Rome grinned at her, that piercing on his lip catching her attention. “Because your eyes are all soft and you’re smiling at me instead of looking like you want to crawl under the table.”
“Oh.” Yep, that’d do it.
“You feeling better?”
She nodded and lifted the drink to her lips, taking a small taste. It was strong, but smoother than the shots she’d done. “So are you trying to get me drunk so you can have your way with me?”
He laughed, taking a healthy swig of his own drink. “Nope. Just wanted you to relax a little. You looked pretty tense earlier.”
She was.
“You regretting things?”
“I kinda figured you would be,” she admitted.
He frowned as if she’d said something strange. “Me? Why?”
Elise pulled her hair forward, dragging it across her bad cheek. “Obvious reasons.”
He lifted his pierced eyebrow. “Obvious reasons like . . . what?”
She snorted. “Obvious reasons usually don’t need explaining.”
“I think this one does,” he said slowly. When she went to lift her drink again, he put a hand over her wrist. “Maybe you slow it down on the alcohol a little. You don’t have to drink it all at once. I want you to have a nice, friendly buzz, not get sloppy drunk. That wasn’t my goal here.”
Oh. She put her drink back down.
“Now, tell me why I wouldn’t want to have sex with you.”
For some reason, the knot that usually formed in her stomach was relaxed, and she shrugged and gestured at herself. “This. All this.”
Rome leaned back in his chair. “What’s wrong with all this? I thought it looked pretty damn good tonight, myself.”
He did. Rome always looked good, but tonight he looked dangerously so. She couldn’t stop staring at the piercings on his face that seemed to only make him more attractive, the black inkwork that peeked out from under the collar of his long-sleeved tight black T-shirt, and the jeans that hugged his ass just right. Even his beat-up combat boots looked rugged and masculine and totally, completely Rome. But herself? Dressed up in totteringly high heels and a shirt she’d have never left the store with? “This isn’t me.”
“How is it not you?”
She sighed heavily, leaning forward to prop an elbow on the table and place her chin on her hand. Her hair draped over her shoulder, and Rome leaned in and brushed it back. “I borrowed this stuff from the photo shoot because I wanted to be pretty,” she admitted in a low voice.
“You’re always pretty.” His blue eyes held her captive.
She snorted, feeling loose enough to argue with him. “Bullshit, Rome.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why is that bullshit?”
She glanced around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. When she was satisfied nobody was, she leaned in and drew a circle in the air, focusing on her cheek. “This. And other stuff.”
“Other stuff?” he asked, and he reached out to touch her, brushing his hand over her cheek where the port-wine stain used to be. “Such as?”
She lowered her voice and leaned in. “My body.”
“What’s wrong with your body?”
“It’s crooked. Scoliosis. And I have a scar.” She nodded slowly and gestured. “Great big one.”
His lips twitched with amusement and he leaned in, gesturing that she should move closer. “I don’t know if you noticed,” he said in a low voice, “but I have a lot of tattoos.”
“I noticed.”
“So I think I can handle a scar or two.”
“And I didn’t have any pretty underwear,” she told him sadly. “No girly cute stuff. Never had a reason to buy it before.”
“So . . . you didn’t want to have sex with me because of your scar and because you didn’t have cute underwear?”
Why did it look like he was trying hard not to laugh? She was having a serious conversation with him, darn it. She nodded, trying to give him a haughty look. “These things are important.”
“You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think two shots of Jäger was too much.” He reached for her Crown and Coke. “Maybe I should drink that.”
She held it away from him, and when he raised an eyebrow, she took another sip, giving him a challenging look. “I like how I feel.”
“Oh, I bet you do.”
Gosh, he was so cute when he smiled. He was smiling at her right now, all blue eyes and long lashes and piercings. The septum piercing in his nose gave him a dangerous look, but it was the lip piercing that she found so fascinating. She wanted to touch it, suddenly, and reached forward to graze her thumb over his lower lip. It was so soft, so wonderfully in contrast with the hard metal of the ring. She ran her fingers over it, fascinated.
He took the tip of her thumb between his lips and brushed against it with his tongue.
She sucked in a breath, heat flooding through her body. Oh wow.
“So were those the only reasons you didn’t want to have sex, Elise?” He pulled her hand away from his lip and held her wrist, and began to slowly press nibbling kisses on her palm.
She stared at the sight, fascinated by the tickling motions, and feeling that sexy heat climb through her body again. His mouth on her skin was incredible to watch. “I don’t want to be in another dog party,” she admitted in a low voice. “It hurts too much.”
His fingers tightened on her wrist, just a bit. “I would never do that to you, Elise. I think you’re gorgeous. Incredibly shy, but sexy as hell. And I want you to not be shy around me, because I’m no better or worse than you. I’m just me and you’re just you, understand?”
“It’s hard,” she admitted in a low voice. “No one’s ever wanted me for me before.”
“I know the same feeling.” He pressed another kiss to her palm, his tongue swiping against the heel in a way that made her tingle. “And they’re idiots.”
She smiled.
“That’s better,” he said, nipping at her palm again and then stroking over it with his tongue. “And if you’re not ready for sex quite yet, I’m fine with that. Most people don’t jump right in, you know.”
“I’m ready for sex,” Elise admitted. “I bought condoms at the pharmacy. Ribbed for my pleasure. I’m just a big chicken.”
Rome chuckled. “Fair enough.”