It’s both.
Annabelle still remembered floating home from the prom on a cloud of euphoria. And then crashing back down to earth when she got Ty’s Dear Jane letter. She couldn’t risk that again. This time, she was going to make the climb carefully, checking her footing after every step. It was the only way to be safe. “I’m not like you. I can’t just jump in, hoping for the best. I have to do this slowly.”
Calli opened her mouth like she wanted to object, but then she closed it. She took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time. I only want you to be happy.”
“I know.” Annabelle took a scone from the bag, but the sugary scent turned her stomach.
Calli was watching her like a doctor who knew her patient’s diagnosis was terminal but was waiting for the nurse to break the news. Why was Calli worried about her? She wasn’t going to do anything stupid.
She forced herself to take a bite of the scone. “Enough about me. Tell me all about your dinner last night.”
Calli gave her the play-by-play of her dinner with Edward, and Annabelle did her best to nod and smile in the right places. If Calli was going to worry about anyone, it should be herself. She was the one risking her heart for a billionaire who lived half a world away.
Annabelle wasn’t going to take any more chances. She’d already learned her lesson.
*
By the time Calli left, two scones later, Annabelle had learned more than she ever wanted to know about Prince Edward Bernard Wallace IV. Calli had only been out with the man twice, and she was already in full-blown, head-over-heels infatuation. The mere idea of letting herself fall for someone so quickly gave Annabelle heart palpitations.
Her phone played the opening riff from Satisfy Me—Ty’s text tone—and she heard Calli’s voice inside her head. You gave Ty a custom ringtone?
Whatever. It was no big deal. Most of her friends had custom ringtones.
Okay, some of her friends. Ty was a good friend. That was all.
She picked up her phone.
Lesson Plan 3: Dinner at your place. I’m cooking.
This I have to see, she texted back.
I’ll be there at 6. Prepare to be amazed.
She couldn’t help smiling. If there had ever been a single thing that worried Ty, she hadn’t seen it.
Calli’s voice invaded her head again—I’ll bet you smile every time you think about him.
Her lips turned down at the corners. She didn’t smile every time she thought about him. She certainly hadn’t that first day in class. Though, lately…
She stopped the thought right there. She didn’t have time to freak out when Ty was coming in eleven hours to cook for her.
The idea of him chopping and sautéing was sexy enough. The reality would probably set her entirely-too-sensible underwear on fire.
With a purely physical attraction that meant nothing beyond sexual compatibility.
And what about after? What about when you’re cuddled together, and he starts talking about his family or his injury or what you mean to him?
Her heart thudded dangerously.
She flashed back to Ty’s expression last night as he’d talked about his injury. It had been impossible to stay closed off when he’d been so open with her. When he’d told her he needed her, the words had burrowed through her protective shell. Even now, she could feel them inside her. Dangerously close to her heart.
Crap.
Calli was right. Annabelle was falling for Ty.
She wasn’t in love with him yet, but she was heading there fast. And now Ty wanted to cook for her—an act that positively screamed relationship.
Another few nights like the last, and she’d be as head over heels for Ty as on prom night. It was happening too fast. She needed to put some distance between them. Give herself time to start thinking rationally.
This evening had to be the final lesson.
She would have sex with Ty. Tonight. That way, even if things didn’t work out between them, at least she’d know if she had a chance at a normal romantic relationship.
She shot out of bed. In eleven hours, she would know. Only eleven hours to go.
She paced the apartment in her pajamas, but no sooner had she entered a room than the off-white walls closed around her. She needed a distraction. Not to mention that she was late for work.
She grabbed her keys.
No. Bad idea. She couldn’t go into lab while her heart was doing gymnastics inside her chest. She’d make some stupid mistake that ruined her last three weeks of research.
Better to stay home until she calmed down.
She found herself back in her bedroom. The bookcase she’d bought last month was still sitting in its cardboard box, waiting to be assembled.
Mindless busywork—perfect.
She inserted metal fastener pins into predrilled holes and made sure plywood flaps were flush until her mind was wonderfully blank.
This was better than yoga. Maybe she should start a new branch of meditation: quiet your mind with furniture assembly.
Brrring.
Her heart rate went from hypnotic-trance to heart-attack in less time than it took to identify Liv’s ringtone.
She’d ducked two of her family’s calls yesterday morning during Human Sexuality lecture, two more while she was in lab, and another two while getting ready for her lesson with Ty. Another few hours and they’d probably send out a search party.
Heaving a sigh, she swiped her finger over the talk button.
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone? I’ve called you, like, six times. Tell the truth, Annabelle—are you holed up with that hottie I met at Hannigan’s?”
Annabelle dropped the crescent wrench on her bare foot.
She hopped up and down, running through a mental list of all the curses she never allowed herself to say out loud, until she could answer her sister in a normal tone of voice. “What do you think?”
“I think you were probably working overtime in that dark, smelly lab.”
“There you go.”
Liv sighed. “You can’t blame a girl for trying to make her sister’s life more interesting. Are you at least making some kind of genetically engineered Frankenbeast or trying to alter the space-time continuum?”
