Read Online The Booby Trap and Other Bits and Boobs by Dawn O'Porter - Free Book Online Page B

reached down and with an effortless raising of her arms, brought the blue top over her head and threw it onto the floor. She smiled as he stared at her, the colour draining from his face, his mind empty apart from the screeching, triumphant voice of his quest-brain.
    This is it! This is going to happen! It’s happening! DON’T SCREW IT UP!
    â€˜A quest? What are you talking about?’
    Ben could feel his cheeks beginning to burn. He didn’t know why he had suddenly decided to bare his soul to Grace Matthews, but he was committed now; there was no going back.
    â€˜Like a pact,’ he said. ‘Me and Sean Redman.’
    Grace rolled her eyes. ‘Christ. This isn’t going to be good, is it?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ said Ben. ‘It seemed like fun when we started it, but now I’m not sure. I think it might be sort of stupid.’
    Grace leant back against the pile of pillows at the end of the bed and folded her arms across herself. Ben tried not to notice how her forearms pushed her breasts up and in, creating a cleavage that threatened to render him incapable of conscious thought. ‘Come on then,’ she said. ‘Out with it.’
    â€˜It was after I came back from Kefalonia last summer,’ said Ben. ‘There was this waitress … ’
    â€˜There was, was there?’ asked Grace. ‘Did you have a little holiday romance with her?’
    Ben shook his head. ‘No. I never spoke to her. But I saw her … on the beach … ’
    â€˜In a bikini?’ asked Grace. There was a set to her jaw, a certain straightness to her mouth that made Ben suspect she was already several steps ahead of him.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜
Not
in a bikini?’
    â€˜Yeah. Well, sort of. Top half.’
    â€˜So you saw some Greek girl topless on the beach. What’s the big deal?’
    Ben said nothing. He couldn’t work out how to articulate why the moment had seemed so important to him, why it had sent him home lit from within by some unknown fire, ready to make pacts and start quests. After a long moment, Grace spared him.
    â€˜Oh for Christ’s sake,’ she said, rolling her eyes and fixing him with a look of intense disappointment. ‘They were probably the first tits you’d ever seen apart from your mum’s, weren’t they?’
    Ben didn’t reply.
    â€˜Jesus, why are all boys so stupidly
predictable
?’ she asked, her pale cheeks starting flush pink. ‘What the hell is it with all of you and tits? You’re like dogs after a bone. Tell me this quest then, you might as well. What was it, who could be the first to get a girl to show you hers?’
    â€˜Sort of,’ managed Ben. ‘We had to … touch … ’ His voice faded away to nothing, driven back into his throat by the look on Grace Matthews’ face.
    â€˜You’re on a quest to see who can be the first to touch a girl’s tits? Is that what you’re telling me?’
    â€˜I … ’
    â€˜Because you know how pathetic that sounds, right?’
    â€˜I do. But I … didn’t. Until now.’
    â€˜And you heard that I liked you, so you thought I was your best shot?’
    Ben stared helplessly at her.
    â€˜Do you know why I liked you?’ asked Grace, her eyes blazing. ‘Because I thought you might be different. I can get this sort of crap from any of the boys in our year, could go downstairs right now and get it from any of the dickheads dancing around in the living room. You, though? You’re sort of awkward, and you try to hide how clever you are, which pisses me off, but you’ve always been nice to me and I thought you might be a good person, that you might have something about you, something more going on that just football and cider and trying to shove your hand up girls’ skirts. So maybe your mate Sean
is
the smart one, because I’m clearly the idiot here.’
    Ben reached out a