Keep It Sexy (KIS Series Book 3) (11 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Billie

I’m such a spaz. I go from being flirty with him to biting off his head. But it was entirely his fault; I didn’t feel like myself around him. I felt like I was being unraveled and exposed in some way. I stormed out of the living room and basically
ran
down the stairs. I needed a moment to find my bearings and figure out whatever it was that just happened.

“You know, I never know what you’re thinking,” he said. “I thought I was good at reading people, but with you…I never know. So do me a favor, Billie, and honestly tell me what’s going on in your head. Because it seemed like we were playing around. If I made you uncomfortable, I’m really sorry.”

I hadn’t even heard him come down the stairs. I covered my face and mumbled into my hands, embarrassed.

“Billie, I can’t hear you when you cover your face like that.” He chuckled, moving me so I was no longer facing him. He reached over to pull my hands down and wrapped his fingers around my wrists. I didn’t want him to let go and he wasn’t pulling away.

“It was fine, I…I had an emotional moment, I guess.” Christen pulled me to sit on the bed. His thigh pressed against mine. Whether it was done intentionally or not, I wasn’t going to move.

“I’m not gonna lie, Billie, I like you.” It sounded like it hurt for him to say it.

“It’s my prickly personality, isn’t it?” I replied, trying to lighten the mood. Christian chuckled softly before turning his body to face me. I met his eyes just in time to see the regret and need inside of them. His stare turned my stomach upside down and all I wanted to do was climb on his lap.

“Actually, it’s your voice…it does
something
to me.” He leaned in, placing his hand on the bed to stabilize himself. I could smell the warmth of his body and the faintness of his laundry detergent. I leaned in closer. “I feel like tearing the skin off my chest so I can breathe better around you.” His eyes flickered to mine, and I couldn’t see and hear his words without jumping him so I closed my eyes. “I want to kiss you so badly…but I won’t.” I felt a cold sharp stab on my chest, but kept my eyes closed. “We don’t really know each other, you have trust issues, and I’m not ready to take on something more than…what I’m used to.” I opened my eyes as he pressed his forehead against mine. “Okay? We good?” he asked. I inhaled, taking in a rather large breath.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

No, we’re not good. Just kiss me, damn it, fuck being an adult about this.
I prayed he could see it in my eyes. But he didn’t.

“And to make things clear, you could never be a
Hannah
.” With gentleness, he kissed my cheek.

***

We were in his black gargantuan SUV, which he called Big Bertha. Christian asked how my dinner went with my family last night, and if I thought my brothers had anything to do with my tires being slashed. I told him I wasn’t sure. He could tell I wasn’t going to say much even if I knew who did it. Truly, I didn’t know who had done it, and I couldn’t figure out the reasoning behind
why
LCD would have.

“Are you hungry?” Christian asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

“A little,” I replied, looking out the window.

“Great, because I’m starving.” The way he said it gave me the shivers, but I refused to look at him. He chuckled as he turned into a diner a couple of blocks away from Blush. Once he parked, we jumped out of Big Bertha and walked to the front door of the restaurant. Before reaching it, Christian planted his hands on my hips from behind and whispered in my ear.

“They have the best pancakes here.”

My eyes fluttered shut from his closeness, but strangely it also irked me. He was teasing me on purpose. I whipped around and pinched the skin on his chest, hoping I’d grasped his nipple. When he hissed and jerked away, I let go, feeling victorious.

“Open the door,
gentleman
,” I said, waiting for him at the door with my hands crossed over my chest. Christian rubbed his pec with an amused frown and opened the door. As soon as we stepped inside, the hostess smiled hello before looking down to grab the menus. When she did, I felt a smack on my ass. With a gasp, my eyes widened to the size of bowling balls. Christian’s hand lingered on my behind before giving me a gentle squeeze.

“You touched me, now I get to touch you,” he whispered against the back of my neck before gliding his hand across my ass. Just as the hostess snapped her attention to us, his touch was gone. No one was any wiser to the groping session that had just occurred.

“Coming? Bil,” he said, showing off his damn dimples. He and the hostess waited on me. I narrowed my eyes at him as he moved aside, letting me step in front of him.
Yeah, some gentleman
.

“You know you’re going to lose at whatever game you decided we’re playing,” I said once we were seated and reading our menus. Christian lowered his with one eyebrow lifted.

“That
I
started?”

“Yeah,
you
.”

“I didn’t start this, you did.”

“Um, wasn’t your hand all over my ass, not even five minutes ago?” I pointed at the front door with my thumb. Christian leaned forward.

