shouldn’t know about them. When someone was trying to diet, they were coached to identify their triggers, the things that made them lose control. The more time she spent with Sam, the better prepared she’d be for guys like him. Guys who could make her feel all of the things she was determined to stay away from. She’d recognize them more easily…and could more effectively avoid them. In the future.
That rationalization was working for her. This was good.
She could use Sam like a tutor. And Tease was like the library.
She giggled. Yeah. Exactly like the library.
Sam looked at her with a half-smile. “What’s funny?”
“I feel better already.”
“Better about what?” He was holding her hand.
“Better about the orgasms.”
“Just being with me, huh? That’s pretty good for my ego.” She laughed. “You’ve certainly given me hope.” She lifted the Tease bag and shook it. “Not to mention paraphernalia.”
“Right.” He sounded pained.
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Just Like That
“I have to pay you back,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “This was fun, but there’s no way you should pay for this stuff.”
He squeezed her hand. “I can’t think of anything I would have rather spent that money on.” Somehow she believed him. Which was ridiculous. They’d known each other for seventy-eight minutes. They didn’t even know each other’s last names. Yet he’d bought her the most intimate stuff anyone ever had and knew things about her some of her closest friends didn’t. This was crazy.
And she loved it. Though Sam turned her on more than any man ever had, she had definitely felt the thrill of turning him on as well. It was certainly playing with fire. But she couldn’t help it. She always kept the upper hand in her relationships with men and the look on Sam’s face when she’d asked for a video about oral sex had ensured that she had as much effect on him as he did on her. Which was the only reason she’d let it go on. She suspected that Sam had finally caught on to the fact that she was messing with him but he’d continued playing.
“I do appreciate it. I can’t believe you left your dinner to do this for a stranger.”
“I can have dinner with Ben any time. It isn’t every day I get the chance to help a gorgeous woman find her sexual chi.”
“Do you think I found it?”
“I can’t tell you that for certain unless…”
He grinned at her and Danika felt heat spread…everywhere…as he tugged her closer still.
“Unless?” she asked, knowing full well that this was going to lead to more kissing. At least.
“Unless I give you an exam.”
Images of Sam dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck, looking her over, touching and testing, maybe even the use of stirrups, all floated through her mind and she was confused as to whether she should be nervous or turned-on. “Exam?” she repeated.
“Isn’t that what an instructor does after a lesson to see if the student understands the material?” Ah. An exam . Right. She felt her smile stretch even as anticipation sparkled along her nerve endings.
“You are exactly right…Professor. But I think I might need some more lab time…” she held up the bright blue vibrator, “…before the test.”
Just then a beeping sound erupted from Sam’s waistband. He reached for a pager. “Sorry,” he muttered, looking at the message. “Damn.”
“Everything okay?”
He lifted his head. “I, um…” He glanced back at the pager, then up at her again. “I have a stop I have to make. I would take you back to the restaurant, but I’m on a deadline with this…thing I have to do. Do you mind?”
Prolonging her time with Sam was probably not smart. But she still wanted to do it. “No problem.”
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31
Erin Nicholas
“You’d better call your sisters and let them know where you are. I don’t want them to worry. And in spite of my instructions to the contrary, I
Learning to Kill: Stories