“Actually, I’m trying to classify wing shapes in damselflies so that we can study the way that correlates to genotype. For each fly, I have to digitize twelve landmarks on the wing by—”
“Stop,” Liv begged. “You’re depressing me. At least tell me there are some hottie lab techs helping you digitize.”
“Nope. No hottie lab techs.”
“You need to get out more. Meet some people.”
Annabelle flashed onto Ty’s face. She was going to have sex with him in less than eleven hours, and she hadn’t even changed her sheets.
She tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear, and grabbed a clean set from the closet. “I’m…uh…trying to concentrate on my research right now.”
“You’re graduating in three months. And then what?”
As Annabelle stripped the dirty sheets off her bed, her brain supplied a helpful montage of images. There she was at the beach with Ty. Now they were sharing a decadent chocolate torte at a Paris cafe. And, finally, cuddling on the couch in front of a fire. “And then I’ll get a job.” She pulled the new sheet onto her mattress. Thank goodness Liv couldn’t see her. “Speaking of which, did you ever schedule that interview for the data-entry position at the SDU Admissions office?”
There was a long silence.
“Not yet,” Liv said, finally. “But I will. First thing next week.”
Normally Annabelle would have been all over that obvious lie, but right now she just wanted to get off the phone before Liv somehow read her inappropriate thoughts from the tone of her voice. “Well, I’ve got to go. I’m late for work.”
“Sure. Oh, wait. I’m supposed to remind you about brunch—”
“Tomorrow morning at Dario’s,” Anna
belle finished. “I know. Mamma has only reminded me five times already.”
“You have to admit, you’ve been acting weird. The parental units think you’re stressing about your research, but I, of course, know the truth.”
“What truth?” The clean floral sheets loomed threateningly in Annabelle’s peripheral vision. She forced herself to approach them.
She could do this. She slept on this bed every night. So what if Ty might happen to be there?
“About your recent sexual obsession. Admit it—you’re thinking about sex right now.”
“No I’m not!”
“How are you such a terrible liar? Seriously. Did you learn nothing from me?”
“Fine. So what if I am thinking about sex? It’s a natural, biological phenomenon that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Liv laughed. “Jeez, Annabelle. Really? I was joking.”
“Well, don’t.” Annabelle collapsed onto the bed. She had a sudden vision of Ty over her—the fervent interest that would change to resigned boredom when he realized that, despite his best efforts, she wasn’t going to have an orgasm.
She sprang back like the sheets had attacked her. How was she going to get through this?
“Annabelle? Are you still there?”
She took a deep breath. “I need some advice.”
“Really?”
Years of conditioning told her to stop right there, but what choice did she have? Liv might not be able to hold down a job for more than six months, but she liked sex enough that she’d been doing it ever since she lost her virginity at age fifteen, even when she’d had to sneak out of the house, risking Papa’s wrath. “That hottie at Hannigan’s? The reason we haven’t hooked up yet is that I have…sort of a problem.”
Liv sucked in a breath. “Like, chlamydia?”
“No! Of course not.”
“Gonorrhea? Because if you go to the free clinic for antibiotics, you don’t even have to give them your real name. You can—”
“I don’t have an STD!”
“Oh.” Liv sounded mildly disappointed. “Then what is it?”
“I-can’t-have-an-orgasm.”
“Please tell me you did not say what I thought you said. Because that is so much worse than chlamydia.”
“Thanks, Liv. I really appreciate the support. I’m going to go stick my head in the oven now, so if you’ll excuse me—”
“No! Wait! I’m sorry. I’m just not used to you asking me for advice. You blew my mind.”
“Well, put it back together, because I need help.” Annabelle forced herself to go on. “I know all the…you know…equipment is working, because I can do it myself, but I’ve never come with a guy.”
“That’s because you haven’t been hooking up with the right ones. CJ might not have been Mom and Dad’s favorite person, but he did know exactly where to find my clit.”
There was a visual she could’ve gone forever without seeing. “Liv!”
“What?” Liv asked, all innocence. “It’s important to talk about these things. Show your hottie exactly where—”
“It’s not that simple, okay? Christian tried. He really did. But I couldn’t relax.”
“Well, there you go. All you need to do is relax.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. And how do you suggest I do that?”
There was a beat of silence. And then Liv’s voice, uncharacteristically serious. “The first thing you do is lay it all out for Ty. Tell him exactly what you told me. Then he’ll know to move slowly. And that, even then, it might not happen the first few times. So the pressure will be off both of you.”
“You really think that’ll work?”
Annabelle could practically hear Liv’s shrug. “If it doesn’t, there’s always tequila.”
CHAPTER 10
ANNABELLE TOOK ONE last bite of penne, trying not to stare at Ty on the stool next to her. It was a lost cause. Even with her eyes fixed on her plate, she still saw him, like his afterimage had been burned into her retinas.
Her heart thrashed like a beached whale. She cleared her throat. “Thank you. Arriabbiata sauce is my favorite.”
