The Bet

by Lily Zante

  But it wasn’t comfortable, sitting with her body twisted inside the car. Sitting close and doing her best to avoid the handbrake. Making out like this wasn’t the most romantic way to end the evening, but when he kissed her, making her body tingle and spark, and crave for more, she soon forgot the discomfort and lost herself in the animal heat of the moment.

  “Do you want to come in?” She wished they had gone to his place instead, and part of her wondered why he hadn’t. Cara would be in, and she would get talking to Xavier, and they wouldn’t have the privacy they’d have had at his place.

  “This is fine, for now,” he said, his hand on her waist, his fingers squeezing her flesh gently. They were face-to-face, breathing in each other, lips nuzzling, and moving over one another. “I don’t want you to think I’m after one thing,” he said, his face somber.

  “I know you’re not after one thing.”

  “How do you know?”

  She shrugged. “I just do.”

  He kissed her again, making her feel those same things again, turning her to liquid heat, as she arched her back anticipating good times. The very thing she had hated Xavier for, the way other girls turned into complete idiots, was the way she was behaving now. He’d touched her intimately, made her come, made her think of that moment over and over again, making her more aroused each time, until she could think of nothing but wanting him more.

  “Please come on in for a while,” she begged, kissing him across his jaw, inhaling his cologne, getting used to it.

  “I can’t.”

  “Can’t?”

  “There’s no rush, is there?”

  “No.” She’d been wrong. So very wrong about him.

  “Maybe when you have a weekend free from exams and coursework, we could go away for a couple of days.”

  “Like where?” Going away sounded like heaven. The only going away she ever did was to go back home, and that wasn’t the most relaxing of places.

  “The Hamptons. We’ve got a place there. I love it. It’s private, but relaxing. I can’t think of any place nicer where we can be alone.”

  Sweet.

  So sweet.

  Chapter 42

  They went out a couple of times the following week. Proper dates. Except that unlike the dates he was accustomed to, he couldn't do anything. Or rather, he wouldn't allow her to do anything for him, but if he didn't come clean and tell her, he was going to make himself ill.

  Isabel Laronde was one of the sexiest girls he had ever met, and the more he got to know her, the more he started to fall for her. Each time, whether they came back to hers, or to his, they would make out, and oh, boy was it tough on his balls, to resist her.

  It had been weighing on his mind, the things he needed to say to her, and this evening, as she lay on her side in his arms, her legs entwined in his, her face resting along his chest, he was waiting for a suitable moment. They’d made out, nothing more, both fully clothed, just lying, and talking.

  “You know that time I asked you about the reports?

  “For Hennessy?”

  “And the others, after? The bar charts I wasn't sure about?”

  “The 3D ones?” she asked, her fingers moving over the ridges of his stomach. He had to keep an eye on that roving hand of hers. It wasn't fair, he knew that. He'd seen her, had touched and explored her, and yet he hadn't allowed her the same. Hadn't even let her see him naked, knowing that the day he did, he'd be unable to walk away.

  “Yes, those.” He cleared his throat. “I have a confession to make.”

  “You're a walking confessional box, Stone,” she still called him that, sometimes, a reminder of where they had come from.

  “I kind of knew how to do those charts.”

  Her fingers settled just above his navel. “You did?”

  Tell her now. Tell her.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why did you say you didn't know?” She propped herself up on her elbow, her dark eyes staring intently into his, her voice softly questioning.

  “Because, at that time,” he replied, clearing his throat again. “I didn't know how to get close to you, and you hated me back then.” The memories of their earlier days rewound and played in front of him. He averted her gaze and focussed on her hair.

  “I wasn’t charmed by you,” she murmured, tracing her finger along the outline of his lips.

  “You weren’t easy to charm.”

  “I was allergic to it,” she giggled.

  “You had reason to be.” He reached out and grabbed a handful of her soft hair, rubbed his thumb around the silky tresses. “So I figured that if I asked you how to do them … it would give you the opportunity to show me. And it would give me the opportunity to get close to you.”

  “Crafty,” she said, reprimanding him with a gentle pinch to his lower lip.

  “Some girls can be won over by champagne and diamonds, but you …” he rolled his eyes, earning a giggle from her. “You were hard work, Laronde.”

  “Any more lies I should know about?”

  Now was his chance. He could feel his heart pounding in his throat. “It wasn’t a lie, it was an excuse to see you.”

  “And you would have needed an excuse, because I doubt that I would have wanted anything to do with you in the early days.”

  “My point exactly. I had to resort to underhanded tactics.”

  “I'd seen you with Savannah’s cousin, as well. Everything I'd heard about you, you lived out.”

  “Yeah. You had good reason to be wary.”

  “I know I did.”

  “I considered myself a stud,” he said, cringing at the reminder.

  “Savannah’s cousin fell for it, and I was so determined not to. By the way, what happened with her that night?” she asked, “You can tell me, and I promise not to judge.”

  “What happened in Kawaya, stays in Kawaya.”

  “Did you sleep with her?”

  That's what she thought?

