"No, Dane, I loved it."
He pushes up off me and sits back on his heels near my feet. "You're the only woman who has ever told me I'm spectacular and incredible. The others had...less-kind words for how sex with me made them feel."
I sit up and get rid of my leggings and panties, then I scoot closer to him. "What do these other women tell you?"
"Why can't you be as exciting as your toys. That's what they say."
Chapter Fourteen
Dane
I slump into the corner of the sofa, my legs hanging off the edge, while I watch Rika and wait for her to say she agrees with the idea that I'm not as exciting as a vibrator. She already said she loved being with me. The way she came, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and her expression evinced wonder and joy and total satisfaction. She loved it. So why am I still convinced she'll change her mind?
Rika climbs onto my lap again, her hands resting on my thighs. "About these incredibly stupid women you've been with..."
"They weren't stupid. I failed to live up to their expectations, and that's my fault."
"Bullshit." She shakes her head. "After what we just did, how can you still believe you suck at sex? Those brain-dead twerps are obnoxious, rude, and completely wrong for you."
Nothing with Rika feels wrong, despite the fact I keep insisting we're not really dating. Our fake relationship feels more real than anything I've had with other women, even the ones who didn't tell me I'm not as exciting as a sex toy.
"Maybe you're right," I say, "but I can't get over being uptight because we had one fantastic shag."
"No, it'll take lots and lots of shags." She clasps my hands to her breasts. "You need to do me several more times. And we should order a big dinner with dessert, because we are going to be burning some serious calories."
This woman wants me---again and again and again.
And fuck, I want her too. All day, all night, for the rest of the week, the month, the year.
Can we have sex nonstop for an entire year? If we take the occasional break to eat...who knows?
Rika grins.
"What's so funny?" I ask.
"It's not funny. It's a miracle." She cradles my face in her palms. "You're smiling, Dane."
"Am I?" I touch the corners of my mouth like I'm checking for a smile. "Look at that. I am smiling. Let's order champagne to toast the occasion."
Her grin gets even wider and brighter. "I knew you had a sense of humor underneath that uptight shell."
"You knew because my brothers told you."
"No, I knew because I saw through that shell."
Her words send a chill through me. She saw through me? For a moment, the idea makes me uneasy---until I realize it's not a bad thing. Rika is getting to know me. Maybe she understood me, at least a little bit, from the start. No other woman bothered to do that.
The chill gives way to a gentle warmth as I look into her eyes and tell her something I thought I'd never admit to anyone. "I don't have a problem getting dates, but everything after that point has always been...troublesome."
"In what way?"
"Women are usually disappointed in me, either because being a mechanical engineer is too boring for them or because I'm not as exciting as the devices I design."
She slides off my lap to sit beside me, her head on my chest.
I hold her close and tell her the rest. "Women don't want to hear about mechanical engineering. But what else can I talk about? It's my job, my life. If I don't say anything about that, all I have left to talk about is my family. Women don't like to hear me banging on about that either. Over the last couple of years, since my company became somewhat successful, women only want to talk about my devices."
"And then these moronic women decide they like your toys but not you."
"Yes. The problem will only get worse once the company re-launches as a branch of Bonsoir."
"Why do you think it will get worse?"
I sit forward, my elbows on my knees, while I remember the past six months. "It's already gotten worse. Every woman I've tried to date since I signed the Bonsoir contract only wants my sex toys, not me. I can't have a real relationship."
"Of course you can."
"You don't understand---"
"I get that you're convinced it's true, but that's a big old armful of hooey." She scoots forward to sit beside me, laying her head on my shoulder. "You already have a real relationship."
"Have you not been paying attention? The only woman I've been with is you, and that's all for show."
"Yeah, I know." She straightens and clears her throat. "Our relationship is not fake. Maybe we both convinced ourselves it was, but it's not. I am your girlfriend, Dane. For real."
I glance at her, unable to form any words in response. My girlfriend? Rika? I've kept telling her it's fake, that I don't have time for more, that this is strictly for publicity. Except I haven't taken her out in public more than twice. I've treated her like an employee, not a lover. Haven't I?
We had a romantic dinner at a posh restaurant. We gave each other mind-blowing climaxes in my office. I've kissed her, even when no one else was there to see it. I got jealous when a waiter spoke to her in French and when Eddie Masters put his hands on her. We hardly know each other, but maybe...
Maybe I do want more with her. More than a farce. Maybe I want her, full stop---as my lover and my girlfriend.
"I want to have a genuine relationship with you, Rika," I hear myself saying. "But I couldn't stand it if one day you tell me I'm not as exciting as my sex toys."
She slides off the sofa to kneel on the floor between my legs. "I would never say that. First of all, I haven't used any of your toys. Second, there is no way on earth any mechanical device could do better than you. The way you made me come, on this sofa and in your office, those were the best sexual experiences I've ever had." She taps her finger on my chest. "And you did that, not your devices."
"Yes, but---"
"No, Dane. You do not get to downplay what we've done together. It's real." She takes my face in her hands again. "I want you, not your devices. To prove I mean that, I'm ordering you to fuck me repeatedly until you believe it."
I laugh, and I can't remember the last time I did that. "You're ordering me to fuck you? Again? I can honestly say that has never happened to me once before today, much less twice." I smirk when I add, "Well, Reese did tell me the cure for my problems is to have you shag my brains out."
"Reese is a smart man." She unfurls her voluptuous body, which places her groin directly in front of my face, and offers me her hand. "Come on, let's get naughty everywhere in this suite. It's got, like, a hundred rooms. By the time we're done, you won't worry about which I prefer---you or your devices. You'll know the answer for sure."