The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (38 page)

A silent beat passed between us, everyone in the room obviously holding their breath. I didn’t want to fight my friend to get to Susan—but I would. And Ryan understood that. Valuing our friendship as much as I did, he relaxed and chuckled. “All right. Good luck, my friend,” he said and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll need it.”

I nodded, unclamping my fists in my pockets.

“Come on, everyone,” Winter shouted, pulling his girlfriend up from the couch. “Let’s give the kids some privacy.”

The entire soccer bunch followed him out of the room. From the look on her face and her twitching muscles, Susan wanted to, as well, but I stepped in front of her before she could get off the pool table. One of the others had the decency to shut the door behind them. Good. We were finally alone, and I had Sue right where I wanted her.

Next to her on the table stood a half-empty champagne flute. I moved it out of the way and planted both my hands flat on the green felt on either side of her hips.

“Let me go, Chris,” she complained. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

When I was finally eye to eye with the girl that had me kept at arm’s length for weeks? No, I didn’t think so. “You’re not going anywhere until we’ve sorted this out. I don’t care if you’re my friend or my
girl
friend when you leave this room again, but you’re going to stop acting like I ruined your life. And you’ll stop it right now.” Lowering my voice just a dangerous bit, I added, “Are we clear?”

Susan’s eyes grew wide with surprise, then they narrowed to angry slits. “You’re hardly in a position to give me orders.” She slid off the pool table, but with my hands still braced on either side of her, she didn’t get far. In the cage of my arms, her body pressed flush to mine and—oh, the pleasure of it!

I didn’t budge an inch, only arched one challenging brow. “Am I not?”

For the length of three seconds, she obviously considered her options. They were quite limited. Her face glowing red with rage, she eased herself back onto the table and scooted as far away from me as she could. It didn’t matter. I only had to lean forward a couple of inches and our noses would touch.

A sneer crept to my lips. “Good choice.”

When she folded her arms over her chest and remained silent—apart from a sulking snort—I went on, “Listen. You had every right to be angry at me. You were right to yell at me, and I even deserved the slap. Though I wish you had chosen a private moment for that.” At the mortifying memory, I rubbed my neck, suddenly incapable of holding her gaze. “The guys will never let me live it down.”

“You’re embarrassed because I slapped you in front of them?” she snapped.

I nodded and lifted my eyes to hers.

A cynical imitation of my former sneer rode her lips. “Good. So you know how I felt when you ratted me out.” Her voice rose. “In a full cafeteria!”

Yeah, it probably wasn’t the best place to choose to corner her. I’d learned that the hard way. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t think the situation would escalate. I just wanted you to listen and understand.”

“You want me to understand? Then why don’t you try it first?” She made an effort to calm herself and took a deep breath, speaking on in a more controlled voice, “Can you imagine how it feels to know I told you all those private things about
you
when I thought you were Ethan?”

I frowned. “Why is that such a problem for you? It’s not like you told me some weird fantasies you had of me that day.”

Whatever it was that I’d just said, it triggered her flush, and this time it was really bad.

“No, I just told you about the most personal moment of my life. My very first kiss, ever. With
you
.”

“And I told you how amazing that was for
me
. So what?”

Her shoulders sunk a little, and her voice grew smaller. “I told you about the butterflies that came with your texts.”

Now I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning. It was always about the butterflies, wasn’t it? “And I’ve never heard anything sweeter than that, I swear.” The truth was, I felt quite special because of it.

I’d thought she’d reached the maximum level of embarrassment before, but obviously, I was wrong. Susan slammed her hands over her face to hide from me as she whined, “And then I practically said I wouldn’t sleep with you because you’re a womanizer.”

Since she couldn’t see me, I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that hurt a little.” Then I gently pried her hands away from her face and made her look at me. “But in the end, it only made me fall for you harder. I wanted to be that special guy for you. Still want to be. Sue—” I reached out and stroked her cheek, because if I couldn’t feel her right this second, I would die. “For me, you’d never be a simple go-to girl.”

“You don’t understand.” Even though she shook her head and sighed, she didn’t slap my hand away. “You were never meant to hear those things. That’s just wrong.”

So the whole problem wasn’t the lying and deceiving, but that she’d told me the truth? I fixed her with a stare of sheer bafflement. “This is what it was all about? You were just feeling embarrassed because you confessed some silly things to me?”

Pouting, she moved her chin away from my touch and scooted a little farther back on the pool table, adding another few inches of annoying distance between us. “You find them silly. To me, they’re very serious.”

“I know they are,” I stated quickly. Heck, I hadn’t meant silly in the sense of…yeah, silly. All these things were as important to me as they were to her. I hadn’t slept with any other girl since the day we met, nor did I want to look at anyone but her anymore. She was the only one I wanted…in every possible way. Only, she didn’t seem to understand that yet. “You actually gave me a great deal to think about,” I told her honestly.

She made a wry face and snorted, her doubts quite obvious. Did she really think that was all I wanted? To get her in my bed? I cocked my head, imitating her look of disbelief. “That is
not
what I was thinking about.”

“It doesn’t matter if it made you think or not,” she muttered.

This girl was driving me crazy with her stubbornness. Bracing my weight on the table and my head hanging between my shoulders, I growled through clenched teeth, “Tell me
what
matters, Sue, because I really don’t know how to set this right with you.”

A silent moment passed. Susan started wringing her hands in her lap. “You tricked me that day. All evening you lied to me, and that left me completely exposed. You know about all my feelings. And I know nothing about yours.”

Hands still placed on the table’s edge, I lifted my head and frowned at her. “Are you kidding? From the day you walked into our kitchen and let me feed you that kiwi, I couldn’t have been more obvious how I felt about you. How very much I wanted
us
to be exclusive. Do you think I lied to you every time I talked to you? Or in all those texts I sent?”