  “Would you hate me if I did?” He was curious to see how deep her impressions of him went.

  “Why would you care what I thought?” she replied, the playfulness slipping from her voice.

  “I care what you think now and I care what you would have thought then.” He recalled that night, when he'd given in, and was bored, and Kay was there. And how shocked he'd been when Tobias and Izzy walked in on them.

  “What happened in Kawaya, stays in Kawaya,” she reminded him, not giving him an answer.

  “I wasn't sure if you saw,” he said, sliding his fingers out of her hair, and cupping her face.

  “I saw.”

  “We didn't do anything. Tobias turned up and I didn't want to piss him off.”

  “Would you have done something if we hadn't interrupted you?”

  Now she had him. “I was thinking, maybe I could have?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You would have gone all the way with her that night? And you barely knew her? And her being Savannah's cousin, and it being the night before your brother's wedding?”

  That made him sound like a pig.

  He swallowed. “I'm not sure. Probably.”

  “Probably?”

  “I was playing it by ear, and Kay seemed to want to go along.”

  “She did?”

  “She didn’t hide the fact that she liked me.”

  “I wasn't hiding it,” she said, pinching his nose gently. “I really didn't like you.”

  “It took her three seconds to figure out what it’s taken you four months to.”

  “I’m more discerning.”

  “You didn’t even like me a tiny bit?”

  “Not even a tiny, tiny bit.”

  “So you must have thought I was a real asshole, when you saw me and her kissing?”

  “I thought it was so typical of you. Tell me what happened next.”

  “By the time Tobias had finished with me, Kay was nowhere to be found. And for the rest of the time there, she ignored me. She didn't speak to me at all, she barely
even looked at me. It was the same when I saw her a few weeks back.”

  “You saw her?”

  “At The Oasis, she was leaving, and I was going in.” He started at her, searching her face for signs of distrust, unease.

  “And?”

  “And she was not very friendly.”

  “Did you think she would be after the way you treated her?”

  “What did I do?” he asked, shocked.

  “What you did, making out with her, and then dropping her like a hot stone, and then not speaking to her, was despicable.”

  He considered it. “I suppose it was.”

  “No, it was.”

  And he'd been under the impression she'd liked him.

  “Just because a girl pursues a guy, doesn't mean she’s easy. It also doesn't mean she’s going to be okay when you drop her like dirt.”

  “That's why I want to take my time getting to know you.” He cupped the back of her neck and tried to move her face towards his, his lips eager for another one of her kisses. But she kept her head back.

  “I thought you were cheating, when I first saw you. Cara had told me you were already going out with that actress.”

  “I don't cheat. I never have.”

  “But that night?”

  “We had split up. The actress had dumped me. That's why she wasn't at the wedding.”

  “She dumped you?”

  He nodded. “Over the phone. We rowed about a casting she was going to. The producer wanted to interview her in the hot tub, in her bikini.”

  Izzy screwed her face up, looking disgusted. “Is he one of those pervs embroiled in that scandal?”

  “I don't know, but one of the films she was due to start shooting in got delayed, because that producer was a perv.”

  “Sick.”

  “Yes, sick. She didn't see it as that, though. She seemed to think it was something that was normal, and accepted it. She believed she had to go along with it, in order to get the parts.”

  “Poor girl.”

  “She came to see me.”

  “When?”

  “Last month, she turned up on my doorstep in tears.”

  Izzy fell silent.

  “We weren't together then,” he said quickly.

  “And? She turned up and?”

  He tried to remember, tried to think back. “She wanted comfort.”

  Her eyes bore into him, and he thanked his lucky stars he hadn't given in. Hadn't let Gisele tempt him into doing something. Another lie would have been too much to keep from Izzy. “But I told her no.”

  “You told her no?”

  “Don't you believe me?” Because he needed her to.

  “I believe you,” she replied, slowly. “You've been living the life of a monk, or trying to show me that you have.” Her voice turned playful, provocative. “God knows I've wanted to see your goods, Stone.”

  He turned his head away, grinning at the ceiling. “You won't be able to handle it, Laronde.”

  “No?” she asked, a challenge implicit in that one word answer.

  “No.” Jeez. Even having a normal conversation was filled with so much innuendo it was giving him a hard-on. The anticipation, the slow-burn of them getting to know one another, was so much sexier than a quickie with a girl he barely knew.

  “Why don’t you let me see,” she asked, moving her hand down, trying to slide it into his lounge pants.

  He placed his hand over hers, halting her, as he’d had to so many times before, wondering why he couldn't come clean and say what he needed to. Heck, he'd just tried to initiate the conversation with the bar charts and his little white lie, and here they were moments later with her hand trying to snake into his pants.

  On any given day and moment, if the slate was clean, and his conscience cleaner, they'd be having full-on dirty, delicious, mind-numbing sex.

  But he could not go there yet.

  “Why are you being so coy,” she asked, settling her hand on his chest again. A safer zone. “It's not like this is your first time.” Her voice was hard-to-resist, and downright sexy, and he felt a twitch in his pants.

