Frenemies With Benefits (Geek To Chic Book 2) (21 page)

“Izzy, I told you why I
left the morning after our first night.
 
I need to know why you didn’t tell me you were a virgin.
 
Why did you pick me to give that to?”
 
His voice was soft, barely above a
whisper.
 

Her hands stilled in
his hair, her body tensed.
 
Alex was
scared she was going to kick him out for simply asking the question.
 
Continuing the pattern of circles on her
stomach, Alex waited nervously for a response.
 

Just as he was about to
retract the question, her body relaxed.
 
He ventured a look at her face.
 
She smiled sadly at him.
 
“I
didn’t tell you I was a virgin because I didn’t want you to turn me down.
 
I wasn’t sure you would still want me.
 
As for why I picked you, I felt comfortable
with you. I was very nerdy in high school.
 
Always had my face in a book, much like now I guess.”
 
She laughed a little.
 
“No boy ever noticed me.
 
The summer between high school graduation and
college, my parents died in a car accident.”
 

She said this so matter
of fact that he almost missed what she had said.
 
He moved up her body to tuck her protectively
into his side.
 
Kissing her head, he
said, “Oh, honey, I didn’t know your parents were gone.
 
I’m sorry that must have been hard.”
 

Nodding, she continued
her story, “Losing them so suddenly was unreal.
 
My great aunt, the only family I had, took care of me that summer.
 
She stepped in and helped me deal with their
estate and held me when I cried.
 
But the
best thing she did for me that summer was force me to go to college.
 
She explained that my parents would want me
to continue to live, experience life, not die with them.
 

“I went through the
summer and first year of college numb.
 
If
it wasn’t for having Roni as a roommate and her single minded determination to
make sure I had a life, I would have never left my room other than to go to
classes.
 
I didn’t date at all that year
obviously.
 
I barely dated the other
three years either.
 
When I met you and
you looked at me the way you did.
 
And
got my weird sense of humor, I guess, I wanted to feel closer to you.”
 
She shrugged.
 

Not knowing what else
to do, Alex pulled her beneath him.
 
He
kissed her and whispered, “I wanted to be closer to you too. I still want to be
close to you.”
 
He kissed a path down her
neck to her collarbone.
 
Lifting his
head, he met her heavy lidded gaze.
 
“I have
one more question for you. What did you mean when you said earlier that you
haven’t been with anyone else?”

Izzy’s jaw fell open,
her eyes grew to the size of the moon, and she stopped blinking.
 
“Shit, did I really tell you that?”
 

Alex knew now she meant
that he was the only man she had been with, period.
 
All the blood in his head rushed south,
engorging his cock.
 
He decided to ask to
be sure.
 
“Izzy, honey, am I the only man
you’ve slept with?”
 

She nodded, looking
down sadly.
 
“After that first time, I
couldn’t even make out with a guy without thinking of you.
 
And that thought made me either angry or
sad.
 
I would always break up with guys
before it got to the point where he would expect sex.”
 

Alex was giddy!
 
Completely giddy!
 
This moment was the most remarkable in his
life.
 
“Honey, look at me.”
 
He waited until she did before he
continued.
 
“I can’t say that I have been
as faithful to your memory as you have been to mine, however, I dreamt about
you every night. And the minute I saw you again in that bar all those months
ago, I knew I didn’t want to be with anyone but you.”
 

To prove everything he
had said to her was true, he kissed her.
 
Not the passionate take no prisoners kiss, he normally gave her.
 
This was a soft slow kiss of two people in
love.
 
And he did love Izzy.
 
Actually, his old man had been right about
knowing your forever from a kiss.
 
It may
not have been their first kiss that made him realize Izzy was his soul mate,
but it was the first night they were together.
 

Slowly he slid into her.
 
This time they made love slowly, wrapped
around each other.
 
They slept wrapped
around each other as well.
 
No matter
what Izzy thought, this relationship was going the distance.

“Hell fucking no
Alex!
 
You are to keep your mouth
shut!
 
No one needs to know one fucking thing
about the two of us! Remember the rules of our agreement?”
 
Izzy couldn’t believe she was having this
argument with him.
 
They were on their
way to meet their friends for drinks and he wanted to tell all of them about
his latest conquest, a.k.a Izzy.
 
She was
not having any of that.
 

Alex tapped his fingers
on the steering wheel, his jaw clenched.
 
Anger and frustration rolled off the man in waves thick enough to drown
Izzy.
 
“We have to tell them.
 
One of these days we are going to fuck up and
our secret is going to be out. Plus, the rules no longer apply, our month
ended.”
 

