"Took you long enough."

The moment I heard his deep and thoroughly sarcastic voice through the phone, my mind went blank.

"Uh, sorry. I was, um...peeing?" The words came out slow and my voice wavered as I realized what my brain thought would be an appropriate thing to say at this moment in time.

Thanks, brain. You're a real wing man.

Time stood still as I waited for his response. Then, just when I thought I might literally pee myself from embarrassment, I heard a low chuckle resonate in my ear.

"I'm not sure if you'll ever learn to control what comes out of that mouth of yours when you're nervous," he said mockingly.

"Who says I'm nervous?" I challenged. I heard him breath heavily into the phone before answering.

"Let's just say I have a knack for reading people."

My brows shot up in defense. "So you're saying I'm easy to read?"

"No, actually. Only when your trying to cover up for something or you're nervous. Then you're like an open book." I could almost hear the smile in his voice as he said that last part.

"I take offence to that!" A light laugh came from my mouth as I couldn't help but tease him slightly.

"Don't worry," I could sense his surrender on the brink. "Besides those two things, you're about as difficult to read as the bible in all of it's originality."

My lips quirked up into a smirk." Good."

"Good? It's most definitely not good, Ms. Merrick. You're about as frustrating as women get." He muttered begrudgingly.  Now my smile had grown into a full blow grin at his words.

"And for that, you are eternally welcome, Mr. McCoy. Now, you shouldn't have many more problems with that 'Oh so, lovely' girlfriend of yours." Once again my sarcastic side had taken over. I finally started to relax and laid down on my bed; my stomach flush with my maroon colored comforter.

He sighed on the other end of the phone." Listen, about Silvia-"

"Nope!" I cut him off. "There will be no talk of girlfriends or anything relating to anything that happened last week in this conversation, Capish?"

"No. Silvia and I-"

"I swear I will hang up on you if you finish that sentence." I threatened.

 Honestly, hearing about anything to do with him and his girlfriend will just bring my mood down to 'bitch' and we would't get anywhere in our conversation. 

"Now, what was is that you wanted to call me about? By the way, you've got 7 minutes left."

"What? That's not fair. We weren't even talking about anything important!" he tried to reason.

"Tick, tock, Mr. McCoy."

He groaned deep within his throat."Fine. God, you're stubborn."

 I let out a short, breathy laugh. "It's all part of my charm."

"Don't I know it." I heard him mumble softly on the other side of the phone. Deciding he probably didn't expect me to hear that last part I simply waited in silence for him to continue.

"Okay, so the the deal." He finally continued. "I'll tell you what I have in mind for it but you have to let me get through the whole thing before you say no, okay?"

"Okay, yeah, sure." I quickly agreed. I was so beyond anxious to find out what this deal exactly entails that I would agree to run around the school naked at this point just to find out.

A few beats of silence passed between us. The butterflies in my stomach were ramming around in desperation trying to get out; desperate to find out what he would ultimately say. What kind of deal did he even have in mind? It felt like insanity was about to set in before he finally spoke.

"I want to go with you to your family dinner this weekend."

Huh? 

My entire body stiffened and my mouth dropped open and nothing came out. A few strangled noises managed to pass through my lips but nothing coherent made its way out. Why in the world would he want to go to my family dinner? It made absolutely no sense! This man was by far the most confusing being that I had ever encountered.

"Now before you say no-"

"No." I managed to finally spit out. The shock of the statement was starting to wear off and absolute absurdity was starting to set in.

"I said before you say no, Ms. Merrick. You said you would listen to my full proposal."

"That was before I knew it would be something so completely ridiculous! Why would you even be interested in going to meet my family? Do you just enjoy embarrassing me? Because that's the only conclusion I can come to at this point!" I was now up off my bed and pacing around my bedroom. Anger and confusion flowed rapidly through my veins.

"No, of course not. I-" He stopped and sighed forcefully. "Is this the same dinner you wanted me to come to when we first met?" He inquired.

My feet halted at his question. Did he really remember that was the other end of our bet? That first meeting of our seemed like ages ago. So much had happened since then; so much had changed. When in reality, it had only been about a month.

"Yes," I answered cautiously."But that doesn't apply anymore."

 He was then silent for a moment.

"You've found another date to go with you?" He asked in a monotone voice. A frigid voice.

"What? No, I just don't need you to go with me anymore. I never needed you to go. I just-" I cut myself off before I delved too deeply into my family history and the problems between my sister and I.

"You just what?" I could hear the curiosity in his voice as clear as day break.

"Nothing. It's not important." I tried to lessen his interest in the subject. Unfortunately, It completely backfired.

"It sounds important to you. Important enough for you to ask a complete stranger to go with you to a place he's never been before with people he's never met before." He sounded a bit too cocky for my liking as he recalled my asking him out.

"Yes, well I thought circumstances were different when I asked." The mood of the conversation took a dangerous turn. We were starting to sail back into forbidden waters; and I was without a life raft.

"Forget about the circumstances for a moment, Alex. Just... tell me, why did you ask me to go to the dinner with you?" Forget about the circumstances? 

If I forgot about all of our dire circumstances, I would be half way to your house right now, ready to take full advantage of your body in every way imaginable.

"I don't think I can do that. Our situation is the only thing keeping me sane right now. If that even makes sense." I suddenly felt exhausted and sunk back down onto my bed, lying flat on my back, welcoming my soft mattress with open arms.

"It does. Trust me, I know the feeling. But please, just tell me why." His voice had now successfully taken on a lighter, soothing tone, and was now caressing my ear making me feel all sorts of calmness; happiness.

