Bet Me Read online

  “No, I’m doing it to get you into bed,” Min said. “The torture is just a perk.”

  “Min,” Cal said.

  “No,” Min said. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as the bet you lost. Plus I’m tired of hearing about how I’m not a risk-taker. So I’m taking a risk on you.” She pulled a ten-dollar bill out of her trench coat pocket. “I’ve got ten bucks says I’m going to have you naked and inside me before nine-thirty.”

  Cal went dizzy for a moment and when he’d shaken his head to clear it, she’d slapped the ten on the table by the couch.

  “There it is, sport,” Min said. “You going to be a wimp, or are you going to play?”

  She was smiling at him, heat and love in her eyes, and he started to laugh. “Min, it’s eighty minutes, not a month. You really think I can’t hold out that long?”

  “Yep,” Min said, her hands on her hips.

  He got out his wallet, took out a ten, walked over to the table, and slapped it on top of her ten. “You’re on,” he said, keeping the table between them. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Minnie.”

  She unbuckled her trench coat, dropped the belt onto the couch, and took off the coat. She was wearing a strapless black lace nightgown, and as far as Cal could see, there was nothing holding it up. “I know it would have been better if I’d been naked,” she said, rocking on her heels so that everything bounced. “I’m just not that confident yet.”

  “Actually,” Cal said, staring at her, “now I’m going to think about ripping that off you for the next eighty minutes, so this may be the way to go.” He looked at the top of the nightgown where the lace cut into her flesh. “It doesn’t look that hard to get off.”

  Min put her finger inside the top of the lace and snapped it. “Elastic. One good tug and—”

  “Not for eighty minutes.” He looked at the clock. “Seventy-seven minutes. But I want to make it clear that when the time’s up, you’re mine.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Min said, nodding.

  “Well, then,” Cal said. “Read any good books lately?”

  “No,” Min said, beginning to move around the table. “I can’t read because all I can think about is you.”

  Cal moved away from her, toward the other end of the couch. “That must be boring.”

  “No, you’re always doing the most amazing things to me,” Min said, moving closer.

  Cal moved around to the front of the couch. “You know, I’m not that good in bed.”

  Min reversed direction and surprised him, grabbing his shirt. “That’s all right. I’m fantastic.”

  She pushed him onto the couch and straddled him, her soft weight pinning him down, and Cal thought, I should do something about this, but even as he thought it, his hands were on her, feeling her heat through the scratch of the lace. “I’ve been told my mouth is a miracle,” she whispered, leaning into him, and he closed his eyes as her breasts pushed softly against his chest.

  She kissed him, and her mouth was hot and sweet, and he tightened his hands on her and pulled her close. “Christ, I’ve missed you,” he said against her mouth.

  “I missed you, too,” she said, not playing anymore. “I don’t ever want to be without you again.”

  “You never will,” Cal said. “I’m not walking away from you again. Ever.”

  “Thank you.” Min sat back and took a deep breath and Cal watched, heat rising. “Listen, there’s something I have to tell you.”

  His hands cupped her rear end and pulled her tighter. She really wasn’t wearing underwear. “Talk slow.” He bent his head to kiss her neck and bit it softly instead.

  Min shivered. “Remember, I said, ‘Don’t break my heart’? Well, I changed my mind. You can break it.”

  “Hey,” Cal said, his hands tightening on her. “I’m not—”

  “It doesn’t matter, I’ll love you anyway,” Min said, “I loved you when I thought you’d made that bet, I loved you when I thought you were playing me, I loved you while I was screaming at you in the street, I loved you when you left the wedding with Cynthie, you rat bastard—”

  “I took her home and left,” Cal said, alarmed. “I swear to God, I—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Min said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you, it doesn’t matter what you do or say. I’m going to love you till the end of time.”

  Cal looked at her, stunned.

  “I know,” Min said. “It’s really un-PC. I just thought you should know that you can’t screw this up.”

  “I can’t?” Cal said, wanting to believe her.

  “No,” Min said. “Which doesn’t mean I’m not going to yell if you make me mad again. I will shout and slam doors. I just won’t be on the other side of the door when I slam it. You’ve got me for life.”

  He lost his breath and put his forehead against her shoulder. “God, I love you.”

  Min sighed. “That’s good because there’s something else I have to tell you.”

  Cal nodded, still dazed.

  Min swallowed. “The thing is, I’m going to spread. Hips, thighs—”

  “Not till nine-thirty,” Cal said, trying not to picture her.

  “—waist,” Min said, and then stopped. “What? Nine-thirty? Not till my forties, probably, I think I can fight it off that long, but then—”

  “What?” Cal said.

  “I’m going to get fat,” Min said, and he blinked. “Er. I’m going to get fatter.” She frowned at him. “What did you think I meant?”

  “For future reference,” he said, starting to laugh. “If you’re sitting half naked on my lap and you tell me you’re going to spread—”

  “No,” Min said and tried to push him away, and he toppled her so she landed, lush and hot beneath him. “I would never say that,” she said, looking up at him as her arms slid around his neck. “That would be crude.”

  “I liked it,” Cal said and kissed her.

  “What I’m trying to tell you,” Min said when she came up for air, “is that I’m going to grow up to be one of those chubby old ladies. It’s in my genes. Like self-rising flour. I’m going to pouf.”

  “That’s going to work out well for me,” Cal said. “Because I’m going to grow up to be one of those horny old men who chases chubby old ladies around the couch.”

  “I’m serious” Min said, but she was smiling, her soft lips open for him.

  “So am I,” Cal said. “You think I care what you weigh? Hell, woman, you’ve called me a beast, a wolf, the devil, and a vile seducer. Plus your best friend has beaten me up three times—”

  “You hit me in the eye,” Min said.

  “—and you yelled at me in public, and I’m still here. If you think you getting softer is going to get rid of me—”

  “Men are visual,” Min said.

  “Yeah.” Cal slid his finger under the elastic edge of her nightgown. “That’s why I like this thing you’re not wearing. But I still want a chance to rip your sweats off you, too.” He stopped smiling, trying to give her what she’d given him. “It’s just you, Minnie. That’s all I want. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “Oh.” Min reached up for him, and he remembered the bet and sat up, hating to let her go.

  “Starting at nine-thirty.” He looked at the clock. “Which is in seventy minutes. What do you want to do for seventy minutes, Minnie? Got a Scrabble board?”

  “I’ll use dirty words,” Min said.

  “Yeah, like ‘spread,’ ” Cal said, and laughed.

  Min looked at the ceiling. “See, this is one of those things that doesn’t matter, I love you anyway.”

  “I love that part,” Cal said. “So what’s new with you?”

  “That would be saying ‘Yes, you can have me any way you want me’ to you.” She sat up and pulled him to her again, and he shifted on the couch to make room for her and felt something dig into his hip. Min kissed his neck, and he shivered as he reached behind him and pulled out her coat belt, buckle first. Then she