Since the night Alex
ruined her night out with Darren, a few weeks ago, they had spent every night
in each other’s arms. Sure, they bickered like a little old couple most of the
time, but at the end of the night she only wanted to be in his arms.
 

Of course last
Saturday, their secret had nearly been discovered when they walked in to the
bar together, his hand possessively on her lower back, and a hickey on her
neck.
 
If it had not been for the fact
their friends were already three sheets to the wind, you can bet someone would
have put two and two together and come up with the answer Alex and Izzy were
sleeping together.
 

“Our month may be up,
but the rules about keeping this shit between us still apply.
 
And no, they are not going to find out,
because you my friend are going to keep your hands to yourself.
 
No touching.
 
At all!
 
I don’t care if Roni trips
me and I fall at your feet, don’t even offer me a hand up.
 
Got it?” She spat.
 

Alex’s lips twitched,
“Trust me if you’re kneeling at my feet, baby, no matter how you got there, I
have no intention of giving you my….hand.”
 

Slapping him on the
shoulder.
 
“Alexander Porter! Get your mind
out of the gutter.
 
You will behave
tonight.”
 
She crossed her arms over her
chest, glaring at him.
 

“I was just pointing
out that while you are down there you can help a
friend
out.”
 

She frowned out the
window. “Ugh, you are impossible.
 
I need
to know your middle name so I can properly yell at you, because obviously using
your first and last name are not doing a good enough job!”

Again, his lips
twitched.
 
Izzy thought that instead of
showing up with hickeys, he would be showing up with a black eye.
 
“Now what’s funny?”

Turning his brilliant megawatt,
panty dropping smile on her, he simply said, “Baby, you already know my middle
name.” He turned his attention back to the road.
 

“No, I don’t you never
told me.”
 
Ok, now she was pouting.
 

“Yeah, I did. Think for
a minute.”
 

Completely lost, Izzy
replayed all of her conversations with them. They had never once talked about
middle names.
 
He was being an asshat,
like always.
 
After a few moments, the
light bulb went on.
 
“You’re shitting
me?”

“Did you figure it
out?”

“Alexander Jeremy
Porter?
 
Really?”

A deep, throaty laugh
filled the car.
 
“Yep, I had to have
something I remembered, so I used my middle name.”
 

She punched him in the
shoulder again, much harder this time.
 
“Asshat!”
 

“Ow, that hurt.
 
I’m going to have a bruise.”
 
He whined as he pulled into the parking
lot.
 

“Good!”
 
Izzy grabbed her purse and headed for the
door, not waiting for him.
 
This entire
time she had his real name, or most of it.

Walking into the bar,
she threw herself into the empty seat next to Caroline.
 
Derek’s sister had become one of her good
friends over the past few months.
 
One
look at Izzy, had Caroline laughing.
 
“What did Alex do, now?”
 

Izzy glared at the man
as he made his way over to the pool table the guys were clustered around
talking trash to each other.
 
She didn’t
know how to answer C, after all no one knew about their history or what they
were currently doing.
 
“Alex was being Alex
that’s enough.”
 
Vague, but true.

C, laughed again. “He
has been like that since we were kids.
 
He could piss off a girl in 30 seconds flat.
 
Of course he could also have her on her back
30 seconds later.
 
I suspect it isn’t
long before he has you in his bed with how often you two are pissed off at each
other.”

Izzy almost choked on
the soda the bartender had just handed her.
 
“That will never happen.”
 

C, narrowed her eyes at
Izzy.
 
Assessing her for a moment.
 
Making Izzy nervous that she already
knew.
 
C shrugged, “Maybe not.
 
It will be good for him not to get the girl this
time.”

Izzy was doing her best
to keep her face neutral.
 
“Yes, it will
be good for him.
 
Come on, let’s go over
and help out Roni and Gracey.”
 
The other
girls were challenging the guys to a pool game.
 
The guys were turning them down.
 
Male egos didn’t do well when losing a pool game to a bunch of
girls.
 

“Who has Netty
tonight?”
 

“Mama Porter, of
course.
 
I swear the woman goes through grand
baby withdrawal if she doesn’t see her once a week.”
 
C explained smiling.
 
Caroline and Derek’s parents were always too
busy with their careers to care for their own kids.
 
Along with a multitude of nannies, the two
kids were raised by their neighbors the Porters.
 
Alex’s parents were still the closest thing
Derek and Caroline had to a set of caring involved parents.
 

“I bet she does.
 
She is probably eyeing Derek and Roni for
another grandchild now that they are living together.”
 

“You don’t know the
half of it.
 
