“All I want is to help you stay in school. That’s it.” I hold my hands out, palms facing her. “It’s my fault you were hurt, and I feel shitty about that.”
Her eyes narrow to slits. “This is about high school, isn’t it? You want to finish what you started when you pulled your pants down, and tried to fuck me in that closet.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t pull my pants down, Maize. You pulled them down.”
Her mouth drops open and pink crawls into her cheeks. “No, I didn’t. Why would I do that?”
“You tell me.”
“Oh, I get it.” She shakes her head and lets loose a humorless laugh. “You decided to make fun of the new girl. Was it you who started the rumors that I was an easy lay? Did you call me corn on the cob?”
“No, I didn’t, and I didn’t do what you think I did.” I honestly don’t know why she’s saying I pulled my own pants down, and I’ll examine that later. Right now, we have more important things to discuss. “Look, let’s forget about what happened in the past and focus on the now.”
She shifts and I instinctively cover my nut sack. Her eyes drop. “What are you doing?”
“Protecting myself from your knee.”
She exhales. “You ruined high school for me, and now college, but I’m not going to hurt you.”
I back up an inch. “Then let me explain. I’m not asking anything from you. You say I ruined you, then let me fix that.” I wave my hand between us. “Us…there isn’t an us. I just want you to live your own life, and I don’t know…get your ankle healed, get running again. Consider me your benefactor, and you’re the beneficiary.”
She puts one hand on her hip and glares at me, and that’s when I notice the pretty gold flecks in her eyes. Jesus, she really is gorgeous. “I’m not taking money from you, and not giving you anything in return. What’s fair is fair, and I don’t take without giving. Just tell me what you want.” This time she waves her hand back and forth between the two of us. “There might not be any ‘us,’ but that’s the only way this beneficiary thing works for me.”
My cock twitches, dying for me to hand over the mic, to let him tell her what I really want. I shut those thoughts down, and try not to visualize her legs spread wide, my tongue bringing her to climax. I shift, and tug the robe away from my body.
“What do you want to do for me, Maize?” I ask, my voice a little low, a little rougher.
She glances at her feet. “I…I…guess I could do your laundry or something…”
“Or something?” I ask, hating where I’m taking this but unable to stop myself. “What do you mean by that?”
Her sexy lips thin. “Not sex,” she blurts out.
“We’ve already established sex was off the table.”
But maybe it could be on the bed, or the floor, in the shower…
“Do…do sponsors have sex with the women?”
If she’s so against it, why does she sound like she’s interested?
I give a casual shrug. “It’s not so bad, Maize. Most women are honored to be chosen. Who wouldn’t want to be pampered, put on a pedestal, or love being taken care of?”
She squares her shoulders, and her lush breasts press against the buttoned-up front of her dress. “I take care of myself.”
My gaze drops to her boot. “I’m well aware of that, but now, with your foot, you might just have to rely on someone else. Would that be so bad?”
“You didn’t answer the question, Christian.”
My dick twitches as my name dances on her soft pink tongue. I shrug. “I suppose sometimes they sleep together. If it’s mutual.”
“Oh.”
“But it’s not mutual for us, because neither of us want that, right?” I point out, testing her, because these mixed signals I’m picking up from her are messing with my head and my dick.
Her chin inches up. “That’s right.”
“If another guy had bid higher, and you went home with him, would you have let him take care of you, maybe even considered sex?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible. You’re the only guy who ruined high school for me.”
“Yeah, so you keep telling me,” I say, and while I didn’t ruin her in high school, since she’s misremembering what happened, I can’t help but think about all the delicious ways I could ruin her tonight, right here in my room, now that I’m her sugar daddy.
5
Maize
I slide from Christian’s car, and he opens his door and circles the front to meet me. I lift my head and glare at him. “I can get into my house just fine,” I tell him, but there is this totally weird part of me that likes his attention. Ridiculous, I know, considering I can’t stand him. But I also can’t stop thinking about what he said to me, about being cared for. For as long as I can remember Mom and I have been taking care of ourselves. I wouldn’t know the first thing about handing myself over to someone.
But you want to, don’t you, Maize?
“Yes, you can, but I can help you get to the door, too,” he responds.
I just shake my head. Kaitlyn had said she heard Christian never participated in the auctions. A stupid thrill goes through me and I quickly shut it down. He feels guilty. He’s only my ‘benefactor’ because he’s responsible for my fall. He does not want to sleep with me, a point he has made a few times, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Perfectly!
I try to slip away when he puts his hand on the small of my back, partly because I can walk without his help and partly because it’s arousing things inside me, things that are foreign—things that are settling deep between my legs. Gawd… What the
