Forcing myself to think of baseball, cooking shows, or even a burning building is the only way to will away the erection that threatens as she adjusts my shorts. The shock of the ice cold peas helps, too. But her nearness, her sweetness, her heat, it’s all too much. Luckily, the other pillow she brought out with her is the perfect cover up for my physical reaction.

Moving from the table, Grace settles next to me on the couch. “So,” she draws out the word, a bubble of awkward silence threatening to fall on us. “Now what?”

My stomach takes the pause as an opportunity to grumble in hunger. “Uh, how about some food?”

“If your fridge and cabinets look anything like your freezer, I think we may be shit outta luck.” She shrugs, making no effort to hide her laughter.

“Just hand me the phone,” I say, laughing with her.

She watches on, a stupefied look on her face as I order us some take out. “You have the pizza place on speed dial?”

“What?” Shrugging, I hang up the phone after ordering my usual. “My parents are number one, at least.”

“I’m stuffed.” Leaning back, she rests her hands across her stomach. “That was damn good.”

“Best in town,” I add before sliding forward in my seat. Wobbling slightly, I stand from the couch.

“What are you doing?” she calls out. “Sit back down,” she commands, standing next to me. “Whatever it is you need to do, I can do for you.”

With as much style as I can muster, I flop back onto the couch, a smug look on my face. “Yeah?” She nods, satisfied with my submission. “Cool. Sponge bath it is.”

Opening and closing her mouth a few times, she says nothing, but her cheeks and neck turn a bright shade of red. Unable to let her wait there in embarrassment any longer, I move next to her and rest my hands on her shoulders. “Guess that’s more of a second date kind of thing, huh?”

She slaps a hand to my chest, calling me a jerk. “Fine. You go shower.” She gives in, angling her head back to the bathroom. “And I’ll clean up in here.”

“Deal.” Hobbling down to the shower, all I can think about are her wet hands running over my body.

And cue the erection again.

Looks like a cold shower it is.

Besides, I’d rather be in the living room next to the woman I’d be fantasizing about, rather than under the hot water thinking about her.

Showering and getting dressed takes way more effort than I thought. The rest and ice definitely helped my leg and I’m able to put a little more weight on it than before, but it’s not 100 percent. Luckily, I’m heading into a four-day stretch without work. That should be more than enough time to heal.

When I walk back out to the living room, it feels as if I’m in a different apartment. “When you said clean up, I figured you meant you’d put the dishes in the sink. Maybe put the leftover pizza in the fridge.” In disbelief, I make my way back over to the couch. “Did you dust?” Running my finger over the TV stand as I walk past it, I can’t hide my shock when my finger does not leave a trail through the dust that’s usually there.

“Well, you were in there forever.” She arches a brow, smiling at me with softness in her eyes. “I had to do something to keep myself occupied.”

“I was not in there forever. The water was freezing. I couldn’t have taken more than five minutes.”

“Freezing? Why’s that, David?” Her voice, low and sultry almost, dances over to me, tingling my ear.

“So,” I deflect, “What are we watching?”

She laughs, patting the spot on the couch next to her. Making herself right at home, she points the remote at the screen and selects a movie from the on-demand queue. Busy getting my leg situated, I don’t realize she’s selecting from the Recently Watched list.

“Oh, I don’t know. How about Big Titties in the Big Cities?”

Fooled by the straightforward sound of her voice, I almost don’t catch the title of the movie. It isn’t until I look up at the screen and see the very explicit thumbnail showing on the screen that it all actually makes sense to me. “What the? Oh, that fucker. I’m gonna wring his neck,” I grumble in frustration, nearly ripping the remote from her hands. “Ian was here the other day. I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Are you saying you don’t like porn?” Twisting in her seat, she tucks one leg under her body. There’s nothing in her face giving away how she really feels right now. Every guy instinct I have is telling me to run the other way, scream and shout from the top of my lungs, Porn? Yuck. No, who likes that. Too much nudity for my taste. But then she cracks before I have to lie.

She blinks and her face changes from stoic seriousness to hysterical laughter. “Damn! And I really wanted to hear what you’d come up with,” she blurts out through her laughter.

“I swear it was Ian,” I defend, though she doesn’t seem to need more of an explanation.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Her voice drips with sarcasm as she shifts her attention back to the screen. “Can you, um, change this now?” Well, at least she’s still laughing.

Keeping my focus on the screen, I click through the movies on HBO and stop when she squeals when In Her Shoes pops up as a choice. “Have you ever seen this?”

Swallowing back the wiseass response I want to spit out, I say, “Um, no I haven’t.” She swipes the remote out of my hand and before I can protest, we’re watching some rom-com about sisters fighting.

As much as I won’t admit it, the movie isn’t horrible. And much to my surprise, there’s even a few sex scenes. I guess directors figure they need to include something in there to keep the guys entertained. I nearly spit out my water when one of the scenes starts out with a guy reading a racy excerpt from a romance novel to one of the sisters. Grace shoots me a look, earning a broad smile from me. “What, I didn’t say anything?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She laughs, returning her attention to the screen.

Using the opportunity to ask what I wanted to ask earlier, I lean into her, keeping my lips just far enough from her ear that I’m not touching it, but close enough that she’ll feel my breath. Her body goes rigid at first and then melts against mine. “What about you, Grace? Do you like porn?”

Seemingly unaffected by my question, she drops her hand to my leg, dancing her fingertips along my thigh. With her eyes glued to the screen, she takes a deep, but shuddery breath before saying, “I enjoy a good porn every now and then.” On a gentle squeeze of my leg, she adds, “I like reading them, too.”

Clearing my throat, I shift in my seat, simply saying, “Well, then,” before refocusing my attention on the movie. Maybe I’ve met my match in the sarcasm department. That thought puts a smile on my face through the rest of the movie.

Sniffling and irregular breathing wakes me up some time later. When I open my eyes, there’s a wedding scene playing–one of the two main characters who were reading sex scenes to one another earlier in the movie. Grace’s eyes are glued to the screen once again. Feeling me shift at her side, she realizes I’m awake. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she croaks, swiping at the tears streaking down her cheek.

Without even thinking twice about it, I drape my arm around her shoulder and pull her close to my side. Her head fits perfectly against my chest, the smell of her citrus shampoo surrounding me. The long strands of her hair fall over my hand on her shoulder, making my fingers itch to touch it. And in an effort to offer her some comfort, I comb my fingers through it, forcing her to melt even further against me.

We stay like that until the credits roll across the screen. On a deep breath, she pulls away from me, swiping at her face once more. “You fell asleep through the part, but it was this movie that made me want to go into teaching.”

Amazed by the fact that she makes no apologies for her emotions, I turn to face her. Leaving my arm resting along the back of the couch, I let my fingers still dance through the ends of her hair. “Yeah? How so?”