or Rhys would be. If you could just do me this favor…” Horror overcame her. “I mean, you kissed me once. I know it didn’t mean anything but— well, the idea— it doesn’t—well, gross you out, does it?”
“What? Of course not.” But he was looking panicked now. His hand moved to rub the back of his neck. “It’s just, I don’t want you thinking there’s anything wrong with you. You’re just, you’re just—”
“An amateur?” she suggested.
“Well, I was going to say selective, but given the men you’ve chosen, you obviously haven’t been picking from the cream of the crop.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Please. I’ve met the guys.”
“They were all smart. Influential. Okay, so they’re not tall and handsome and fly to London to perform for the Queen, but—”
“They were pansies. And it sounds like this guy you want to bang is a pansy, too.”
“He is not a pansy. And the others were just uninspired.”
“Melina—”
She shook her head. “Tell me the truth. You go for experienced women. Women who know how to please you in bed.”
“Well, sure, but—“
“In the insect world, bugs mate for one reason and one reason only, because they get something out of it. I want a mate, Max. I want to know how to keep one. So, if it doesn’t disgust you to be with me, can you please do me this favor?”
He seemed to think about it. “Why me? Why not Rhys?”
Because I’m not safe with Rhys, she thought. Not the way I am with you. With Rhys, assuming that he would even agree to it, it wouldn’t be about simple biology, learning positions and technique, or walking away when the session was over. With Rhys, she’d lose herself. She’d start believing in unicorns and flying dragons and mutual passion leading to life-long happiness. She’d want more than she could have. “Why Rhys and not you?” she hedged.
“Come on, Melina. We both know that of the two of us, I’m the bastard. I’m the, the—”
“Man whore?”
He cleared his throat. “Again, I was going to say least discriminating.”
“Be that as it may, you’ve never left me hanging just so you could get laid.” She held up her hand. “I know you’re always trying to make excuses for Rhys’s behavior that night, but it was lame. And you were there for me, just like you’ve always been. If that’s not enough reason, the fact that you have the most experience is another point in your favor, right?”
He looked at her oddly. “Quantity doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. Believe me, Rhys knows what he’s doing.”
The image of Rhys doing anything to her made her nerves tingle in interesting places and had her thighs clenching together. “Look, are you going to do it—” Do me , she amended internally “—or not?”
“I’ll ask again. Why me?”
“Because I trust you.”
“And?”
“Because you’ll be nice. During. And afterward. At least, I thought you would. Now I’m not so sure,” she said pointedly.
“Sex with me isn’t nice, Melina. Sex done right isn’t nice at all.”
She swallowed hard. It had suddenly gotten hot in here. “So show me.”
“What if I say no?”
“Then I’ll find someone else.”
“Rhys?”
“Argh! What is your obsession with your brother? Is this some kind of weird kinky twin thing? Do you want me to say his name when we’re doing it?”
“No,” he said, obviously struggling for patience. “I want you to tell me who you’ll go to if I say no.”
She shrugged.
“What’s that mean? You’d just do it with some stranger?”
“Haven’t you?”
Fascinated, she watched him turn red. “We’re not talking about me. And you’re talking about this as if it’s one of your damn experiments. You can’t just decide you want to be a sex diva and ask me to teach you how, Melina.”
“Actually, we are talking