When Derek brought Roni to
dinner a couple of weeks ago, Mama Porter, went as far as to tell them that
times had changed and they shouldn’t feel the need to wait until they got
married to have a baby.
 
They could go
right ahead and have one now, with her blessing.”
 

The two women fell into
a fit of laughter.
 
“Oh, I would have
loved to see the look on their faces.”

“Priceless, I tell
you.”
 

“What’s
priceless?”
 
Roni asked.

“Mama Porter telling
you to go get knocked up.”
 
Izzy
snickered.

Roni shook her head,
groaning.
 
“I wanted to crawl under the
table and die. Poor Derek almost choked on his drink. I am tempted to double up
on my birth control pills, to ward off any baby juju her little speech may have
created.”
 

The entire table
laughed at Roni.
 
Poor thing was
convinced Mama Porter had some hidden power to conjure up another grand baby.
“You’re going to have to become abstinent to ward off Mama Porter’s baby juju powers.
Poor Derek.” Izzy feigned sympathy.

“Never going to happen my
friend.
 
If you had seen that man naked,
you would never suggest such a thing.”
 
Roni winked.

“Gross, that’s my brother!”
 
C whined.
 
“We all know that Alex is never going to settle down, so Mama Porter is
never going to let up on you.
 
You better
watch those birth control pills, she may sneak into your house and switch them
out with sugar pills.”
 

They all laughed again.
 
Izzy was laughing along with the girls, but
her mind was racing a million miles an hour.
 
Caroline was right, Alex was never going to settle down.
 
This friends with benefits relationship they
had was never going to turn into more.
 
Did
she want it to turn into more?
 
Stupid
question, of course she did.
 
The naïve
girl in her was at this very moment sitting in her pajamas with wedding
planning books in hand.
 
She needed to
put some distance between the two of them.
 

 
Unexpectedly, Gracey shoved her.
 
“Earth to Izzy? Come on, let’s go kick the guy’s
asses at pool.
 
The drinks are on the
loser.”
 

“That’s not fair.
 
They get off easy tonight.
 
All I am drinking is club soda.”
 
Izzy whined.

All eyes turned to her.
 
All the conversation stopped. “Why are you
only drinking club soda?”
 
Alex inquired,
casually leaning his hip against the pool table.
 
His eye betrayed his casual stance, he looked
angry.
 

“What?”

“You always drink wine
or if Alex pisses you off you do shots.
 
Why club soda?”
 
It was Jemma this
time who was questioning her.
 

“Not sure what the big
deal is about me drinking club soda, but if you must know I have my marathon in
a few weeks, I don’t drink alcohol leading up to a race.
 
I want to beat my time this year.”
 
Izzy explained, Alex visibly relaxed.
 

Laughter came from
behind her.
 
She turned to see C and Roni
almost falling over into each other.
 
Roni wiped the laugh tears from her eyes before she spoke.
 
“I think he thought Mama Porter’s baby juju
powers had somehow knocked up! Alex would have had to be nice to you and kicked
some guy’s ass had that been the case.”
 

That’s when it hit her,
the look of on Alex’s face, was terror not anger.
 
He thought she was pregnant.
 
Oh
sweet baby Jesus!
Izzy looked at him, relief clear on his face.
 
“Sorry, her baby making powers have nothing
on me. Let's play.
 
But when we win you
guys buy dinner not drinks.”

~*~*~*~

The car ride home was
quiet.
 
She was being too quiet for
Alex.
 
Izzy should have been gloating
over her two victories.
 
Instead, she had
quietly stared out the window.
 
He pulled
into his spot in the parking garage of their building.
 
Even as they walked to the elevators, she did
not speak.
 

Once inside the
elevators, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
 
Kissing her neck. “Keeping my hands off you
all night was torture.” He needed to touch her.
 
To taste her.
 
To be inside of
her.
 

“Stop, Alex.”
 
She spoke the words, but at the same time she
leaned further into his body and tilted her head.
 

Licking her neck a
little, he whispered, “Do you really want me stop?”

The elevator reached
her floor, and she was out the doors the second they opened.
 
He went to follow her, only to be met with
her hand in his face.
 
“No, Alex.
 
Not tonight.”
 
She turned on her heel and went down the hall to her apartment.
 

The doors of the
elevator slid closed.
 
Alex was so
confused.
 
Sure, she was mad at him for
wanting to tell everyone, but the night had gone fine.
 
No one knew a thing.
 
The look on her face, told him she was
thinking too much again.
 
The look almost
killed him.
 
Sad, defeated, withdrawn
were the only words to describe the look.
 
Even her body language screamed, she was upset.
 
As she had walked away from the elevator her
head was down and shoulders slumped.