“Didn’t you eye-fuck me back at Jade’s house? Or was I imagining that? Oh, and didn’t you say I was distracting you with my sweat and—”

“I don’t
lose
, Christian.” I cut him off, not needing the reminder of how ridiculous I sounded. “When it comes to games, I always win. It’s what
I
do.” I slowly moved closer to him. I parted my mouth slightly then glanced down at his lips with hooded eyes before my tongue darted. I drew it back in, along my bottom lip. When I noticed his breath became shallow I sat back in my chair and continued to read my menu. “I think I’ll get some pancakes.” He groaned a little before going back to his menu.

“I think you may be the devil in disguise,
chiquita
.”

“You know, I hate nicknames.” I glared, the corner of my lips threatening to curve up into a smile.

“Billie’s a nickname, and that’s what you go as.”

“No, Billie’s my name.”

Christian lifted his head, tilting it to the side. “You forget I have your records. I know all your personal information, Syb—”

“Say it and I’ll stab you with this butter knife.” I gritted my teeth.

“Calm down there, feisty pants.” He wasn’t afraid of me; he chuckled, looking at me like I was crazy. I narrowed my eyes at him when he went back to reading his menu.
Good-looking bastard.

“Stop glaring at me and choose what you’re going to eat,” he said without looking up. I rolled my eyes and did what I was told.
Bossy
good-looking bastard.

Chapter Sixteen

Christian

After loading up on some breakfast I took Billie back to my apartment to shower and relax before we went into work. She had asked if she might use my laptop so she could order some tires while I took a shower. Of course I said it was fine, and when I was done I purposefully came out of the bathroom with just a towel around my waist.

“Hey, I have a hook up at a tire place if you want to check them out,” I said as I rounded the wall of the small hallway into the living room. Billie’s concentrated face looked up from the laptop. Her attentiveness instantly evaporated. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and why I started this little game with her. She wasn’t stupid and she knew that I got the ball rolling when I placed my hands on her hips outside of the diner. I couldn’t help myself, though. Since the night we both worked together and I had her body against mine when we danced, I was finding excuses to touch her. This game was going to make that a lot easier. Billie blinked, setting the laptop on the coffee table in front of her.

“I should leave.” She grabbed her jacket and bag off the floor.

That was not what I was expecting her to say. Shit. I rushed to get to her, forgetting I had to keep a grip around my towel. I threw my hands out to stop her and when I did, it fell to the floor.

“No, Billie, I’m sorry—” I started to say when I felt the coldness hit my now uncovered
area
. Billie stopped dead in her tracks, frozen, like me. The only things that moved were her eyes. And boy did she get an eyeful. They started slowly from my chest and kept going down…until she sharply sucked in some air.

“You’re…naked.”

“Not on purpose,” I rushed to say as I covered my package with both hands. “Le…let me grab my towel.” I was stuttering, suddenly nervous and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like this was the first time I’d been naked in front of a woman, but it felt new in front of Billie. Abruptly, I turned around to grab the towel, which was a few feet away from me. Once it was wrapped around me securely, I turned back to her but couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I didn’t mean for my towel to fall. Honest.”

“But you did intentionally come out here in it, right?”

I watched her moving closer to me.

“I thought you didn’t want this with me?” she said. Finally, I looked into her eyes.

“I don’t, I do. Fuck, I don’t know, Billie.” I slumped down on the nearest armrest, tightening my hold on my towel. She stepped between my thighs and placed her cold hands on my shoulders. I hissed from her touch and how close she was to me. I shouldn’t have, but I gripped her hips and brought her closer. The air around us became palpable. Billie’s stare flicked to my lips and back up to my eyes. Her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips before she spoke.

“I want to kiss you,” she whispered. My fingers dug into her skin. I was afraid I’d hurt her when she whimpered, but when I saw where she was looking, I knew it had nothing to do with my grip, but from my now tented towel. My hands slowly traveled from her hips then fanned on each side of her ass, and I squeezed.

“Then kiss me,” I murmured in a low breath.

Her small hands grabbed the sides of my neck, pulling me to her mouth. The closer we got, the tighter I squeezed. Billie’s breath was shallow, and I knew at this point she’d let me do whatever I wanted to her. I knew if I took off her shirt and sweats she’d let me. But right now all I wanted was to feel her lips against mine. Have her soft curves pressed against me, clothed. The first time our lips touched, it hardly felt like a kiss. She skimmed her mouth from one end of mine to the other, barely touching. I watched with hooded eyes every move she made. When her eyes closed, I shut mine and took over.

