Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Frankie
Finch was still pulling her shirt on when she walked into the kitchen and paused at the sight of me.
"Morning," I said through a mouthful of fried egg sandwich. "I brought you some breakfast."
I felt like I needed to clear the air after last night, and also, while I was . . . having fun with myself, an idea had popped up in my mind, one that I was still debating if I was brave enough to voice aloud.
"Hey," Finch said, her voice still raspy with sleep as she wandered to the coffee pot, and upon finding it already brewed, she added under her breath, "You're my favorite person."
I chuckled. "So easily won over. Excellent."
"Sorry, I would've emerged fully clothed if I thought you were still here. Usually, you’re gone by now.”
"It's fine," I said, remembering the planes of her tanned stomach and the way she wore her scrubs so low on her hips. "I had just finished prepping for the morning and I thought I'd come back and change before the zoo opened so I wasn't covered in flour and oil stains." I nodded to the plate across from me. "And I figured you'd want some breakfast too."
She murmured something sleepy and unintelligible, but it sounded grateful so I took it. She groaned as she bit into her egg sandwich. She licked the runny yoke from her thumb in a way that had my eyes snagging on her mouth.
I took another long sip of coffee. "Thanks for the gift last night,” I said, adding that goading back into my tone. "I definitely enjoyed it."
Finch folded in half, collapsing to lean her forehead against the wood of the kitchen table. “Uncle. Mercy. Whatever you say, just please stop.”
I laughed at the dramatics. "What?"
"You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"
"Whatever do you mean?" I asked coyly.
"You know exactly what you're doing."
I’d seen the look in her eye when she’d given me that vibrator. I’d read the barely restrained lust on her face. "I thought you didn't care," I taunted.
“I don’t,” she blustered, lifting her head to look at me. "I mean, I don't in the way that you're meaning. I’m not bothered in a “wish my roommate wasn’t getting off with me in the house” kind of way. It's just . . . I haven't been laid in a really long time and I have needs, and I just . . . am a little sexually frustrated at the moment,” she admitted.
I bit my lip, trying to contain my grin. “Just a little."
“The tiniest smidgeon," she joked, pinching her fingers together. "And I don't want to be sneaking off with someone else and have people thinking I'm cheating on you, but the last thing I want to do is complicate things between us either by sleeping together."
"Maybe we should," I said, and Finch choked on her food, lurching forward.
Gasping, she asked, "What did you just say?”
“Maybe we should sleep together. I mean, if you want to?"
"Jesus, Goldilocks, I'm not awake enough for you to joke with me like this."
"I'm not joking," I said, pushing through my rising nerves. "Look. I've never been with a woman, and after I finish this job this summer, I think I'm probably going to want to be with women, only women, and I don't want to have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. So . . . maybe you could teach me?"
" Teach you?" she spluttered, snatching a paper towel to wipe her yolk-covered fingertips. “Believe me, you absolutely have nothing to worry about in that department.”
"Still, I'd feel more confident, and you could take the edge off. It seems like a win-win."
"But what if?—”
"There will be no feelings attached," I vowed, crossing a hand across my chest. "My heart is still all trampled out of shape. I think the only thing it'll be feeling is wild rage and vengeance for a long time still. You don’t have to worry about me. I know you’re not into relationships.”
"No feelings," Finch echoed, as if confirming my position.
I nodded. I didn’t want to have feelings for anyone for a long, long time. And it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. I could be free to ask questions, make mistakes, and be awkward, and I knew Finch wouldn’t care. I couldn’t believe I might have casual sex at all, let alone with someone as glorious as Finch.
She took another sip of coffee and weighed her head back and forth, and I was so excited she was even considering it.
"You told me you'd show me how all those toys worked," I goaded.
She guffawed. "Well, a promise is a promise, I guess.” She bit her lip in the sexiest way before asking, “Do you know your status? I get tested with a certain amount of regularity.” She laughed softly, as if she were suddenly a little shy, which only made her even more endearing. “No STIs to disclose.”
“Me either,” I said. “I mean, I’ve been with the same guy for eight years so . . . Actually, let’s not mention him.”
“Hard agree.” She finally met my gaze as the haze of sleep lifted off her. "No feelings, only fun. Just a physical, casual thing, yes?"
"We'd be doing each other a favor, nothing more,” I agreed, feeling like I’d solved an impossible riddle. Ask and you shall receive , I supposed. "Just another natural evolution of our arrangement."
Finch grinned at me. “Well, Goldilocks, you’ve got yourself a deal then.”
"Really?"
"Yeah, I think it's a good idea actually," she said. "Maybe I might be able to relax a little bit."
I felt like I’d fallen through a portal to another dimension where it was totally normal for hot friends to sleep together just for fun. Maybe they did and it was just another thing I knew nothing about? Why did I feel like I’d just pulled off the most incredible heist?
"Okay, so, uh, tonight?"
"Tonight," Finch said with a wink, rising to a stand as she took a giant mouthful of sandwich. It was only once she left to the stairwell that I suddenly realized that I’d actually have to go through with what I’d just proposed. She’d actually taken me up on the offer. I was actually going to sleep with the hottest woman I’d ever seen in my entire life.
Holy shit. I was going to sleep with Finch! Tonight!
There was no way in hell I wasn't burning every bit of baking in anticipation of tonight. And I couldn't seem to find a single fuck to mind about it. Oh my god. I was about to sleep with Goldfinch Lachlan. What had I gotten myself into?