Slightly twisting his head, he stared into my eyes. “Of course, Mia.”
I wanted to lighten the mood and remove the negative vibe surrounding the room. So I jumped onto my knees, and with a huge smile, I poked his ribs. “I wanted to get to know you better, and learning some more about you just gave me an idea. Let’s play a game.”
With a raised brow, his lips twitched into a slight smile. “What kind of game?”
“Hmm.” Shifting my gaze aside, I tapped my chin with a finger. “A get-to-know-you game.”
“Huh?”
“You know. We ask each other questions to get to know each other better.” A low raspy laugh escaped his lips. “What? Why are you laughing?” I demanded.
“Nothing, babe. Come here.” He reached for my arm and pulled me in. It forced me to fall on top of him.
I stared into his dark brown eyes, and I took note that the sadness he’d held a few moments ago was now masked with lust and humor. “I’m serious, Marcus.”
“Babe, I thought you meant another game.” His brows wiggled.
“Do you have to turn everything into sex?”
“When you’re involved? Yes.” Rolling my eyes, I studied his clearly amused expression. “Keep rolling your eyes, and see what happens.” His tone was stern, but his eyes were dancing with laughter.
“Ha, is that a threat?”
“Try me.”
I did try him and dramatically rolled my eyes. A squeal escaped me as I was lifted and tossed back onto the fluffy mattress. Before I could recover, his hands attacked me, tickling every weak spot of mine. Bursting into laughter, my eyes swelled with tears, and my rib cage ached from laughing and screaming.
I was not sure how I managed it, but I pushed with my feet and tossed him back. Straddling him, I tightened my legs against the side his abdomen. With my hands fisted against my hips, I glared down at him.
“You know that all I have to do is flex my hips and you’ll tip over right?” Marcus expressed with a raised brow.
“Hear me out. We need to focus on getting to know each other better.”
Marcus traced his hands along my thighs, up the side of my torso, until he finally reached my breasts. His thumbs brushed across my nipples, causing goose bumps to form along my skin. Looking up at me, he sucked in air as he seductively whispered, “Mmmh, I think we can work on that.”
Raising a brow at him, I studied him thoroughly. “You see what I mean, Marcus?” His grin grew wider. I bit back a smile. I wouldn’t allow him to win me over with his charm. I needed to show him I wasn’t joking. “I’m serious!” I tossed my arms in the air before jumping off the bed. I snatched the white, Egyptian bed sheet and hurriedly wrapped the soft fabric around my chest. There, hopefully I had his full attention.
“What are you doing? Get back in here.” Swiftly, he reached out to grab me, although, I was faster than he was and able to take a few steps back. Tossing his head back onto the pillow, he let out a deep, raspy laugh. “Okay, okay.” Caving in, he sat straight up, raised an eyebrow, and flashed that crooked grin. Oh, he knew what he was doing. That smile got me every time. Not then. “Talk.” He instructed.
Clearing my throat, I straightened my shoulders and tightened the bed sheet around my breast. “Okay, as I was saying, you have a habit of transferring everything into sex, and . . .” His lips parted to say something, but I cut him off. “No, let me finish.” He nodded in consent. “I feel that sex has become the basis of our relationship and that we need to focus on actually getting to know each other.”
“Mia, you know me better than anyone, as I do you.”
Narrowing my glare, I quizzed him on this. “Okay, what’s my favorite color?”
The playful mask he held was instantly overshadowed with an unreadable one. “Well, why does that matter?”
“You can’t answer it, can you?” After a few seconds of our eye-glaring contest, I felt as though I had the upper hand. Then my thoughts trailed to something that might be fun. “How about we make a bet?”
His perfect brows bunched together. “You want to make a bet?” Laughing once, he continued to play along. “What are the terms and conditions of this bet?” I hated it when he spoke in that sarcastic tone, but I wouldn’t allow it to faze me.
On the outside, I held a poker face, but on the inside I was giggly like a teenage girl, super excited to begin this game. “I ask you three simple questions about me. You have to answer two out of three correctly. If you do, you can have me however you like.”
Marcus’s lips lifted into a slight smile. “And if I don’t answer correctly?”
Now this was where it got good. “No sex for two weeks, ah, I’m not finished.” I raised a finger at his dropped jaw. “And you have to take me out on proper dates within those two weeks, so we can work on really getting to know each other.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous, Mia.” He studied my expression, which had slightly broken from his dismissive statement, and then his face softened. “Does it mean that much to you?”
“Yes, it really does, Marcus.”
Huffing like a child who was just told, “No,” about watching his favorite cartoon, he breathed, “Go ahead then.”
“Okay, I’ll just ask all three questions in one shot, and you’ll answer them in order.” I waited for his nod and continued. “What’s my favorite color, favorite genre of literature, and my favorite kind of flowers?”
He threw his head back in defeat. He didn’t have a clue. I mentally flashed an evil grin. Looking back at me, he blurted, “Pink, romance, and, ugh, I don’t know, roses?”
“Green, romance, and lilies.” My lips curved into the biggest grin.
“So, I lost, what now?” he asked as he watched me take the sheet off and toss it back onto the bed. I walked over to where my clothes were thrown on the floor and put them on. After I was dressed, I walked over to him and kissed the tip of his nose.
“Now, you can start planning our dates, and they better be good ones too.”
“You’re leaving? We can still hang out, you know.”
I stopped by the doorway and turned with a smile. “I know your sneaky little ways, Marcus. Don’t try and cheat either. It won’t work.” I blew him a kiss and went on my merry way. This should be very interesting.
Skipping down the steps heading toward the first floor, I couldn’t stop a huge grin from spreading across my face. I had been miserable the previous morning, and less than twenty-four hours later, I was the happiest I’d been in a while.