  “Just,” he said, because he couldn’t tell her the truth. “I want to get to know you properly.”

  She leaned over and kissed him then. Her soft lips, sweet and tender, brushing against his. “Awww, that is so sweet.”

  Being in close proximity to her clouded his thoughts. Lying like this on the bed was not the way to have that conversation. It had to be sitting down. Talking. In a position that wasn't conducive to touching, or kissing, or fondling.

  Somewhere like in a church would do it.

  “Well, since you're not going to let me strip you naked and ride you,” she said, very, very slowly, so that each word dropped into his brain and lingered there, “I should get home. I have to finish off something for the online course guy. He's dropped it on me last minute, like he usually does.” She slipped off the bed and smoothed down her clothes.

  Focus on the online course guy, he told himself. Not on her riding you naked.

  He swallowed, slowly rising to standing, both his body and his manhood.

  “Do you need to do his work? You've got so many other jobs going on now.”

  “Only for a few months,” she said. “I've told him, only until Easter. Cara wants to go away to Cancun next month, a bunch of us friends are thinking about it, and I’ve managed to save up a good chunk.”

  His ears pricked up. “You're going to Cancun? Is that for spring break?” He'd heard all sorts of stories about students on spring break.

  “Not for spring break. Earlier. Cara wants to go with a couple of our friends. I'm not so keen, but I'd like to get away. I might go home and see my family.”

  “What about my offer to go to The Hamptons? It still stands, and you can ride me naked there, Laronde.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Now there’s an offer I can’t resist.”

  Because it was her, because he could never be too careful, he wasn’t sure if she was joking or being serious.

  “I don’t want to rush anything with you,” he said, keeping his distance, before she came up to him and tempted him with her touch. “I think it’s nicer to get to know one another slowly.” For a change.

  “I’ll think about it,” she promised, walking up to him.

  “You've got to go home for online course guy, remember,” he told her, as her hands skirted around his waist, and she pressed herself against him, soft, and sweet-smelling, and hard-to-resist. And she was giving him seriously blue balls each time he saw her.

  “Hold that thought, Stone,” she said, leaning up to kiss him, and taking all of his resolve with her.

  ~ ~ ~

  “And to think this was the girl who swore that Xavier Stone was the biggest of all the assholes she’d ever met.”

  Izzy twisted off the top to the liquid eyeliner pen. “People change,” she said, drawing a thin line close to her upper eyelashes.

  “I’m not sure if he changed or you did.”

  Izzy remained silent. She couldn’t answer that question herself. She’d often wondered if she’d been the one who had had preconceived ideas about Xavier, or whether they had both changed slowly, over time.

  “Where's he taking you tonight?”

  “To NYB, The burger bar.” He’d told her he wanted to talk.

  “That loud noisy burger place that your kid Jacob likes?” Cara made a face. “That's not very romantic.”

  “We don't want cheesy romance.”

  “You guys really know how to do romance, don't you? Kids burger place. Next you’ll be telling me Jacob’s coming along.”

  “No.” She grinned at Cara’s reflection in the mirror. They hadn’t told anyone that they were an item. There had been no need to. “We're thinking of going away,” she announced, “around the same time you go to Cancun.”

  “You’re dropping me for him?”

  “Do you blame me?”

  “Not one bit!” Cara cried in glee. “He�
�s taking you away to his private island? In his private jet?”

  “We’re talking about going to The Hamptons. His family has a place there, and he doesn’t have a private jet.”

  “Oh, sweeeet!”

  She found herself looking forward to it. A few days in the Hamptons, just him and her.

  “You'll come back barely able to walk,” said Cara, grinning. “Don’t forget your Guide to the Kama Sutra.”

  “I won’t,” she replied, giving her friend a naughty wink. Cara peered at her closely. “He's had an effect. Definitely had an effect on you.”

  She rubbed blush into her cheeks “No, he hasn’t.”

  “Listen to yourself.”

  “I was joking.”

  “You start going out with Xavier Stone, and you end up sounding like a hussy gagging for sex.”

  “That's what you think.” She put on her barely there nude lipstick and grabbed her bag, before Cara started to ask more personal questions. And Izzy wasn't keen to tell her everything.

  “He's waiting outside,” she said, answering her cell phone on the first ring. “See you later!”

  She rushed out to find him waiting in the car.

  He leaned forward for a kiss. “I’ve just put my lipstick on,” she told him, staring at his lips and holding back. “Yes. I made an effort for you,” she said, in a tone what was intended to sound dismissive.

  “You always look good, even without makeup.”

  “You charmer.”

  “I’m being honest.”

  “I’ll kiss you properly, later,” she promised. At least the BMW was bigger than the Ferrari, and there was more room to move around. Their kissing was more intense, more passionate, more deep. But it wasn't enough.

  She was eager to hear what he wanted to talk about, but soon after they arrived at NYB, the place soon became busier. It seemed like someone’s birthday party, and the noise levels were crazy. Xavier seemed to be on edge.

  “What is it?” she asked. Maybe, the reason he wasn't saying anything was because something was in the way.