"I wanted to show you off." I sighed, now realizing that I had to go into full detail. " My sister has always tried to put me down in every way conceivable. She always wanted whatever I got. Always wanted something better than what I had. It ranged from having the nicer clothes, better grades, all the way to having the better looking boyfriend. If I had anything that was better than what she had, she had to take it away. One time, I bought this adorable summer dress that complimented my body really well. That's always something that shes hated me for too. She never fully developed in the chest region and I did; generously."

I could hear Mr. McCoy's low release of breath when I mentioned my body. I rolled my eyes and let his sensual sounds float to the back of my mind.

"Anyway, she didn't like the attention that I was getting from the guys at school because of the dress. So one day at lunch, she 'accidentally' spilled an entire red koolaide down the front of my dress, effectively ruining it. She's even gone as far as stealing one of my boyfriend who was better looking than hers at the time."

"She sounds lovely." Mr. McCoy joked. I laughed lightly as we then lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"So where do I come into this?" He broke the silence to inquire.

"Well," I let out a sharp breath, knowing that revealing this will embarrass me to no end. And he most likely will never let it go. Oh, Joy! "When I saw you in the teachers lounge, I realized something. You were by far the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on." 

I waited to hear his antagonizing laughter or for his ego to shoot through the roof and him to make some asshole comment. Yet, none of that happened. So I continued.

"I realized that you were more attractive than any guy her or I had ever dated. Then we started talking and you were charming, intelligent, and every bit as sarcastic as I was. So you were pretty much perfect." I paused when I realized what I just said. "Oh, god your ego is getting a major stroking tonight, isn't it?" He chuckled though the phone.

"Maybe a little. I might have to call you every night so I can feel this good about myself all the time." 

"No, sir! Remember, this is the only time you can call me." I reminded him.

"Sure, we'll see about that," he stated confidently. "Now get back to the dinner."  I ignored his comment about calling me more often and finished up the story.

"So I pretty much wanted you to come to the dinner so my sister would be jealous. Happy? It's a pretty pathetic reason. But you have to remember at the time I still thought you were datable and thought maybe things would have progressed from there. Obviously, I was wrong, and that's why I don't need you to come anymore. It was never a necessity that you come." 

I let out a big huff of air at the end and waited for him to respond. I glanced at my phone and see that it was well past 11 pm and I really should be heading to bed soon.

"So..." He started slowly."Why don't I still come anyway and we go through with your original plan? It's the least I can do for you with everything that I've put you through."

"I don't need a pity date." I seethed, annoyance running through my body suddenly. I rolled over onto my side out of anger and propped myself up on one elbow. "And with that, I'm afraid your time is up."

"What? No! I didn't mean it like that. I want to go. Plus, if you don't agree to this then you'll have to face three detentions."

"So you're blackmailing me now?" I asked, getting more and more upset by the second.

"No! Oh, wow, that is what it sounds like, isn't it? I promise that's not how I meant it." Mr McCoy stopped for a moment to compose himself, giving me some time to cool down myself. "What I'm trying to say, and am obviously failing at, is that I would love to accompany you to your family dinner. It would be an honor."

For a split second in time I considered it. Having him come to this dinner would make it, no doubt, the best dinner I had ever been to or would possibly ever go to. But, unfortunately, things can't always go how we want them to.

"I don't think your girlfriend would like that too much. Who knows, maybe this time she would try and behead me." I joked just as an audible yawn escaped my throat and echoed through the phone.

"I would never let her touch you ever again. Besides we-"

"Mr. McCoy, I'm sorry to cut you off but I'm really, really tired and have to get up early to drive to my parents. Plus your time ended like 3 minutes ago." The side of my lips twitched up into a small, sleepy smile.

"You and your time," he said thoughtfully. "Alright, you do sound pretty exhausted so I'll let you go for now; but don't think that this is the end of this conversation." He sounded overly confident with this fact. Too bad he couldn't be more wrong.

"We'll see about that Mr. McCoy. Besides the fact that it would be highly inappropriate, and we both know how you feel about being inappropriate, you don't even have a clue as to where my parents live." I stated matter of factually.

He mulled over the new information for a moment. "It seems as though you're right, I don't know. But what you don't know, Alex," Mr. McCoy was quite for a moment. And when he found his voice again, it had dropped to a wickedly seductive level.

"Is how inappropriate I can be."

A shiver ran through my body and stirred my core. Well, I think it's safe to say that I'll be having some very naughty dreams tonight.

"And on that note, Goodnight, Mr. McCoy." My voice came out breathy, sensual, and sleepy all at the same time.

"It's Nathan. Call me Nathan." Seriously, even this guys first name is sexy and masculine? God, what were you thinking when you made this one?

"Sure. See you around, Mr. McCoy." I ignored his name comment and settled below my sheets, phone still firmly tucked between my fingers. Mr. McCoy sighed deeply on the other side of the phone and it resonated in my ear, relaxing me further into the sleep that was moments away.

"I'll see you soon, Ms. Merrick. Sweet dreams." And with that I heard the phone click and silence enveloped my room.

That was by far one of the oddest and most thrilling phone conversations I had ever had. Having Mr. McCoy's voice be the last thing I hear before drifting off to sleep was something I could definitely get used to if he was available. Too bad he's neither available nor legal. My unwanted thoughts of Mr McCoy were the last thing on my mind before sleep took me under and dreams become my world for the night.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Things are about to get kind crazy for Alex! The next chapter is a good one ;) please comment and vote letting me know what you thought! :) The nest chapter will be out in a few days actually! Most of it's already written. Until next time! :D