Page 34 of The Hook Up
Ty shoved the wrapper in the trash and unrolled the condom. “It’s the right size, and durable and?—”
“Right. Yes, of course.” Ellie sat back on her heels, her dress still plastered to her breasts. She plucked at the wet fabric, driving him mindless with the peripheral view of her hand reaching for her breasts again and again.
Ty focused on his work.
“You know, you shouldn’t store condoms in your wallet,” she said. “There’s this whole big article about it on the Madame Butterfly website. Apparently, if you leave them in there for a long time, the friction from repeatedly opening and closing the wallet will degrade the latex and make holes in the condom.”
“It’s only been in there an hour,” he said slowly. “So, it should be safe.”
Ellie stared at him, and he waited for the words to register.
She smiled. “Oh.Oh.” The smile got wider, and she plucked at her damp dress again. “I see.”
Ty nodded, then turned back to the task at hand. He tried not to think of how he’d imagined using the damn condom when he put it there before leaving for dinner, but how could he not? Ellie stood just a few feet away, lush and wet and so fuckable that his brain had short-circuited.
He yanked a utility knife out of his back pocket and began trimming the condom to size.
“What else do you need?” Ellie asked. “Um. For the repair, I mean.”
“A couple blocks of wood would be great.” Ty set the knife down and held up his hands. “Maybe about this thick and this long?”
Ellie stared, eyes fixed on his fingers and palms, then nodded. “I’ll see what I can find.”
She scrambled up, slipping once in a puddle. Ty reached out to catch her, but she was on her feet before he put his hands on her.
Dammit.
Part of him felt like a dick for not doing a better job helping her. Another part felt like a dick for ogling her. Either way, that was an awful lot of dick feelings.
Jesus. Control yourself.
He turned back to his work, needing to concentrate on Ellie’s pipe so he wouldn’t be so fixated on his own.
You’re such a pig. Just like your old man.
Something crashed at the other end of the house, and Ty wondered if he should check on Ellie. “You okay?”
“Fine, fine,” she called. “Just looking for that wood.”
Ty swallowed hard and wondered if he should just call an after-hours plumber. That’s what a better guy would do. A guy who’d stay focused on helping Ellie instead of thinking illicit thoughts about her. She deserved a hero, not a creeper. He muttered under his breath, curse words that seemed creative even for him.
“What’s that?” she called.
“Nothing,” he yelled back, wondering if lust had pickled his brain and made it seep into his eardrums. “If you have any thread sealing tape, can you grab that?”
It seemed unlikely, but he might as well ask. He pressed the condom over the pinprick holes in the pipe, doing his best to create a seal.
Footsteps alerted him to Ellie’s return. She held out a pair of kid’s building blocks—one red, one yellow—along with a spool of bright purple tape Ty recognized.
He squinted at it. “Is that the bondage tape you were using the other night?”
She nodded, embarrassed. “I know it’s not exactly what you asked for, but I thought maybe it could work.”
“It’s worth a shot.”
Ellie took a step back and Ty placed one block on each side of the condom-covered pipe.
“What are those for?” Ellie asked from behind him.
