Falling Away (23 page)

I held my hand out, waiting for the keys I just asked for. Liked I hoped, it drove him bonkers all week when I wouldn’t tell him my plans for our Valentine’s celebration. And tonight, I was gonna dirt-
ify
this boy’s sex drive. He just didn’t know it yet.

             
Unfortunately, he ignored my waiting hand. “Are you even insured?”

             
“No.”

             
“Then I’m driving.” My shoulders slumped and I pretended to pout a bit. He pushed against my back and sent me out his door and down the stairs.

             
“Fine.  But it won’t matter how many times you ask, I’m not telling you about our night until we get back with everything.”

             
“Fine.”

             
The sly twist to his smile told me he’d try to break me, but no way was I gonna spill and ruin the fun. For our first stop, I had him park on the main avenue in town. “This is gonna take me about twenty minutes, so you might
wanna
get lost in the music store or something.”

             
“I’ll go with you,” he said, releasing the strap across his chest.

             
“The hell you will. And if you step inside that store or so much as peek through the window, I won’t buy a single thing.” I left him behind in the truck, where he was faking a pained expression. But I’m sure it disappeared the moment he saw I entered the lingerie store.

             
Half an hour later, I came back with a black bag that I kept shut with a death grip. His smile was insatiable, and I just sat there with an innocent smile. “Grocery store, please.”

             
“You’re not going to tell me what’s in the bag? Or at least tease me with a peek?”

             
“No, I’m not. Grocery store.”

             
Shaking his head, he reluctantly started the truck and took me to my next destination. When we got there, I leaned back into the cab, smacking his hand the moment it tried to touch my little black bag. I unzipped and dumped his crap from the gym bag and stuffed my lingerie inside. He banged on the steering wheel once
when I stepped out with it, his lips pressed together in a tight line. “Be back in a few.” What items I purchased I also hid in his gym bag before I leaving the store, and it was really starting to bug him when I asked him to take me to the last stop, ‘cause he had a good idea what was coming his way, and was already suffering from anticipation. So maybe bringing him along worked in my favor after all.

             
When we got back to his place, I shoved his TV and game console to the side, so there’d be plenty of space for our dinner spread of random Asian cuisine. He had to bite his lip to keep his smile under control when I also added a selection of desserts that were commonly used for licking off your partner: chocolate and caramel sauces, whipped cream, cherries and chocolate mousse. Yeah, I know. Cliché. But for what I had planned tonight, I was alright with that.  But still, he was more interested in eyeing his gym bag and the elusive little black
package
still hidden within.

             
“So do I finally get to see what’s in the bag?”

             
“In a minute, yes. Sophie and I came up with a game last weekend that I
wanna
play, and just so there’s no confusion, I have a list of rules.” I pulled a sheet of paper from my purse and snapped it in the air between us.

             
“Wow. You even typed them.” He reached for the paper and I playfully smacked him away. His expression was priceless, and I had a feeling I’d be getting a lot of those tonight. “What? Not worthy of laminating?”

             
I ignored him, then cleared my throat dramatically to read them verbatim.
             

  
“1. Adorn six articles of clothing. No more, no less. Choose wisely, and feel free to check your partner for accuracy.

  
2. The winner of each hand has the power to choose all of the following: which article of clothing opponent loses, who gets to remove chosen article of clothing, which food is to be eaten, and whether or not it will be fed by opponent or eaten off an exposed area of opponent’s body. Winner also wins one minute right to any exposed area of opponent to do as with they please.

  
3. First one to remove all of their opponent’s clothing gets their choice of dessert to be eaten off their opponent’s body, or for their opponent to eat off their body.

  
Note: At no time during the game is kissing, licking or eating allowed above the neck unless in the dessert phase of the game.

             
“Any questions?” I asked, batting my eyelashes.

             
His grin was voracious, and the way he casually sat on the end of the card table with his arms folded made me purr inside. “So basically, this is a game of power.”

             
“Uh-huh. So you
wanna
play with me?” I sang, my fingertips trailing down his abdomen and grabbing hold of the button on his cargo pants.

             
“If it means I get to see what’s in that little black bag, then hell yeah.”

             
“Fine. Six articles of clothing. Go.” I snatched the bag and my purse and locked myself off in the bathroom to change. When I came back out, Evan’s jaw dropped as he stared in disbelief. Seemed my idea to fill dirty thoughts in his head was already working.

             
“Shit,” he mumbled.

             
“So, are you ready to play?”

             
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no. Says here,” he said, flicking my sheet of rules, “that I can check your clothing for accuracy. I’d hate to start playing and find out you’ve miscounted your…” –he paused to look me up and down–  “…apparel.” He was way too happy.

             
I semi-curtsied. “Check away.”

             
He circled my body, his hand trailing along to confirm what he saw wasn’t an illusion, or quite frankly, just to feel me up. “Top. Bra; hopefully lace. Frilly, ballet looking skirt that barely covers the ass; nice choice by the way.” He bent to confirm another article. “Hot pink panties and two thigh-high stockings. No heels?” he asked, whispering behind my ear.