Her lips trembled a little. “Not exactly lying, but you made it clear I was nothing but your next trophy.”

“Did I? When?” I straightened and crossed my arms over my chest in self-defense. “When I gave you that hickey and afterward covered it with my bandana for you so no one would ask silly questions? Or when I kissed you while we were alone and didn’t mention it to anyone because I thought you wouldn’t like that? And believe me, that was one helluva kiss I’d have loved to brag about.” I remembered how she’d told me—when she thought I was Ethan—that
Chris
would probably think it was a godawful kiss.
Oh so wrong, baby.

Susan swallowed, and her lips parted, but no word came out.

Again I needed to feel her, assure her with a simple touch, so I reached out and stroked my fingertips over her silky cheek. With our gazes locked, I asked her in a much softer tone, “Or did I treat you like a
trophy
when you let me comfort you after your parents’ breakup? Is that really what you think I had in mind?”

Seemingly at the end of her tether, Susan rubbed her hands over her face and moaned sweetly. “I don’t know what to think anymore.” Well, even if she didn’t know, I did. Everything was pointing at one fact. That we had fallen in love with each other. And her denying it wouldn’t make it any less true.

Suddenly Sue stiffened, jerking her hands away from her face. Horrified, she stared at her open palms. What she saw there was probably the same thing I saw underneath her lips. A pink smudge from her accidentally rubbing off her lip gloss. Embarrassment turned her cheeks red. As she frantically wiped her chin in the totally wrong place, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

I took her hand and moved it away from her face, then I dragged my thumb, deliberately slow, across the tiny stain underneath her bottom lip. Susan sat rigid, staring at me with wide eyes.

“There, all gone,” I said, rubbing the smudge that was now on my finger off on my pants. And with a soft smile, I added, “I like you better without makeup anyway. You’re a natural beauty.”

Susan lowered her gaze. For some reason, she didn’t take compliments very well; they made her bashful. But now was not the moment to be shy. With my knuckle under her chin, I tipped her face up and leaned in a little closer. The mouthwatering smell of her skin got to my head, making me think of only one thing I longed to do in this moment. “And here’s a secret,” I whispered. “Kissing glossed lips is annoying as hell.”

I didn’t give her time to retreat but placed a brief kiss on her mouth. Susan drew in a shocked breath. Oh God, was it too much? Foreseeing another slap in the face, I ducked my head and squeezed my eyes shut. Every muscle in my body tensed, bracing for the sting of her hand on my cheek.

It never came. The sound of Sue’s giggle made me inch one eye open. “You’re not going to slap me?”

Sitting in the same spot instead of leaning away from me, she cracked a sweet smile. “I don’t think so, no.”

“Good.” A relieved breath escaped me, and I straightened, my heart breakdancing with joy. We’d finally made it past the anger. Sue had let me in—but that chaste kiss wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Now. And from her burning gaze, maybe she wanted it, too. Filled with longing and unbreakable confidence, a smirk pulled up one side of my mouth. “Can I do it again?”

Her answer shocked me—in the best possible way. Smiling widely, she reached out and wrapped my tie around her fist, pulling me closer to her. Heck, at least the damn thing was good for something tonight.

Going crazy with anticipation, my gaze jumped back and forth between her eyes and her lips. “I believe that means yes,” I drawled and ran my thumb slowly over her lips to wipe away the rest of the gloss. When we were going to kiss this time, I wanted to taste the real Sue and not some synthetic goo that ruined the flavor.

Impatience gripped me. With my thumb still at the corner of her lips, I closed the last two inches between us and pressed my mouth on hers. She was soft underneath me, and oh so responsive. Gently, I sucked on her bottom lip, but then our kiss deepened fast. All barriers fell. Still gripping my tie, Susan dragged me closer. A moan of pleasure escaped me as I ran my tongue in slow, delicious circles around hers, teasing every little bit of it. A hunger for her that had been building over weeks broke loose. I wanted to be as close to her as possible, which the gentle kiss didn’t even begin to cover.

My hand moved from her heated cheek to the back of her neck. I pulled her against me, claiming her mouth with a fierceness that was new even to me. Susan opened her thighs so her knees no longer pushed against my legs. She let me stand between them and, wrapping her arms around my neck, she held on tight. Her cold fingers on my skin triggered a shiver down my spine, the sensation adding to my pleasure.

I chuckled and, not entirely breaking the kiss, murmured, “We really need to do something about that sometime.” Reaching behind my neck, I took her hands in mine to warm them and moved them behind her back. This way, I dragged her closer and lifted her the inch up onto the side of the table. Trapped in my arms, Sue straightened as much as she could to meet each of my hungry kisses. Damn, here was the proof she needed—we were epic together.

Still half-kissing her, I whispered, “Say yes.”

Susan’s eyes fluttered open. Our foreheads touching, her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breath. “To what?” she croaked.

I inched back so I could look her straight into her eyes. A tiny smile of hope curved my lips. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Of all the things she could have said and done then, Sue hesitated. Tense with anticipation, I moved her hands to the front and held them tight in her lap. Could she say yes faster, please? Her reluctance was killing me.

To assist her with this apparently hard decision, I started nodding and raised a suggestive eyebrow.

There! A smile. She cracked a smile! That was a good sign, right? She would say yes. Oh please, God, make her say yes. And then, very slowly, Susan began to mirror my nodding.

I swallowed hard and expelled a long breath. “Dammit, girl, you know how to put a guy on the rack, don’t you?”

She giggled. “You totally deserved—”

Yeah, whatever. Cupping her face in my hands, I silenced her with another yearning-filled kiss. I’d been waiting too damn long for this, and talking was not on my list of things to do right now.