That means I need to do whatever it takes to seduce her as soon as possible.
Chapter Eight
"You owe me eleven hundred dollars." Erica smiles with an endearing look of playful smugness on her face and shimmies her bonnie erse on the sofa cushion. She holds her hand outstretched, palm up, while wiggling her fingers. "Gimme."
Sitting forward in my armchair, I brace my elbows on my knees and aim an amused smile at the lass. "Do I now."
Aye, she is adorable. I think that word every thirty seconds, at least, though probably more often since I haven't kept count on my watch.
Across the coffee table from me, Erica perches on the sofa with her erse barely on the cushion and her back straight. The Monopoly board lies on the table between us.
"You know you do," she says, tapping her fingernail on the game board. "You landed on Park Place, which I own. And I have three houses on it. Your ass is mine, MacTaggart."
"Anytime you want, my sweet wildflower."
She rolls her eyes at my sarcastically sweet tone. "You have a one-track mind."
"Only when I'm alone with you."
We haven't left Gil's house all day, but all we've done is play board games. After several rounds of Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, Erica brought out the Monopoly board. Naturally, I suggested we make it strip Monopoly. Aye, I'm desperate to see her naked. Since she needs time to get used to the idea of having a poke with me, I haven't even kissed her since that moment in the kitchen.
Erica called my idea for strip Monopoly "too dang weird" because it's meant to be a family game.
I'll have to keep waiting—and fantasizing.
My thoughts return to the present, and to Erica where she sits on the sofa.
Her hand rises to her throat but doesn't touch her skin, though she curls her index finger around a lock of that lush hair. Her gaze is fixated on mine. She glances down at my groin, then her lips kink like she's trying not to smile, and she swerves her attention away from me.
I'm debating whether to toss her down on the sofa to fuck her or lay her across the coffee table to do it. Maybe I should throw her over my shoulder and carry her into the bedroom. The way she's looking at me, I wonder if she realizes what I'm thinking about. No, she couldn't.
Bloody hell. I will go insane if I don't seduce her soon.
Erica gathers her Monopoly money and shuffles through it.
I glance down at the fake bills I have and scratch my chin. Five-hundred-dollar bills are all I've got. I look at Erica, though she's still studying her own collection of colorful wee banknotes. "Change, please."
Without raising her head, she lifts her gaze to me. "What's wrong with the way I am?"
She flinches the slightest bit.
I stare at her, probably with a blank expression. What is she on about? Her question seems to have come out of the blue since I never criticized her. But I did say, "Change, please." I suppose the lass might've misinterpreted that, though it seems like an odd misunderstanding.
Shaking my head, I wave the wee orange bills at her. "No-no, I said I need change for these five-hundred-dollar bills."
"Right. Of course." She keeps her gaze downcast while she pulls banknotes out from between her fingers while gnawing on her lower lip. She hands me five wee hundred-dollar bills as change. "Here ya go."
I accept the money, though I grimace and scratch my cheek. What has her so fashed? Maybe it's my offer of sex with no discussion of our personal lives. I open my mouth, but shut it again before I utter one syllable. I doubt anything I might say would make her feel better.
Erica rolls the dice, restarting our game.
Since I can't decipher her anxiety, I focus on the game and finding small ways to make her smile while we vie for control of the board. She holds onto Park Place and gains a few railroads and utilities, but I make some headway too. When I buy a hotel, that puts me in a position to win the game with only one more move, but I don't want to beat Erica. I want to make her happy.
Will she notice if I purposely lose? I am a financial adviser, so losing without letting her see it shouldn't be that difficult.
My next two decisions are less than clever, and Erica raises her brows at me, her lips curving up at one corner. Then she returns her attention to the game.
If she has figured out I'm letting her win, she doesn't seem to mind.