Page 60 of Return Policy
“Why?” Sage asks.
“Humor me?” The corner of my mouth curves upward as I glance at Sophia and wink.
They both huff and stand. I throw my cards face up on the table.
“Drop ‘em, ladies,” I say, chuckling while reaching up and dragging a finger under the side hem of Sophia’s denim shorts. Theo starts “Pony” by Ginuwine on his phone, and the girls play along, slowly unbuttoning their shorts. I can see Sage out of the corner of my eye, but my attention is focused purely on the gorgeous woman in front of me as she does a hilariously adorable strip tease. She lowers back down, sitting on her heels in nothing but a bikini, and I have to forcibly fight myself to not reach out and touch her. I glance at Theo, who’s shamelessly checking out Sophia, and I glare at him so hard he must feel it. His amused expression meets my furious one, and he laughs out loud before grabbing the cards to shuffle them up.
“Better hope you ladies get a good hand this time,” Theo says, dealing them out. “I mean, I pray to God you don’t but… you know.” He bites his lower lip, fully amused, and all of my previous enjoyment is gone.
He’s screwing with me on purpose. I can tell.
The hand is dealt and after the first three cards are shown, Sage, Julian, and I all fold, leaving Theo and Sophia. My pulse picks up. If she loses this hand, she’ll have to drop another piece of clothing, and there is no way in hell I’m letting Theo or Julian see Sophia’s tits.I haven’t even fucking seen them yet.The first time will not be with my two best friends watching while I’m forced to pretend I don’t have a damn tent in my shorts.
Sophia is sitting close enough that Ihappento get a glance at her cards and see she already has a pair.Thank God.After the last card comes, there’s a pair on the board too. I stretch back to see Theo’s cards and although I’m embarrassingly obvious, he chooses to ignore me.
Son of a bitch.
He has four of a kind.
Sophia slaps her cards flat on the table with a victorious smile and eyes Theo. He winks at me, then lays his cards down. I can’t explain what comes over me, but before I can blink, my arm has swiped all the cards off the table and onto the floor.
“Oh, too bad…” I try holding in a grin as Sophia stares at me with her mouth open, the corners of it curling upward. “Guess you gotta keep your top on, Sunflower.”
“Fuck you, Elijah!” Theo chucks cards at me. “I was about to see them perfect titties.”
“Watch it.” I glare, and he howls with laughter.
Why does that never work?
“Aww.” Sophia pouts at me. “I was ready to go full-on Mardi Gras.”
“No beads for you today,” I say firmly.
“No?” Sophia reaches behind her and toys with the tiny string holding her bathing suit together. My hand flies to hers, holding it firmly in place on her warm skin.
“Yeah, come on, Elijah,” Sage says, folding her arms. “I wanted to see Soph’s tits too.”
Sophia winks at Sage. “You can see them anytime, baby.”
Great, and now I have that beautiful mental picture in my head.
This girl really is going to give me a fucking heart attack.
17
ELIJAH
“Sophia, if I have to hear the word enlightenment one more time, my head is going to explode,” I say as calmly as possible, although I’m very serious about the head exploding part. We’ve studied five hours for next week’s midterm, and my brain is mush.
“Fine, I guess you can feed me now.”
“Where to today, Sunflower?”
“Seriously, Elijah?” She raises her eyebrows at me, pretending to be annoyed, but the upcurved corners of her mouth tell a different story. “Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
“I guess I can call you something else.” I shove my study materials into my backpack.
“Victory!” She fist pumps, and I chuckle at how damn cute she is.
