So if she was thinking about him, then it must mean nothing, because she wouldn’t let her emotions get in the way of their affair. The problem was, he couldn’t exactly ask her. That was too risky. Then she’d know he was thinking about her, and if she wasn’t thinking about him, that could be disastrous.
He hadn’t originally believed her tale that the men she knew were more likely to want the relationship than her. But he was beginning to. There was something about her that made him want to talk to her for hours, and make love to her even longer. Dangerous thoughts, he knew, but there it was.
His cell phone rang, distracting him, thank God. He glanced at the readout, saw ‘MOM’, then wondered as he answered how she always knew when he was on his lunch break. It was like she had an ‘Aaron’s-being-lazy’ radar or something. “Hello, mom.”
“Hi, honey. How’s work?”
“Going.”
“And how was your date on Friday?”
He should have known she’d get right to it. “Fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Mom, it was just dinner. And we only had dinner because you told me to ask her out.”
“Well, are you going to see her again?”
He sighed. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” She sounded annoyed.
“Because we’ve already gone out twice. Any more and it’ll be like we’re dating. You know how I feel about that.”
“Yes. But don’t you like having a friend there?”
“I have Fisher, mom.”
“It’s not the same. Fisher’s great. But Gina’s a woman.” Her tone said that being a woman made Gina special in a way that Fisher could never aspire to.
“I guess,” he conceded, because Gina surely was a woman.
“Good. Ask her out again.”
“Mom-”
“Sorry, honey-”
“I can’t-”
“Gotta go. Bye.”
She was gone before he could finish his sentence. “Dammit!” Aaron cursed, taking a huge annoyed bite out of his sandwich. His mother made it damn near impossible to decline her request. Demand was more like it, he thought. Regardless, he was not going to ask Gina out again. Even if she did know he was doing it because of his mother, and she was agreeing for the same reason, it was still too much for either of them to be comfortable with.
Yet somehow, when he came around the apartment building from the back that night and saw her walking toward him, he found himself stopping and waiting for her to notice him. She lifted her head and yelped quietly, then started laughing. With a smile, he went to her.
“Sorry,” he said on a chuckle.
She was still laughing. “It’s okay. I was afraid my heart had stopped, so it’s good to know it’s still working. What were you doing?”
“Waiting for you,” he said, then instantly wished he could recall it when her smile fell and her eyes narrowed slightly. “I mean, I saw you coming and was waiting here so I didn’t startle you. Guess it didn’t work so well.”
She shook her head. “No. What did you need to talk to me about?” she asked, hoping she sounded friendly, though her expression was surely guarded. He’d startled her again with that waiting for her stuff, though she was sure he wouldn’t realize why. When he’d made to correct himself, she’d seen something in his eyes, something familiar, and she’d had a moments panic that he somehow knew she’d been thinking about him since Friday night. But there was no way he could, she assured herself, and tried to relax.
“Do you want to go do something tonight?”
She looked him over, feeling almost nervous, which was ridiculous because she’d slept with him three times. “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” he said, sounding distinctly harassed.
She realized why he was asking. “Your mom again?”
He sighed. “Yeah.”
She relaxed a bit that it hadn’t been his idea, but the hurt that sang through her surprised her immensely. It was enough to give her following words a bite. “Don’t worry about it. We can pretend. You can call her and say we had a great time.”
“She’d never buy it.”
“Well, she’ll have to, because I’m not going to force my company on you.” Then she turned and headed back the way she’d come.
“Hey, weren’t you leaving?” Aaron called after her.
“It can wait,” she said without turning around.
Aaron stood there for several seconds, more than a little confused. What had just happened? Needing to know, yet unsure why, he went after her. He heard the door to her apartment slam shut just as he opened the outer door, so he jogged up the stairs and rapped on her door with a knuckle. He waited a few seconds, but she didn’t answer, so he knocked again, this time using all the knuckles on one hand.
“Come on, Gina, I know you’re in there,” he called through the thin metal.
A few seconds later, she flung the door open and glared at him. His eyes raked over her, from her tight jeans to her tighter t-shirt to her angry, pink face. He couldn’t help thinking she looked adorable, but knew if he said that out loud he was likely to be murdered.
So he settled for, “What the hell?”
“Relax. It’s no biggie. You don’t want to go out with me again and I understand that. We’re already pushing the dating thing as it is. Not to mention the”- she couldn’t seem to stop the sigh that left her- “amazing sex. It’s probably better that we don’t go out again anyway. So, bye.”
She made to shut the door, but he slapped a palm against it, stopping her. “Don’t be like that. It’s not you, it’s my mom.”
She gave him a condescending smile. “I get it. No worries.” Then she lifted a hand and patted his cheek.
He snarled at her. “Don’t do that.”
“What?” she asked, her voice the perfect mixture of innocence, ice, and heat.
“Don’t patronize me to try and piss me off so I’ll go away, or make yourself feel better, or whatever the reason is. Just don’t.”
She crossed her arms over her lovely chest, and he almost felt the blast of frosty air coming off her as she really let her anger out. “Okay.”
