Extraits

I will not be quiet. I cannot believe you’re moving to Greece. That’s… that’s insane.”

Now hang on a second!

“It’s not insane,” I shot back.

“It is! Who moves to Greece? Do you know a single soul who’s moved to Greece?” He didn’t give me a chance to reply before he continued, “No? Me neither. No one moves to Greece. Goes there. Yes. Gets laid. Definitely. Drinks ouzo. Lots of it. Gets a sunburn. Of course! But you don’t move there!” He was still shouting. “And giving me a building? A building! Are you nuts?”

“Babe, I need to video you onstage. You could be butt-ugly but the way you move onstage and that f**kin’ voice of yours would stil make me hard. Singin’ or talkin’, it doesn’t matter. Your voice is the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.” Uh… wow.

Did he just say that?

“Seriously?” I breathed.

He grinned and rol ed into me. “Seriously,” he said and went on. “Lucky for me, you also got great hair, great eyes, great legs and an unbelievable heart-shaped ass.” As if to prove his point, his hand slid over my ass and his face went into my neck as he pressed me to my back.

Then he muttered, “Stil , I’m inside you and I hear that throaty f**kin’ voice of yours beggin’ me to f**k you harder, I swear it takes everything I got to keep control and not come.”

“We didn’t have wal sex. We had dining room table sex,” Ava corrected, stubbornly not giving Shirleen her point.

“Oowee, dining room table sex. I like dining room table sex,” Daisy burst out. “You two need to get a desk. Marcus and I had desk sex last night. Desk sex is fine. ”

“We have a desk, it kind of… fel over when we tried desk sex,” Ava said.

“Luke’s a big guy, your desk is smal . You need a bigger desk,” Roxie advised.

“Kitchen counter sex is the best,” Indy put in her thoughts.

“Lee’s creative but when we do it in the kitchen…” she trailed off and started looking dreamy.

“La la la, not listening about Lee being creative, la la la.” Al y was back to chanting.

“I’m not sure it’s the where, it’s more the position,” Jules entered the conversation.

“I don’t think it’s the position, it’s al about the intensity,” Jet joined as wel . “Eddie and I like it hard, rough. That’s the best. You know what I mean?”

“Fuck,” we heard muttered and everyone turned to see Hector standing behind Jet and looking at her like he wished he could rip off his own ears after hearing that his brother liked sex hard and rough.

“Whoops,” Jules whispered and everyone started giggling except Jet who started blushing.

“Sorry Hector,” Jet mumbled.

“Welcome to my world. Now you know my pain,” Al y informed Hector

You’re a jerk.”

“I’l tel Pong, Leo, Buzz and Hugo that you’re out of commission as their twenty-four-seven babysitter.” What he said pissed me off but I ignored it in order to stay with my own theme. “You’re not a jerk, you’re an ass**le.

Three things,” Luke said immediately, surprising me. I wasn’t sure he could enumerate three things in Luke Speak. He went on, proving he could. “One, the police can track down your trouble, that trouble is put away and it’s over. Two, we can do it, your trouble is taken to the holding room, taught a lesson, then handed to the police and it’s over. Three, Marcus can do it, that trouble is dead. I’m hopin’ for number two.”

Get back into bed,” he said, looking down at me.

“I’m going,” I told him.

“You’re not going.”

I was stil trying to pul away. I was stil not succeeding.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Why?”

Jeez, there was just no shaking this guy.

“Let go,” I was getting kind of desperate. I dropped my gaze to his chest, raised my hands there and began to push.

He shook me gently to get my attention. It worked. I looked back up.

“Tel me why you’re sneakin’ out of my bed in the middle of the night.”

“Hank –”

“Answer me, goddammit!”

Holy cow.

He wasn’t pissed off anymore, he was angry. I couldn’t only see it on his face; I could feel it emanating from his body. For some reason, it didn’t scare me. He had it in check. It was entirely control ed. I knew that like I knew there were no other jeans in the world as good as Lucky jeans.

It did make me talk, however. I didn’t like that he was angry, not at me.

“I’m not a slut,” I blurted out.

His hands on my arms relaxed but didn’t go away and he blinked one of his slow blinks. “Sorry?” he asked.

“I’m not a slut.”

God, I sounded like an idiot. Now, I had to explain. “I’m not a slut. Never have I slept with a guy on a first date.

Never. Never. Never.”

“Roxanne –” he started to say but I forged ahead.

“Bil… the last guy, it took, like, three weeks to get to third base and at least a month before we did it. I swear.”

“Roxie –” Hank began again but I kept talking.

“Before him, there was Derek, and we were dating, like, forever before we did it and it was unfortunate when we did because he wasn’t very good at it. Then there was Kenny and I don’t even remember how long it took before we did it. He was a jerk; once we did, he dumped me.”

“Roxie –” Hank said again and started to pul me against his body but I had my arms up between us and, like the total idiot I was, I was counting down my ex-lovers on my fingers.

“Then there was Troy, he was a good kisser, like you, but it stil took, I don’t know, at least two weeks before I let him get his hands up my shirt. Wait, Troy doesn’t count because we never did it in the end. I saw him making out with my friend Kim and I broke up with him. What a bitch. I forgot about her.”

Hank now had his arms around me, Shamus was sitting beside us, his doggie body resting against our legs and I was oblivious to this because I was on a rol .

“Then, there was Scott, he was my first. We dated for at least a year until we final y did it. He married the prom queen and now they’ve got half a dozen kids, no joke.” I stopped and looked up at Hank.

He was looking down at me, angry gone, pissed off a memory, he was smiling again with only his eyes engaged in the smile.

Shit.

Had I just recited al my lovers to Hank?

I had.

Shit

Please,” I whispered, the last desperate attempt.

His head bent and, with his lips against mine, he said,

“Remember that word, you’re gonna be using it a lot tonight.”

My stomach fluttered, I felt it and I liked it.

Those were my last coherent thoughts.

“I can’t be the star in your sky when you’re the only star left shining in mine.”

“Any one of those boys wanted to push me around, I’d say bring it on. Hell, I’d pay for one of ‘em to move into my house. They don’t even have to do me; just walk around so I can watch. Maybe in a towel.”