“I know.”
Her heart stopped for a second, then started back up, beating even faster. She’d ordered the spicy pasta dish at Ristoranti Avanti, when she and Ty had stopped for dinner before prom, but that had been so long ago she’d never have guessed he remembered. Maybe she hadn’t given him enough credit. Maybe that night had been as important to him as it had been to her.
“You practically inhaled it.”
“Right.” Her face went as hot as the leftover sauce simmering on the stove. This is what happens when you jump to conclusions.
It was a good thing she was calling off their lessons after tonight. Otherwise, who knew what kind of trouble she’d get herself into.
“Don’t be embarrassed. If you were eating delicately, I’d worry that my cooking was shit. And you don’t want to give me a complex.”
“No. We certainly wouldn’t want that,” she muttered.
Ty had looked so comfortable slicing vegetables and sautéing garlic that even the memory of it ignited dangerous fantasies. Like the one where he was equally comfortable making her breakfast after a night in her bed.
“What’d you say?” Ty wanted to know.
“Nothing.” She shook her head, trying to get rid of the image of Ty in front of the stove, wearing nothing but boxers and bed head. “I was thanking you. Again.”
She would let him spend the night, but there would be no breakfast tomorrow morning. Even if she wasn’t booked for family brunch, she needed to take this slowly. Back in high school, she’d planned an entire life for the two of them after a few kisses, and when she’d learned Ty didn’t see the same future, it had broken her heart. This time, she was going to stay firmly rooted in reality. She’d start by finding out how compatible they were in the bedroom.
She shifted in her stool, unable to find a comfortable position. Ty sure wasn’t having that problem. He was sprawled on the straight-backed stool like it was a beach lounge chair, sipping his wine.
He eyed her nearly empty glass. “You want more?”
“No, thank you.“
“What about port? I brought some port.”
Forget the port, let’s screw. She chugged the rest of her wine, but the words still refused to come out of her mouth.
“Port sounds good,” she heard herself saying. “Let’s drink it on the couch.”
That should do it. Surely once she and Ty were sitting side-by-side on her tiny couch instead of two feet apart at the kitchen counter, he’d remember that his lesson plan for the evening included more than dinner and drinks.
“Your wish is my command.”
She sat down first. He sat next to her, close enough that when he leaned forward to put his glass on the coffee table, his thigh brushed hers.
Her nerve endings hummed. That’s more like it.
He leaned back against the cushions like he was settling in for a long chat. “This is nice.”
“Mmm,” she managed, even though her skin was crawling with impatience.
“Are you sleepy?”
“No!” The last thing she needed was Ty taking off so she could get some rest. “I’m not tired at all. Actually, I’m wide awake.”
“Well, in that case…” His arm found her shoulders, but it didn’t go any farther. “Want to go for a walk?”
She tried to arrange her features into a sultry expression, but it was hard to know if she was doing it right without a mirror. “No thank you.”
“What about a game? Bet I kick your ass in Monopoly.”
“I’m not in the mood for Monopoly.”
“Some music? I know you love Amber Watts, but I found this new indie band that’s gonna change your life. I think I can hook my phone up to your stereo.” He ducked behind the wooden cabinet that held her electronics, muttering something about connectors, while frustration built inside her. How had she messed up sultry so
badly?
“Ty?”
“Do you have a USB cord?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what it looks like, or you don’t know if you have one?”
“Either. Both.”
“The end of it is a flat, rectangular—”
“I don’t want to talk about USB cords! I don’t want to listen to music or play a game or go for a walk or sit on the couch and drink port.” The frustration that had fueled her tirade abruptly ran out.
She had Ty’s attention, that was for sure. He was staring at her like there was a spotlight trained on her face.
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to have sex.” She wasn’t sure who was more surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth—her or Ty. His eyes glazed over, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
That was good. If he was distracted, he wouldn’t question why she’d suddenly changed the rules. He’d take her to the bedroom and—
“But we’re not… This is only lesson three.”
“I know. But I’ve always been a quick learner. I get bored if things move too slowly.”
His gaze honed in on her, clear and focused now. “So I’ve been boring you?”
“No. Not exactly. I only meant…” She sucked in a breath. “I can’t keep doing this. I can’t be this close to you for much longer without getting emotionally involved.”
“Newsflash, sweetheart. We’re already emotionally involved. You can either woman up and see where this goes or cut and run—and then we’ll never know. So what’s it gonna be?”
His gaze was a blazing inferno. She waited for him to kiss her—to take the choice out of her hands—but he didn’t move.
And she knew. If she really wanted this, she was going to have to say it. Nobody was going to do it for her.
Her heart fluttered like it had forgotten the proper way to beat.
She cleared her throat and leaped off the edge of the cliff. “I want to see where this goes.”
She was in the air, falling, falling.
“Thank God.” Those low, husky words caught her right before impact.
Ty swung her into his arms.
She yelped. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to bed.”
Love and Learn (Voretti Family Book 2) Page 11