Suddenly he wasn’t sure if this was better or not. But he forged ahead. “What’s the problem?”
She shrugged, and he saw a little of the ice melting. “Nothing. I get the no dating thing. The sex thing is fine by me. And I understand about your mom. I just thought…”
He leaned a little closer. “What?”
She shrugged again, trying for nonchalance and failing. “We get along so great, and we have the same policy about bedmates, and since neither of us is seeing anyone-” She lifted her eyes to his, questioning him wordlessly, and Aaron shook his head- “then its not a big deal if we hang out.”
Aaron thought about it. He’d been having a problem with thinking about her, and here she’d given him the perfect solution. “I guess that true.”
“And if we went somewhere looking to hook up, we could be each other’s wing man. Then if we both bomb, we have each other for backup.”
It all made perfect sense to him, and provided him with an excuse to spend time with her so he could try to get her out of his system. “That’s also true.”
Then she lifted her shoulders, looking away, and he couldn’t see her face well enough to read what she was thinking. “But if you’re bored with me already, whatev…”
Spurred by her half-joking, half-serious tone, he grabbed her close to him around her waist. “Not hardly,” he muttered darkly into her upturned face.
She smiled. “Are you sure?”
Aaron dropped his mouth onto hers, kissing her long and hard. With a soft moan that sounded eager and needy, she pulled him inside.
Chapter Six
For the third Friday in a row, they went out together. Only this was no date. This was a hunting expedition. Since deciding they would break all the rules and become friends with benefits, a clichéd but nonetheless accurate term for their relati
onship, they’d spent nearly every night together, discussing and perfecting their hunting technique.
They’d found they got along just as well out of the bedroom as they did in it. And since both of them knew exactly what the other expected from them, there were no surprises or sudden emotional attachments one of them might not be willing to handle.
The time was a little later than normal when Aaron opened his passenger door for her at the valet in front of Tingles nightclub. They’d wanted the place full of people who might be there looking for a possible lover. Aaron had never been here, but Gina assured him that this was the time to arrive for the best possible outcome, which was both of them leaving with someone.
They had discussed, re-discussed, and fine-tuned their plan of attack. They would go in together, stay close for the most part, and dance and have a good time. But if either one of them was hit on, they were to follow through with it. If it came up, they were going to pretend to be brother and sister. And if either needed rescuing, the other would claim a family emergency and pull them away.
As they each paid their cover- an agreed upon arrangement so neither was putting more money out than the other, which included alternating vehicles every time they went out- Aaron stood behind her, unable to keep his eyes off her ass, tightly encased in a white dress with random black slashes on it. He’d dressed accordingly, in black slacks and a white dress shirt. She’d told him they would look more like siblings if they dressed similarly. To him it looked like they were one of those couples that color-coordinated their wardrobes.
He quickly lifted his gaze, in case anyone was watching them as they went in, not wanting to screw up any chances either might have for picking someone up tonight.
As they were ushered inside, Gina smiled at him over her shoulder, and he returned it, sufficiently ignoring the strange feeling in his stomach at the thought of her, or even him, going home with someone else. He didn’t recognize the emotion, and didn’t want to try.
They got drinks and sat at a small table to enjoy them, then stood when their glasses were empty to dance. They spent the better part of an hour dancing, with each other and other people, though they were never far apart just in case they were needed. Aaron didn’t usually spend so much time on the dance floor; he was more of a mingler. But he stayed with her; if she was having a good time, he could adjust.
Finally, she shouted to him that she needed a drink and headed off toward the bar. He kept one eye on her as he roamed the large room, making eye contact with several women who interested him. He was deep into meaningless conversation with a promising brunette when he realized Gina hadn’t returned with his drink, and he hadn’t seen her in five minutes.
Panic spurted through his chest as his eyes darted around the club, seeking out the sexy blonde with the stunning blue eyes in the dazzlingly tight white dress. The white, he knew, would stand out against all the blacks and reds, and let out a relieved breath when he saw her only seconds later. It looked like she’d made it to the bar, but not back, as one of her hands held her drink, while the drink meant for him was being held by the man she was talking to.
He was even bigger than Aaron himself, who prided himself on his well-kept physique. His hair and eyes were darker, and Aaron thought he might be Mediterranean. He had that swarthy, swashbuckling-pirate look about him that women inevitably found attractive, and Aaron was just about to turn back to his companion under the assumption that Gina was fine when the man lifted a hand and played with the ends of her hair.
It wasn’t that gesture that bothered Aaron so much as the way the man boldly grazed the backs of his fingers over the upper swell of her breast when his hand came away. It might have been an accident, or something Gina didn’t mind considering the reason they were there, but the fire that suddenly flared in Gina’s eyes told Aaron she did mind. She was annoyed by his brazen behavior, and edging toward pissed.
“Excuse me,” Aaron said absently to his target, then moved quickly through the room toward Gina and the pirate. He kept his eyes on her as he closed in, hoping she’d glance at him so he could be sure he was doing the right thing.
