“I got you a scarf on Amazon.” Ah Yeh, her grandfather, held up a piece of cream fabric. “It is a Hamlet scarf.”
Since she’d started working at the Stratford Festival, Ah Yeh had begun buying Shakespeare-related things for Amber. As a Christmas present this year, he’d gotten her salt and pepper shakers with Shakespeare’s face on them.
“Thanks, Ah Yeh.” Amber wasn’t sure if a scarf with quotes from a Shakespearian tragedy would go with any of her outfits, but she’d make a point of wearing it at a family gathering this year.
“I brought you some beef stew and butter tarts.” Mom handed her two containers.
“I made you coconut lemon squares!” Ah Ma raised her hand in the air.
“No, you did not,” Dad said. “If you’d tried to bake, you would have burned down the house.”
“Wah, I am not that bad at baking!”
“She didn’t start a fire the last time she tried to make them,” Ah Yeh said, “but she used salt instead of sugar. They were terrible.”
“Then why don’t you make them?” Ah Ma retorted.
“I did! You don’t remember?”
“Hmph. You probably ate them all and didn’t leave any for your poor wife.”
“You have a bad memory.”
Her grandparents continued to bicker until they were all sitting around Amber’s small dining room table with cups of tea.
An hour and a half later, her family was out the door, and Amber collapsed onto her couch. She enjoyed seeing her family, but she often felt like she needed a relaxing afternoon at the spa afterward. Alas, that wasn’t in her budget.
However, she could think of another activity that was very good for stress relief.
* * *
Sebastian checked his phone. Still no text messages.
Well, of course there weren’t any. If he’d gotten a text, his phone would have vibrated to tell him so, and his phone had never been more than a foot away from him for the past twenty hours.
It was Sunday afternoon. Sebastian had made himself fried rice for lunch, and now he was relaxing with a mug of tea and a book on his recliner.
At least, he was supposed to be relaxing, but he kept checking his damn phone every five minutes.
Even when he wasn’t looking at his phone, he was having trouble concentrating on his book. He kept thinking about sliding his hands through Amber’s hair. Maybe pulling it a little, if she was into that. He would ask her what she liked.
But it had been almost a day, and he was worried she wouldn’t contact him.
And that was fair. They’d known each other since childhood, and it was a little awkward, he understood. He wouldn’t blame her if she decided against it.
Still, he was hoping...
Sebastian nearly jumped out of his chair when his phone finally vibrated.
He couldn’t help feeling disappointed when he saw that it was his sister. He was about to put his phone back on the table, but then it vibrated again.
Hi, it’s Amber. I’m interested. Are you free this afternoon?
Chapter 3
Amber considered changing into a more revealing top. But she didn’t want to make a big deal of this, so she left her sweater on, though she changed from her frayed pajama pants into a pair of jeans.
Her phone rang. Sebastian was here.
Her heart beat a little quickly as she buzzed him in. A minute later, he was standing inside her door, his large frame making her apartment seem small.
Yeah, she definitely still wanted him. It hadn’t just been a quirk of her brain that had found him attractive yesterday.
But although Amber had had a lot of sex before, and a decent amount of casual sex, it had never seemed quite as awkward as it did now.
“Hi,” he said.
“Uh, hi.” She paused and glanced toward the bedroom. “Let’s lay down a few ground rules. This is just sex, and under no circumstances will our parents find out about it.”
“Agreed.”
This seemed so transactional.
Shit, was it going to be too weird?
He scratched his chin. “Is there anything in particular you like or don’t like? Any boundaries I shouldn’t cross?”
She wouldn’t wear sexy lingerie for him, but she didn’t think he’d expect that anyway.
“Off the top of my head, no,” she said. “I’ll let you know if anything comes up. Today, I think I’d like it rough.”
“Okay.”
“Just don’t leave any marks that I can’t easily cover with my clothes.”
He padded over to her couch and sat down. “Come here.”
Hesitantly, she walked over and sat on his lap, straddling him.
He grabbed her ass firmly in his large hands, and she gasped. This was still a bit weird, but in a good way.
He lifted up the bottom of her sweater and the T-shirt underneath and slowly dragged them up her body. She was acutely aware of the fabric sliding over her skin. He tossed her clothes on the floor, then placed his hand at the clasp of her bra. When she nodded, he threw that on the floor, too.
His hands were all over her skin now, as were his lips and teeth and tongue, and the man was good with his mouth. As he was feasting on her, he kept one hand on her ass, the other arm on her back with his hand gripping her hair.
“You okay?” he murmured, lifting his head to her ear.
“Yeah. Just keep going.”
An infuriating smirk touched his lips. He dove back down and latched onto her nipple, biting it lightly before soothing it with his tongue.
She grabbed the bottom of his long-sleeved shirt. He separated from her just long enough to pull it over his head, and then he was lavishing attention on her other breast.
She pressed herself against him, enjoying the incredible feel of his warm skin against hers. It had been so long. Too long. She’d craved this sort of contact, and...oh.
There were multiple layers of clothing in the way and she couldn’t see it yet, but yes, she had the sense that he’d been telling the truth about needing Magnum condoms.
She reached
