Page 18 of Score
“Wow.”
“My whole family’s preachers, singers, choir directors. They all sing and play. Most of them don’t even read music. I think I was maybe three when I started playing piano by ear, like just picking up songs I’d hear.”
“So youarea prodigy. Petra said as much.”
“When did she say that? When the two of you plotted to bring me home for a threesome?” He quirks a brow, and I can’t tell if, now that the sheets have cooled, he finds it funny or offensive.
“We didn’t plot anything,” I answer, the words coming out stilted. “Well, I didn’t. I had no idea what she had in mind until she whispered it in my ear tonight.”
“So you didn’t think I’d come?”
I hesitate before shaking my head. “Not really. We had a bet about you showing up, but… I didn’t know what she was thinking. No one ever does.”
“What was the bet?”
“Um, well.” I fiddle with the belt of Petra’s robe, sliding the strip of satin between my fingers. “Petra bet that you would show up and I bet that you wouldn’t.”
“You thought I wouldn’t come?”
“I mean… why would you? You and Petra don’t usually socialize in the same circles.” I shrug. “I didn’t see much reason for you to show.”
“Hmmm,” he grunts, not offering further comment.
“And I really wanted my laundry done for a month.” I pause to scowl at him. “Thanks a lot. Now I’m washing and folding Petra’s shit for the foreseeable future.”
“Laundry?” His brows lower, but his lips twitch. “You had laundry riding on me not showing?”
My smile breaks free as soon as I detect the humor returning to his eyes.
“What can I say? I love cleaning, but hate doing laundry.”
“That was really unfair of Petra to con you like that when she knew I would come.”
“How could she know?”
He doesn’t reply, just stares back at me like the answer should be obvious. His eyes make a slow journey down my body, barely covered by the thin robe. My nipples pebble beneath the silky material, beneath that heated perusal, and I shiver, despite the apartment still feeling too warm.
“I turned down a paying gig to come here tonight,” he finally offers, his voice low and his eyes set on my face unwaveringly. It feels like a confession, as naked as we were between Petra’s sheets.
“Why would you do that?” I whisper, the words almost strangled in the tightness of my throat.
He pushes off the opposite wall and crosses the tiny distance between us. When he cups my jaw, it sends my thoughts careening back to the way he held my face while I sucked his dick. His thumb brushes over my lips and they open on a heavy panting breath. He drops his forehead and presses it against mine.
“For you.”
His breath mists my mouth, but he doesn’t push into a kiss. He is a line of restraint, his hand on my face and our foreheads pressed together, the only places our bodies connect.
“I had to see you again, Verity. I didn’t plan to do anything. I didn’t want to steal Petra’s girl. I had no idea she had that in mind, but I’ll be damned if I’mma complain about the best blow job of my life.”
It takes everything in me to keep my feet flat to the floor; to not tip up on my toes and find out how he tastes. He kissed my breasts and my pussy as if I were a condemned man’s last meal, but according to Petra’s wishes,wenever kissed.
“Would you want…” I gulp, lowering my eyes to the floor becauselooking at him feels like too much. “Maybe we could, ya know, do it again sometime.”
I can’t believe I said that. As much as I was thinking it, feeling it,hopingit, I cannot believe I released those words out into the wild. It’s quiet for too long, for so long that I finally gather the nerve to look back up at him. All traces of humor have disappeared, and his expression is somber, his full lips pulled into a flat line.
“I don’t think that’d be wise,” he says, his tone quiet and final.
I hesitate and twist one bare foot behind my ankle. “I wasn’t saying… Well, you heard Petra. We have an open relationship. She could be with us… or not. It wouldn’t be cheating or anything. I mean—”