But she didn’t, and he had no choice but to approach them. “Hey, sis,” he said calmly, but loud enough to be heard over the thump of the music. Though he was prepared to knock out half the pirate’s teeth if she gave him the go-ahead.
Her eyes flew to his. “Hi!”
“Having a good time?” he asked, his eyes flicking to the pirate, who was annoyed at the interruption but clearly buying their sibling ruse.
“Yeah! This place is great!” she said. Her face was a play in contradictions: her mouth was smiling, her cheeks flushed with pleasure, but her eyes were shooting daggers, her furrowed forehead conveying her discomfort. He’d learned over the last week that she was an accomplished actress when it came to hiding her feelings, but her eyes never lied. At least not to him.
Hoping he was reading her correctly, he shouted, “Sorry to ruin your night out, but Mom just called. Dad’s sick.”
Her eyes quickly showed relief that he’d gotten her message, and he felt relief, too, that he wasn’t about to get reamed for being wrong. “Oh, no! Is it bad?”
“They don’t know yet. She took him to the hospital. We should meet them there.”
“Okay.” She turned briefly to the pirate. “Sorry. I gotta go.”
Without waiting for his response, she grabbed Aaron’s wrist and led him to the door. When they were outside waiting for his car to be returned by the valet, she released him but didn’t move away. “Thank you, God! He wouldn’t stop touching me,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
Abruptly, Aaron turned on his heel and headed for the door. Gina grabbed his arm. “Hey, I thought we were leaving. Where are you going?”
“To kill him,” he growled, but he stopped walking.
Gina smiled and shook her head. Jokingly she said, “That’s bordering on possessive, buddy.”
He scowled because it was. “You’re my friend. Any friend would do that for another friend.” But he didn’t buy it. It seemed like she did.
“Maybe. But I can think of something else friends like us do that’s a lot more fun.” Her eyes were on fire again, but this time it was lust flaring in her gaze and turning him on immediately.
He completely forgot about the pirate, and the brunette. He saw his car coming out of the parking garage nearby, and bent down to kiss her as the valet pulled up in front of them.
He tried to get them home quickly, for her need was as great as his. They hadn’t had sex since Tuesday; they’d been too distracted with their plans for tonight. For them, it was like a lifetime. When Aaron stopped at a red light, Gina unbuckled her seatbelt and knelt on her seat to kiss him stupid. By the time the light turned green, she was back on her butt with her belt in place.
He took the turn onto their street just sharp enough to make the tires protest, then flew up their drive and into his assigned carport. Throwing the car into Park, he reached for the keys to shut the engine off, but didn’t have a chance. Gina was kissing him again, driving her tongue into his mouth forcefully and making his brain go numb.
He felt movement, and thought she’d knocked the car out of Park. After a startled moment, he realized she was putting his seat back as far as it would go. Then she was crawling over the center console and straddling his lap, her dress riding dangerously high on her thighs. She panted loudly as her mouth found his over and over.
Dropping slightly, she ground her center against his erection through their clothes, and Aaron groaned at the contact. Her movements and their location made for a heady mixture. He absently thanked God that whoever had converted the house into apartments had thought to give everyone individual parking bays with high walls so they wouldn’t be seen.
“Gina, let’s go inside,” he said, nipping at her neck and the rise of her breasts.
“No. Here. Now,” she panted, reaching between them to undo his shirt so she could run her hands over his tigh
tly muscled chest.
His head fell back when her mouth found his nipple and her tongue flicked out. He enjoyed it for a moment, then ground out, “Stop that. We have to go inside.”
She lifted her head and shook it, her gorgeous locks framing her face. Then she reached up and gripped the scoop neck of her dress and pulled it down, the stretchy material widening so her shoulders, then her breasts, spilled free of it. The sight of her beautiful nipples so close to his mouth distracted him, and he leaned forward to take one between his lips.
She moaned and reached down to undo his slacks, carefully freeing him from his boxer briefs and stroking him. Though he knew they should go inside, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from rubbing against her as he moved to caress her other breast with his tongue. His hands went to her outer thighs, gripping and squeezing lightly in desperation.
He felt her hands over his, then they moved up, taking her dress with them. He felt her hesitation, figured she was deciding how to get out of her panties without moving away from him. Finally she put her hand between her legs and simply pulled them to the side, then levered up onto her knees and over him, positioning him at her entrance.
The shock of her actions spurred Aaron’s brain just enough. “Wait,” he said hoarsely.
Her eyes glowed like sapphires in the dark as she stared at him questioningly. “What?”
“I don’t have a condom with me.”
A faint smile fluttered briefly over her mouth. “You went out tonight with the sole intent to get laid, and you didn’t bring a condom?”
He shook his head. “It was stupid, I know. But I was planning to bring her back here, and I have plenty in my room.”
She stared at him for a long time. “Are you clean?”
Her question startled him slightly. “Of course, but-”
“Me, too.” Then she tried kissing him again, as if that had settled it.
Forcing himself to do the smart thing, he put his hands on her upper arms and gently pushed her away. “Gina-”
Friends with Benefits Page 4