Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TINA TURNER, “WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT”
Kyle
“I didn’t build a hut so you’d have sex with me,” I said with one arm behind my head and Eve tucked under my other arm.
“Now you tell me,” she said, drawing random patterns on my chest with her delicate fingers.
I chuckled because her humor landed with me.
I was a twenty-eight-year-old father with a naked woman in my bed—who had a curfew. The math didn’t add up, but emotions rarely did because there were no rules or formulas, and everything was a variable.
I liked Eve—a lot—and had since the day we met. One plus one equaled a hundred. Everything felt magnified with her. Perhaps we were chemistry more than math.
“Are you going to tell Erin?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Jeez, at least try to lie to me.”
She sat up, leaned to the side to turn on the lamp, and held the sheet to her chest. “Do you have chips? They don’t have to be Ruffles, but that would be a bonus. I had DQ for dinner with a sundae, and now I’m craving something salty.”
I wasn’t done with her, not even close, so I tugged at the sheet. She tried to keep hold of it, but I won. Dear god, did I ever win. Her perky nipples poked through her long, messy hair. She looked like a goddess. My hand traced the soft curve of her hip, up the side of her body to her breast, and I brushed the pad of my thumb over her nipple.
Her cheeks pinked as her lips curled into a tiny grin. My gaze flitted between her nipple and her deep brown eyes, drinking in every ounce of her sexy vulnerability.
She cleared her throat as if my affection was too much to handle. “If you want to look at naked women,” she leaned over me and pulled a Playboy magazine out from under my mattress, “there are plenty in these pages.” She lay beside me and opened the magazine.
“Stop.” I laughed, throwing an arm over my face.
“Do you prefer blondes or brunettes?” she asked, flipping through the pages. “And there is a correct answer to this question.”
I groaned. “I’m burning all of those magazines first thing tomorrow.”
“Before church? God will like that. Or you can wait for my dad to invite you to the bonfire he’ll have with all those branches and my hut's remains. He often needs a little paper to get it started anyway. Kill two birds with one stone.”
“Are you done?” I peeked at her.
She continued her page-flipping, stopping for an extended inspection of the centerfold. “I’m thinking about shaving my pubic hair. What do you think?”
I thought I wanted to die.
“Erin shaves hers down to about nothing. I trim mine during the summer. A buzz cut. Not like a bald eagle.”
“Eve,” I shook with laughter, trying to control myself so Josh didn’t wake up.
“Speaking of hair, now that I’m eighteen, I’m thinking of cutting mine. Getting bangs and maybe a perm. My boring hair makes me look like a seventies flower child. Surely, my parents won’t evict me if I no longer look ‘wholesome.’ I want to look eighteen. Modern. Chic. And I want to pierce my ears. Maybe get a tattoo. What do you think?”
I thought she was perfect. She didn’t need big hair or any sort of embellishments. “I think you’re stunning.”
She sat up, no longer caring about covering herself with the sheet. “But you would be more attracted to me if I looked like one of these girls with modern hair. Right?”
I rubbed my hands over my face. “Where were you twenty minutes ago when I was worshipping your body, coming undone from every tiny moan that vibrated up your chest to your lips? Eve, you’re fucking perfect .”
Her lips twisted, and she gazed at the magazine in her hands. “What about bigger boobs? Would you like that?” She held up the centerfold over her torso so I could see it.
I snatched the magazine and tossed it aside. “I’m going to buy you a dictionary so you can look up the words ‘stunning’ and ‘perfect.’ Let’s go. I have Ruffles downstairs.”
Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth to muffle her squeal. I pulled on my jeans and T-shirt while she pieced herself back together.
“You said you were a Lays guy.”
“I am. But the babysitter likes Ruffles.”
She zipped her jeans and glanced up at me, blowing her hair away from her face. “The babysitter? Is that all I am?”
“What do you want to be?” I wasn’t trying to set her up. And I regretted asking the question the moment it left my mouth.
“It’s too soon to be your girlfriend,” she said, but it sounded more like a question—and maybe a trap.
“I told you before that we don’t have to label anything,” I said.
She combed her fingers through her hair while I tucked the magazine under my mattress. “But you just asked me what I want to be.” Her lips twisted, and it made my stomach twist as well.
What had I gotten myself into? I couldn’t imagine it ending well.
“I think our only option right now is lovers.” Her nose wrinkled. “Not cheesy lovers like that ‘Friends and Lovers’ song. I totally mean something like Billy Ocean’s ‘Loverboy.’” She bit her lips and gave me the sexiest once-over.
I wanted to throw her onto the bed and tear off her clothes all over again.
