Rules We Like Breaking [Published as TEMPTING VICTORIA]

9 - I Say Things

It wasn't like Victoria and Lana were best friends or anything. She knew of Nathan's ex through Chris, sure, and they hung out sometimes. Each time, Nathan's douchebaggery was the main topic of conversation, as it likely had been for months with other people, as far as Lana was concerned.

The way Lana told the story, it was like she was duped. Lured into his bed, under false pretenses, promising a relationship with her that he never delivered on. The details changed a little bit with every retelling. Victoria knew that, but she was hearing exactly what she wanted to hear anyway.

Don't even think about trying it with Nathan. You would have broken your rules for nothing.

Not that she was seriously thinking of...what was Victoria even thinking? She didn't go out with guys who headlined campus gossip. Never mind how hot he looked with that hair and when he forgot to shave. She wasn't going to be the new name they dropped in casual conversation as the latest Nathan conquest, the one soon replaced and forgotten. Hanging out with Lana kept feeding her with reasons why the attraction was bogus and must be crushed.

She didn't realize that he was Samantha Grant's son though. Victoria did a lot of volunteer work for the college student orgs, and a recent project had her working with the engineering faculty, Samantha Grant included. Why had no one mentioned it? How could someone like her raise someone who was so despica...?

Don't think about it. Don't think about how an awe-inspiring mother could have spawned a monster. Maybe it happens. Maybe some apples fall so very, very far from the tree.

It was easier to think of Nathan as a jerk, wasn't it?

So she started asking him about sex.

It was there before she could stop herself, the sex talk. All she knew was that she felt the urge to ask Nathan more about how he grew up, what it must have been like. But that seemed like genuine interest, and it made her brain backpedal like crazy. She tried to keep the topic on Lana, but he was so very over it. And then, well.

"What do they like about sex with you?"

He looked like he wasn't sure how to answer. Then he shrugged and went ahead. "I say things."

She didn't expect that. She thought it would have to do with his arms, muscled and thick, radiating heat from walking around as much as they did, all this afternoon. Those strong arms that could probably lift a woman and bend her into-biceps that would twitch and clench when-oh god. Yeah. There was something about this Cozumel air. That was it. Victoria struggled to stay in the conversation. "Dirty talk, you mean?"

"Sometimes."

"Do girls like that?"

"Not all of them."

Not all? Because he'd know that, right? He's been with enough to get a significant sample of the population. "Well, not all, of course. But in general, the ones you've been with."

"I guess they do."

They would, wouldn't they? "Interesting. Dirty talk's just always seemed...rude to me."

"It's not about being crude all the time."

"I'm not following."

Nathan's gaze fell on her, and she felt it all over her head, then down her body. It was like he was scanning her again, seeing something she possibly didn't want him to see. "Maybe you're not turned on by a dirty mouth. That's okay. Some people are like that. Maybe if I told you that I think your body would feel hot and tight, so tight as I fucked you with my fingers, you'd laugh instead of get turned on."

Victoria coughed. And then, yeah, she did laugh. His transitionless switch was surreal, out of place in this noisy bar. The bar itself seemed out of place too, against a backdrop of tourist families crossing the boardwalk. "I would."

"You already are."

She was laughing, but still the idea of-it stirred something in her. God, this was the wrong thing to be talking about. Not now.

"It's not for you then," he said. "It's going to be different for everyone. It's about what turns you on, what gets you off. If it's not a crude mouth then it's something else. I bother to find out."

"How noble," she managed to say. "Maybe some people actually do enjoy sweet lovemaking, you know? Like in romantic movies. Maybe they're meant for that, and all this drama isn't necessary."

"Depends on what movies you watch. But it's not-sometimes I don't even say much," Nathan told her. He toyed with the ring that his beer bottle left on the tiled surface of the table. "I...describe what's happening. Like how I see your neck is red, Victoria."

"Tequila, I'm sure."

"It's red like it would be if I sucked on your skin there. Your breath's short, like you're gasping."

He was right though. Victoria sucked it in, deep, but her lungs weren't filling up enough.

"It's like I'm inside you already."

There was a line she didn't realize had been drawn on the sand, and it had been crossed, and she began laughing. "You know what I'd do? I'd ask you to shut up already." Maybe she just wasn't into it. That would be a good sign, if she was immune to it after all.

Nathan smiled, his fingers grasping the neck of his beer bottle. "Hey, I tried." And yet his face was not that of someone who had given up.

Who cares. He can't dirty-talk me. "I'm glad you offered not to sleep with me this weekend then. It looks like I won't be enjoying it."

He shrugged. "A sad, sad mystery for us both then."