aware of, but I’m not.”
Reid looked down at the charcoal-colored three-piece suit and wondered what made her think it was Italian. Not being huge into fashion, he didn’t think it was, but he also didn’t pay close enough attention to know. He’d clubbed along with another teammate when they were getting a suit tailored and he’d ended up walking out of the store with it.
“The first one would be the correct choice. I’m a hockey player, and we’re on our way to meet an equipment manufacture I’m hoping will end up paying me to wear their stuff.”
“And for some reason you need a date for it.”
“That’s what my agent says. I’m not really sure if the guy running things likes the idea of a guy committed to something or if he’s a sleazeball who likes to look at pretty women, but I was told to have a date. I guess I should apologize for that.”
Sarah made a very unladylike scoffing noise. It was bad that even after everything that had happened in the car that Reid found the simple noise a turn on. He started to feel like he understood exactly how Sarah felt as far as having mush for brains.
“I just had a complete and utter mental breakdown. You could ask me to get out of the car and run me over a few times and you still wouldn’t need to apologize to me.”
Reid supposed that would be true, but only because if he ran over her a few times, chances were good she’d be dead. He’d expected more of a reaction to him being a hockey player, but maybe she’d come close enough to that conclusion that it wasn’t a surprise.
“I don’t know that it was a complete breakdown, but it did seem like you had a lot you wanted to get off your chest.”
The scoff returned and edged on being considered a snort. Reid was pulling into the parking lot, but he took a second to look over and make sure Sarah was okay. He was pretty sure what he’d said wasn’t funny, but the noise made him think she thought otherwise.
“All I can say is I’m lucky I was with you and not someone with lower standards. I’m pretty sure most of the guys out there in the world would’ve found a dark room and taken me up on the offer of free, no strings attached sex.”
Pulling into a spot, Reid put the car in park and sighed. He knew he was stupid, but he fully understood what Sarah was getting at and it pissed him off even more than hearing about the sex marathon. He saw that Sarah was reaching for the door, so he hurried to stop her.
He reached over and gently turned her head so she faced him. The confusion in her eyes were clear, and there was no doubt there was a certain level of the emotion in his own eyes. Not giving either one of them a chance to think about it, Reid leaned down and pressed his lips on hers. He was out of practice, but he did his best to tell her that even though he didn’t jump to help her out with her problem, there was interest on his side of things.
Sarah sighed, opening her mouth a fraction of an inch. Reid took advantage of her softening jaw and let his tongue dip into her mouth. Her tongue easily curled into his and a small purr radiated out from somewhere inside of Sarah. She was so expressive that it was no wonder the ex was having trouble letting go.
Things were going to get out of control if Reid didn’t keep his head, so he brought his tongue back on his side of the line and settled for one last lick of her lips before he straightened himself up. Sarah was going to need to walk in front of him while he tried to think of every erection-killing thing he could on the way into the restaurant.
“Don’t take my lack of jumping at a chance with you to mean I don’t want it. I just needed you to get away from the subject of sex for a little while so I could hopefully make it through dinner without anyone asking why my pants looked like they were trying to burst open in the front.”
The kiss shouldn’t have happened. Neither should the words coming out of his mouth, but they did, and Reid wasn’t about to take them back. He couldn’t compete with the guy filling Sarah’s head full of crazy, but he could let her know that she didn’t have to settle for the swine.
“I suppose since we’re here, we should probably get inside and see if you need to jump through any hoops for your deal.”
The lack of emotion in Sarah’s words was new and was cause for a little worry. The rollercoaster that made up her thoughts wasn’t extremely fun, but he could sort of tell where she was going when she let it all out. Without a clue of what she thought about the kiss, Reid was afraid of what it meant for the rest of the night.
He got out of the car, since she’d successfully opened her door and was making her way out. Hurrying, he made it over to her side of the car and wrapped his left arm around her as he shut the door and hit the lock button on his key fob.
“I’m sorry if I overstepped,” Reid whispered.
There wasn’t anyone around them, but outside the car it didn’t feel like their conversation was private. He’d parked far enough away that they were going to take a minute to get to the door.
“You need to quit apologizing. I liked the kiss, Reid, and as soon as we’re done with dinner, you can be assured that I’m going to want to talk about it, but if we’re going to get through said dinner, it’s best if we pretend it didn’t happen.”
There was no arguing with that logic. The main question was whether they could make it through dinner. Sarah obviously already had thoughts swimming around in her head and he hadn’t helped matters one bit.
Thankfully, his agent, Glenn, smiling and waving outside the front door of the restaurant was enough to get Reid’s mind at least a little distracted. The way the slightly older man let his eyes roam up and down Sarah’s body made Reid grind his teeth together.
“Who is this angel with you, Reid? And where in the world have you been hiding her?”
The comment would hopefully boost Sarah’s confidence a little, but she could’ve thought it was part of a game, especially since chances were good she didn’t know who Glenn was. Reid’s arm wrapped a little further around her body as she stepped closer into him.
“Sarah, this is Glenn. He would be the agent I may have mentioned in passing.”
“Sarah?” a woman’s voice asked. “You’re Sarah Lewis, aren’t you?”
Both Reid and Sarah turned around slightly to see the couple walking towards them. The woman in the pair had her eyes glued on the redhead in Reid’s arms. They seemed to be scanning for a sign of admission.
“Sorry, I’m sure you get recognized all the time out in public, but this is the first time I’ve met a best-selling author.”
The woman didn’t give Sarah a chance to answer before she started back up. The man with her smiled warmly at Reid and gave him a small nod. Reid wasn’t sure what that was about, but he nodded back. The woman looked like she was at least a handful of years younger than the man with graying hair, but she was definitely with him romantically judging by the way she had her arm wrapped around his.
Reid made the general note about the pair, but he was more concerned about how Sarah was going to handle the attention. He had absolutely no clue whether the woman made an accurate recognition because he had no clue what Sarah’s last name was.
“I can honestly say you’re the first person to recognize me. I tend to be more of a homebody, but tonight’s a special night.”
“Really?” The woman looked to Reid like he had all the answers.
“Well, since I’m having dinner with someone who is obviously a fan, of course it’s special. I take it you’re here to meet with Reid, Mr. Murphy.”
Reid wasn’t sure what to think about Sarah’s use of the name of the man they were supposed to eat dinner with. He’d never met the executive they’d spend most of the night entertaining, but he knew his last name was Murphy.
Looking down at the woman in his arm, he wasn’t sure what to think of the playful smile as she returned the look. The night was still young, and Reid knew there was a lot he had to learn.