My fingers sunk into her skin, and she yelped when she came crashing into my erection. She gripped tighter against my neck and I felt her body become putty in my arms. I kissed her slowly, open mouthed. I wasn’t sure if I could handle the feel of her tongue against mine at the moment. But when her mouth parted, I let go of her ass and took her face in my hands, moving her slightly as I deepened the kiss and swallowed the moan she gave me. Her tongue was lax, wet and so
fucking
sweet. We were both breathing forcefully through our nose when Billie’s hand fell down to touch my stomach. I grunted, taking in a shallow breath, curious and afraid of what her next move would be.

She delicately moved down to the towel, but when my phone rang she stopped instantly. Ava’s custom ring tone seemed to boom in my apartment: “
Christian, pick up the phone, it’s Ava.
”

We thought it would be funny when we first set that up, but right now at this very moment I hated hearing her voice. Billie stepped away from me like I was suddenly made of fire and she had burnt herself. She looked down with two shaky fingers on her swollen red lips.
Fuuuck
, I loathed Ava right now. Billie walked to the breakfast bar where I usually left my wallet, keys, and phone and handed me the ringing monstrosity. With a tight smile, I thanked her and tightened my towel around my body once again before answering.

“Hey, baby,” I answered out of habit, and instantly winced. My attention snapped to see Billie turn her back to me.
I’m an asshole
.

“Hey, Chris, I’m sorry to do this to you again, but I’m feeling sick.” She sounded like shit.

“Ava, you need to go get checked out.”

“Yeah, I know. And I understand if you want to fire me after…after the last conver—”

“I’m not going to fire you, just go get seen, all right?” My tone was harsher than I’d ever spoken to her, but I was angry at her for more than just interrupting what was happening with Billie and I.

“Sure. And…thanks, Chris…for everything.”

“You’re welcome. Feel better.” I didn’t even bother waiting for her goodbye. We were going to be so short-handed today. Jade was off and I didn’t want to call her in, not after the plans she and her husband had. Billie and Claudia were already working. I needed to hire more people, soon.

“She called off again?” Billie asked, bringing me back to the present. I threw my phone on the couch and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“What’s the deal with you two?” she asked. It wasn’t accusing, she was simply curious.

“We’ve known each other since we were in our teens. We messed around until she moved and I hadn’t seen her for a year until recently.”

Billie lowered her head. “You have feelings for her?”

“I loved her.” It was an automatic reply, but I wasn’t sure if that’s how I really felt anymore or if I told myself this so many times I just started believing it. And I wasn’t going to lie to Billie like other men in her life. She didn’t trust easily so I was going to be as forthcoming as possible. Billie glanced up, looking adorably confused and relieved.

“Loved?” Reaching over, I pulled Billie back so she stood in between my legs.

“Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s love anymore.”

The left side of Billie’s mouth curved up a little. “Well, if you’re not sure then maybe it wasn’t love after all.”

I lowered my face to hers and nipped at her bottom lip. “Maybe.”

“What are we doing, Chris?” She breathed heavily while I placed my hands on her ass. I loved how my hands covered her.

“Kissing,” I said in between kisses. She whimpered against my mouth when our tongues moved against each other. She surprised me when she jumped on my lap, careful not to unwrap the towel or…hurt me. She fisted my hair and pulled.

“You know what I mean,” she replied with fire in her voice. I grunted, and when I leaned to kiss her again she pulled on my hair harder. I loved how she was the perfect combination of sass and sweet. Closing my eyes, I rested my forehead against hers as she eased up on her grip.

“I don’t know, c
hiquita
.” I sighed. “Truth, no bullshit?” She nodded against me.

“No bullshit.”

“I like you. A lot.”

“I like you too.” She smiled.

“
But
,” we both said.

“But,” she continued, “If I had a quarter for every time a boyfriend cheated on me, I’d be rich. They all had dark hair, dark eyes, and tattoos, just like you.”

I picked her up while she squealed and sat us down on the couch. I frowned. I didn’t like how she was putting me into this category when she didn’t even know
my
past. When she tried to get off my lap, I stopped her.

“I’ve never cheated on a girlfriend.” I pinched her butt when she gave me a skeptical look. “Honest, I’ve had a few and to the few I’d been faithful. I don’t make it a habit to walk in my father’s footsteps.” Regrettably, she glanced down like she remembered something.

“Let’s just be friends, okay?” She was backtracking. Whatever I said made her remember something. I had a feeling what it was, but I wasn’t going to push it.

“Friends who kiss?” I said playfully, while lifting her chin with my finger. When her teasing stare was back, I smiled and kissed her slowly. Leisurely sucking on her bottom lip.

“You’re bad,” she said against my lips. Smiling wickedly, I gripped the back of her neck and kissed her hard.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,
Sybil
.”