by May Sage
“Well, then he’s going to have to be patient and show her hurting her is the last thing he wants to do.”
Leila turned to look at him, her lips half open, her eyes unflinching.
The words spilled out before he could take them back. “Doing anything for Valentine’s Day?”
She bit her lip and shook her head. “Well, let’s give the lovebirds some space and do something on our own, then.”
The next few seconds lasted an eternity. And finally, finally, Leila replied, “Okay.”
What the hell was she doing? Falling hard and fast, that’s what. Seeing the bottom of the precipice and yet unable to stop the inevitable crash. At least she wasn’t the only one.
“You said yes!” she gasped. There had been no doubt that Vincent would ask Mia out, but Leila wouldn’t have bet on her friend’s response. “That means you’ll officially be on a second date!”
That didn’t happen. Ever.
Mia shrugged, feigning indifference. “He’s pretty to look at, at least.”
“Please.” And because being an adult was overrated, she sang, “You liiiiike him. Vincent and Mia, sitting in a tree…”
From Leila’s bed, where she was lying down, Mia threw a pillow at her head. “Stop the nonsense and show me the damn dress.”
She’d called Amelia to ask her opinion on a dress she might just have bought for her Valentine’s “we might as well go if we have nothing better to do” non-date.
It had been whispering her name from the sales rack. It wasn’t her fault.
The Karen Millen dress was red and asymmetric—shorter in the front, with a train-like feel at the back. Mia just stared and laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just not very non-date, that’s all. In fact, it’s the actual opposite. I’ve never seen a more date-ish dress in my entire life.”
Leila pouted. “But I want to wear it.”
“Then wear it. Just don’t forget to pair it with sexy underwear, and pack condoms.”
She flushed. “What are you wearing, then?”
Not that it mattered; the woman was infuriatingly stunning in anything. Mia shrugged. “Jeans.”
That should have been her answer, given the fact that she was the one pretending not to have a date. Dammit.
She sighed, got changed, and put on some sexy underwear because maybe Mia had a point.
Quinn decidedly didn’t look non-date-ish either. He generally wore suits, but tonight he’d gone for a shiny grey tux and he looked downright delicious. He’d chosen another one of the million grandiose restaurants she could never have afforded and the food was as succulent as the easy conversation. Things seemed so simple between them. And yet, they weren’t.
Putting her fork down, she finally bit the bullet.
“Okay, so what the hell happened?”
They needed to clear the air, dammit.
She didn’t have to clarify her meaning. Quinn seemed glad she’d brought it up.
“A mixture of things. Firstly, the realization that I’d caused the whole thing. Stella’s followers were after you because I made the mistake of pursuing a relationship while being married. It started very naturally, neither of us planned it, but I know none of this would have happened if I’d just asked you on the date on the fifteenth of December rather than jumping the gun.”
Leila scoffed. “You were separated. Because she’d cheated.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps, but perception is important. I couldn’t care less about the mob’s opinion of me, but I should have thought about protecting you from it.”
“I don’t need protecting,” she protested. “I don’t need you at all, in fact. But I might have wanted to have your support after it all went downhill.”
“My support would have created more rumors, more critiques, so I decided to stay away.”
“Without talking it over with me.” It still left a sour taste in her mouth.
“I was going to on the first day. When you didn’t answer, I just figured a break was what you wanted.”
Oh. Well, he had a point. “Besides,” Quinn added, “I had my phone on me the whole time. I changed the ring tone for your profile, to make sure I’d know if you were trying to reach me. If you’d called, I would have answered. As you didn’t, I thought we both needed space to figure things out.”
Another hit. She hadn’t called either. Her anger hadn’t been entirely misplaced but she had to take some of the responsibility, too.
“I’ll be honest, I wanted space. What we had happened too quickly—it was volatile and more intense than anything I’ve ever experienced. I needed to see if it was real, or just a strange reaction to finally finding someone I clicked with after over a year of not dating or seeing anyone. It only took a week for me to miss you like I’d never missed anyone. The day after, I knew. So I bought that ring.” He shrugged. The ring. She hadn’t even begun to compute what he’d thought with that one.
Leila had assumed it was some sort of a boon, a way to buy her compliance. Apparently not.
“It was the worst timing,” he laughed. “And too quick, I know. Don’t worry. I’ll keep it to myself for now.”
For now; as in, he still planned to use it someday. She felt her heart beat so damn quickly. But something had to be said.
“I fucking hate that ring, Quinn.”
He laughed.
“It’s huge. And gaudy.”
“Alright. A ring I’ll never use, then. I guess I’ll buy another one some day. What I’m saying is that, as crazy as it seems, as quickly as it happened, I somehow fell in love with you; and every day, I still fall.”
She was speechless for a time. Then, because she was a nerd and he’d understand just what she was doing, she had to reply, “I know.”
He laughed. “And that’s why you’re perfect for me. I’m happy to take things as slow as you want, though.”
Leila nodded. “Good.” Then she lifted her hand to get a server’s attention. “The bill, please. My man has to get me out of here. Now.”
Epilogue
Turns out, Leila sort of wanted to take things slow. Sort of. They hadn’t stopped kissing, devouring each other in the cab, and then, when they got back to her place, clothes hit the floor from the threshold.
They reached her room and she practically pushed him down on her bed before straddling him. Fuck, she felt so tight, hot and wet around him. He winced, gasped for air, his hands running from her fucking perfect pair of breasts to her hips and holding her.
That’s when she started torturing him, slowly impaling herself on him and languorously moving her hips up and down, front and back. Taking him so deep he was close to losing his damn mind. So fucking good.
The slow shit lasted about five minutes. Then he had to flip her over as she giggled and pound her into oblivion, fast and hard. The giggling morphed into screams of ecstasy. Neither of them lasted the first time. Not even half an hour later, after whispering sweet nothings under the covers, he was hard and ready to make her feel a taste of her own medicine. Hovering over her, he captured her nipple in his mouth and played with it with his tongue, all the while slowly entering her again. He hooked her legs on one of his shoulders and set a rhythm that had her gasping and begging. She cried and scratched his arms as he found, and repetitively hit, a spot that made her lose her shit. Finally, unwilling to torture both of them for much longer, Quinn ran his thumb over her clit and sped up, still angled to get her G-spot at every thrust.
Leila came first, tightening around him and triggering his own release.
They woke up twice through the night; the first time, he opened his eyes to find her mouth around his cock and the second, he slid his dick inside her from the side before either of them were quite conscious.
By morning, he was pretty fucking sure of one thing.
Next time he asked for her hand, she was going to say yes.
The End
A Nerdy Holiday is a Some Girls Do It novella.
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nbsp; You can expect the next novel in the series, Hands off His Dudette, this winter.