             
“That would have given me eight.” His hand was trying to tickle the skin beneath my skirt. I crossed my arms as I took my turn circling him, counting aloud each time I acknowledged an article of clothing: two socks, one pair of cargo pants, one t-shirt and one loose knotted tie. “That’s only five, love.”

             
He smirked. “There’s a sixth. You just haven’t found it yet.”

             
Accepting his challenge, I peeked inside the slim space between his pants and stomach, noticing white cotton fabric. “Tube sock. Nicely done, though I bet it’s gonna get awfully hot in there if I don’t win any games.” I released his cargos, deciding not to point out the obvious of how boxers would’ve protected him all the same.

             
“Well, I might just have to give you that one for free if you suck at poker.”

             
I walked around to the other side of the card table I’d asked him to conjure up for tonight’s festivities. “Please don’t. I’m rather interested in seeing you in nothing but that sock.”

             
He tossed the box of cards on the table and it skidded towards me. “Then deal already.”

             
Oh, this was gonna be fun. We both sat, game faces on as we stared one another down. I shuffled and dealt the cards for a quick game of five card draw.

             
“So tell me,” I said, choosing three cards to discard and tossing them to the center of the table face down. “What were you studying at Penn State?”

             
He scrunched his eyes at me. “Are you trying to distract me? Because I promise that little outfit of yours is already doing the job.” He floated two cards atop mine.

             
I lightly bit my lower lip as I dealt our additional cards. “No. It’s just occurred to me recently that since we’re both taking the semester off, we haven’t really talked about school much.”

             
He tapped his cards on the table. “Marketing. Two pair. Jacks over eights,” he said as he tossed them face up, scattering them randomly across the table.

             
I whined as I lay mine down for him to see. I only had a pair of sixes and his eyes and smile became
insatiable
. Leaning back, his index finger motioned for me to come forward. I obliged, and even allowed him to twirl me about as he decided what to take.

             
“That shirt’s got to go. I’ll even be nice and let you do it this time.” He swept his arm across the table, collecting and stacking the cards. I shook my head good-naturedly and pulled it off on my way back to our dinner spread, tossing it on the floor. “I was hoping that would be lace,” he complimented, already shuffling for the next round. “Oh, waitress. Would you be so kind as to bring me a salmon sashimi?”

             
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was supposed to win the first hand and every one thereafter, so now I was just gonna have to suck it up and play along. On the bright, less humiliating, side, Evan seemed to be incredibly happy with the game. I dipped his salmon in a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi and placed it on a plate for him.

             
“And how would you like to eat this tonight, sir?” I asked, begrudgingly playing along.

             
“Well, I think I’m going to just let you feed me this round, but if you wouldn’t mind, would you please sit on my lap while you do it?”

             
I tried really hard to minimize my smile, but he was just so
freakin
’ cute asking that. I straddled him, taking my time to break the chopsticks and place the fish into his mouth. “Thank you,
Princess
,” he said
gratefully. As I stood, his hand swooped in an upward arc and smacked the side of my butt, and I startled ‘cause he managed to hit nothing but flesh.

             
“Careful, buddy.” I actually pointed at him. He gave me the kind of look that dared me to do something about it. I returned the threatening stare until all the cards were dealt for our next hand.

             
Shit
. Crappy hand again. I tossed three to the table.

             
“Why Rutgers?” he asked, deciding which of his cards needed dumping.

             
“They have a good science program. And I like the upper east coast.”

             
“I’m willing to bet Penn State has a good program too.” Amused, I shook my head as he dealt our replacement cards. Another boyfriend trying to get me to go to his school so we won’t have to live separately. “Pair of fives.” He scratched the back of his head nervously, already thinking I kicked his ass on this hand. And he’d be right.

             
“Aces.” I tossed my pair over his pathetic fives. I thumped my fingers on the table, debating over which item of clothing I felt he’d do best without. “An eye for an eye and a shirt for a shirt. And if you wouldn’t mind getting me a
gyoza
afterwards, that’d be awesome. Thanks.”

             
He obliged, pulling the shirt over his head at a glacial speed, giving me ample time to admire the curvature of every muscle before finishing, leaving nothing but a navy and cranberry diagonally striped tie hanging loosely around his neck. I licked my lips seductively, and he tossed the shirt on my head, which smelled incredibly intoxicating. He prepared my snack on a plate like I did for him, though I asked him to get on his knees to feed it to me rather than sit in my lap.

             
Okay, I was beginning to understand the lure of a camera phone.

             
The next hand had me a little happier with the initial deal. Four spades. I risked it all and tossed the three of hearts, praying for another spade to come along. My lack of discard piqued his interest, and curiosity kept him from asking another question that round. When he dealt my new card, I didn’t pick it up.

             
We both thumped our fingers, trying to size the other up. Finally, he spread his cards out before him. “Straight.”

             
I tossed my four spades to the table and continued thumping my finger on my final card, a smile plastered across my face as he quietly cursed. If the fifth card turned out to be a spade, I’d beat him.

             
One in four. Sorta…but I wasn’t gonna try to figure out the actual odds of this being a spade in relation to the deck at hand. After letting it bug him for a few more seconds, I flipped the card over. He whooped, and I moaned over my ten of diamonds.