But despite all her practice, she’d nearly screwed up just now.
What was wrong with her?
“What did you say?” Mom asked.
“I said I have no boyfriend.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it,” Mom said in a completely unconvincing tone.
There was some more banging on the other end of the phone, then Ah Ma was back. “Where did you meet him? At the grocery store? Did you wear sexy clothes?”
God, this was spinning out of control.
Yep, when this conversation was over—Amber had no idea how long it would be—she could use some sex to help her forget.
* * *
As it turned out, Sebastian wanted to go out for lunch first. He’d named a wood-oven pizza place downtown that he wanted to try, and Amber’s mouth had started watering, even though all her instincts had screamed, “No!”
She loved this restaurant. For half of the year, during the theater festival, it was busy and you needed reservations. It wasn’t far from the theaters, and it was popular with the out-of-towners who came to Stratford for a weekend of Shakespeare and other plays.
But at this time of year, they were able to walk right in and get a cozy booth.
It felt like a date. True, lunch was somehow less romantic than dinner, and Sebastian didn’t hold her hand under the table, but still. He was wearing a button-down shirt with pale blue stripes, open at the throat, and she couldn’t help wanting to climb onto his lap, right here in the booth.
If they had this place all to themselves...
“And for you?”
Oh, shit. The server was here and wanted to know her order. She’d barely looked at the menu, distracted by Sebastian’s good looks.
Thankfully, she was familiar with the selections. She ordered the pizza with asiago cheese, three types of mushrooms, and sausage—it was her favorite.
The server left them alone and Amber returned to looking at Sebastian, studying his facial features. He had dark eyes and a slightly wide nose. His jaw was not as square and angular as what she traditionally thought of as ideal masculine features, but somehow, when you put every part of him together, it was perfect.
When she’d seen him at the grocery store, she’d been caught off-guard by his good looks, but now she found him even better looking than she had then.
She nearly reached out to touch his hand, then held herself back.
No, she wouldn’t.
This was getting dangerous. It was too much like a relationship. They shouldn’t see each other again.
Her heart sank. She’d enjoyed their time together, the bubble tea and the homemade breakfast...
Wait. Why was she focusing on those things? She should be focusing on the sex.
Yes, the sex.
“Has a woman ever grapefruited you?” she blurted out.
His eyebrows drew together. Ooh, he was kind of adorable when he looked puzzled.
Sexy. That’s what he was. She shouldn’t be calling him adorable.
And God, what was wrong with her? Why was she bringing up the weird grapefruit technique? Damn Gloria.
“Here’s how it works.” She decided that plunging ahead with this conversation was better than any romantic thoughts. “You slice off the sides of the grapefruit and cut a hole in the middle. Big enough for a dick. So for your dick, it would be, um, kind of a big hole, because you’re thicker than average. And yes, I’ve been with lots of guys, so I know these things.”
She was trying to put him off her romantically, telling him about this bizarre grapefruit technique, plus the fact that she’d had lots of partners. But of course the latter didn’t affect him; he already knew something of her past and had been fine with it.
“Okay,” Sebastian said, still frowning. “You put a grapefruit on my dick. Then what?”
“I twist and squeeze the grapefruit around while I suck on the head of your penis.”
Sebastian stared at her in wide-eyed horror. “I assure you none of my sexual partners have ever juiced a grapefruit while giving me a blowjob.”
“Would you be willing to do it?”
He said nothing.
“I take it that’s a no. Oh well, it was worth a try.”
He continued to look at her in horror, and then the corners of his mouth twitched and he let out an enormous laugh.
“How do people come up with these things?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Apparently it’s quite messy—”
“No shit.”
“And rather noisy, too. Here, I’ll show you the video.”
“Amber, I don’t want to watch porn in a restaurant.”
“It’s not porn. She uses a zucchini or cucumber instead...or maybe it’s a dildo. Hmm, I forget. I’ll show you later. I’m told there’s also a scene in Girls Trip.”
“Well, if you like, we can watch the movie this afternoon.”
No! How was this becoming romantic? She was talking about juicing a grapefruit on his dick, and he was talking about watching a movie together. He probably imagined them cuddled up with a bowl of popcorn on her couch.
“How about donuts?” she asked, pushing ahead.
“I like donuts.”
“Have you ever used them during sex?”
“I’m not seeing how this would work. Unless you mean the hole...”
“It would go around your dick.”
“This is something you’ve done before?”
She shook her head. “Nah. But would you, if I wanted to?”
He picked up her hand and said, in dramatic fashion, “For you, darling, I’d do anything.”
He was goofing around. It was fine. It didn’t mean anything.
Though “goofing around” didn’t really fit Sebastian’s personality—he’d become more comfortable with her in the past few weeks, it seemed.
“I still don’t quite know how it works,” he said.
“And yet you agreed, without knowing the details.”
“Foolish of me, I know.”
“I’d just...eat the donut off your dick.”
“What kind of donut would you use?” he asked.
“Chocolate dip, I think.”
“You answered quickly. You put a lot of thought into it?”
“No, I just like chocolate dip. Though something with sprinkles might be nice.”
“Is that so?” He stroked his chin, as though taking this very seriously. “Might be messy.”
She imagined multi-colored sprinkles all over his navy sheets. He’d probably hate it.
“Better than Boston cream,” she said.
“How would that even work? There’s no hole in a