“Do you wanna be my loverboy?” She snaked her arms around my neck and smirked. “If you give me a beer with the chips, I’ll get on my knees.”
Fuck me .
“And pray?” I asked. “To quote you: God would like that.”
“Come on, Loverboy.” She eased open the door and tiptoed past Josh’s room and down the stairs.
“You have to be home in ninety minutes,” I said, looking at my watch while she opened every cabinet in the kitchen, hunting for Ruffles.
“Are you suggesting we have sex again? Or are you trying to remind me that my life sucks because I’m an adult living with my parents and a curfew?”
“I’m implying we need to keep an eye on the time so you don’t get grounded again.”
“So you don’t get in trouble for screwing the preacher’s daughter? Bingo!” She pulled the chips out of the cabinet to the right of the fridge.
“I feel cheap. Is that all I am to you? A quick screw?” I said timidly, crossing my arms over my chest so my hands covered my pecs, and I curled my shoulders inward while frowning.
She giggled, opening the bag of chips and popping one into her mouth. “Why would you feel cheap?” she mumbled, sending a few crumbs flying out of her mouth. “I’m the one who babysits for nothing more than your attention.”
“I’ve paid you.”
“Not every time.”
“Well,” I shrugged. “After tonight, I think we’re even.”
“What makes you think you’re that good in bed?”
I rolled my eyes. “I was talking about the hut I built for you. Pervert.”
Eve snorted. “Sorry. Yeah, we’re even then.” She brought a chip to my lips.
“Evil.” I grinned, grabbing her wrist and guiding the whole chip into my mouth along with two of her fingers. I ate the chip and the tiny gasp she released.
She cleared her throat, taking a step backward. “Erin is my Adam. If you tell me you haven’t talked to Adam about me, I’ll call you a liar.”
“Guys don’t gossip like teenage girls.”
Teenage girls.
Who was I kidding? I was the pervert.
“If I tell Erin we had sex, it won’t be gossip. And if you don’t tell Adam, then he’s not really your best friend.”
“I’m fine with that. I’m not telling him.”
He would drag it out of me, but I had a point to make with Eve, even if I quickly lost sight of it.
“Because you’re ashamed of me?” She shoved two more chips into her mouth.
“We’ve been over this.”
“Well, let’s go over it again.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Keeping things between two people is okay until you figure it out. Telling everyone, feeling the need to label it or make a grand commitment, is just messy. Keeping something private doesn’t have to mean you’re embarrassed; it might just mean it’s private .”
She frowned, setting the bag of chips on the counter. “You’re treating me like a child.”
“I’m having a discussion with you. If you can’t discuss things, then you’re acting like a child.”
She deflated. “So it’s just sex.”
I rested my hands on my hips and dropped my head. “How do I explain this? When I was recruited to play football in college, the scouts didn’t look at me and think I was ready to join the team and be their starter. They saw potential and knew I would get better with time. So they took a chance on me, knowing I would make many mistakes, but those mistakes would only make me better. And they wanted me to be with them when I reached that point.”
Eve returned a blank stare.
“It’s not just the sex, Eve. I like being with you. And I can imagine—envision—that as you mature and spread your wings, you’ll shine even brighter. So I don’t know anything for sure. I can’t predict the future, but I can imagine . And that’s all we can be right now. A possibility.”
Most of the time, Eve surprised me with her maturity, especially with Josh. I never would have acted on the physical attraction had she not been mature in other ways first. But I never imagined having sex would make her more insecure and immature.
“Just …” She shook her head. “Don’t treat me like a child.”
“Then don’t act like one,” I said. Perhaps I had my own maturity issues. I needed to brush up on my verbal restraint.
The muscles in her jaw flexed. Then she glanced at her watch and shrugged. “I have to get home before my curfew because I’m a child. Good night, Mr. Collins. ” She brushed past me.
I had to restrain my grin. Eve was a fiery individual, and I loved that about her because I was pretty fiery at her age, too. Had we been the same age and met ten years earlier, we would have burned down the town and ourselves with it.
Our age difference wasn’t unfortunate or inconvenient. It was necessary.
She hopped on one foot, then the other, pulling on her boots before she walked out the door without looking back.
Again, I tried to keep from grinning or chuckling as I followed her. She stomped along the gravel drive to where she parked by the mailbox.
I grabbed the back of her jeans, hooking my fingers into the waist to stop her.
“Hey!” Eve whipped around, and before she could say another word, I grabbed her face, grinned, and kissed her.
She resisted for less than a second.
After making my point, I released her. “ Now you can go home and be mad,” I said before returning to the house.