The Perfect Guy: A Romance Novel

by LaCarro, Maria

  He closed his eyes and simply breathed for a second. I was completely mesmerized by it all.

  “I never planned on meeting you while I was here in Seattle, and I would never have imagined myself in a situation like this a few months ago. I can’t tell you that I became a completely honest man after I left the program no matter how much I would like to. I, sometimes, kept to my ways with women. I seduced them and then left the next morning without a word and without feeling guilty because they used me as much as I used them. I needed to do what I did to keep you out of my system.”

  He sighed.

  “You fucked me up badly, Jenn. You turned my world upside down, but when I saw you in that supermarket, and I followed you out to the parking lot, I knew that I couldn’t care less about the world I used to live in. I didn’t care that it would never be the same, and I didn’t care that I would never be with a woman from that world again, because if you gave me a second chance, I would gladly leave it all behind. For you.”

  CHAPTER 29

  TRUST

  He finally opened his eyes again, but a second had barely gone by before I had my arms around his neck and was standing on my tiptoes so that I could truly kiss him.

  Being the overly emotional, and hormonal, woman that I was, I couldn’t be held accountable for my actions as I pushed him back down on the couch and straddled him.

  “Jenn, maybe we shouldn’t—” James tried when he realized that he’d suddenly gotten a pregnant, sexually starved woman on top of him.

  “Yes, I think we should,” I insisted and trapped his face between my hands before pressing my mouth forcefully against his.

  He wasn’t responding the way I wanted him to, so I started a rocking motion with my hips in hope of igniting that fire I knew he had inside. He groaned when my center repeatedly came in contact with his crotch, and I could clearly feel the stirring in his pants.

  But he still acted hesitant, so with determination, I unbuttoned my shirt and grabbed his hand to place it on my breast. Even though I was the one who placed his hand there, I still felt electrical currents shoot through me from the contact, and I moaned.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I had sex, and I knew that all of that pent up sexual frustration was now spewing out uncontrollably.

  “James, please, I…” I couldn’t finish because even though he had barely touched me, my center was already throbbing almost painfully. I needed him to do something, but he wasn’t, and it frustrated me even further.

  “No, Jenn, I can’t…I-I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret,” he said, but he wasn’t pushing me away or removing his hand from my breast, and his erection was pushing on the button of his jeans. His body clearly said one thing while his head said another.

  “Why would I regret it?” I panted out. “I trust you.” It was the first time I told him out loud that he had gained my trust again.

  This time, he did pull back so that he could look me in the eye. “You do?” he asked with wide eyes.

  “Yes, I do,” I replied with deep feeling behind the words. “Since you came back, you haven’t given me any reason not to.”

  “Fuck, Jenn, you have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear those words from you.” His eyes darkened with lust when he felt that he didn’t have to restrain himself any longer. He now knew that he had my trust, and he didn’t have to fear that I would regret anything.

  It was his turn to grab my face and pull me down so that he could kiss me. This kiss was deep and full of that passion I’d only ever shared with James, and we both moaned at the sensations.

  Our movements became hurried and shaky as we tried to touch every inch of each other. We were both so excited and rather impatient as our bodies thought that this was long overdue.

  His shirt was soon unbuttoned, and I traced my hands all over his torso, from his belly-button to his shoulders.

  It was almost too much. I didn’t know what to do or where to go when he started to kiss my throat and then suck lightly on the skin where my shoulder met my neck. All I really wanted was to get us both out of our clothes.

  I was still rocking my hips, and the motion caused the seam of my pants to press against my clit, and I was already so close to my orgasm—especially now when James contributed to it by pushing his hips up when I pressed down.

  “Fuck! That feels so good!” I exclaimed, and I reached down between us to unzip his jeans.

  He was still restrained by his underwear, but when his jeans were unzipped, he groaned at the feeling of being slightly freer.

  I was just about to get up from my position so that we could remove our pants, but James suddenly froze.

  “Jenn, wait!” he said and tilted his head toward the front door as if he was listening for something. “I heard a car.”

  We sat still for a few seconds, me still straddling him and both of our shirts unbuttoned, and that was when I heard the unmistakable steps of my father on my porch, and then his signature knock before he inserted his key.

  “Shit!” With as much grace as I could muster, which wasn’t a lot, I almost flew off James’s lap and dove behind the wall that hid everything from view if you stood in the hallway.

  With panicked movements, I gestured for James to join me. He was still on the couch, his shirt and jeans unbuttoned, but luckily, his erection seemed to have deflated slightly.

  James was behind the wall just in time before the door was opened, and I heard Dad’s voice call out for me.

  “Jenn?”

  “Shit, shit, shit!” I mumbled underneath my breath as I tried to button my shirt, but my shaky hands made it almost impossible. “Uhm, just a second, Dad!” I called back, but my voice wasn’t very steady.

  I finally got the last stubborn button, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw that James had almost buttoned his shirt as well, so we exchanged a look before I started to make my way into the hallway.

  “Hi, Dad! What’s up?” I asked, but as soon as the words were out, I wanted to hit myself. I never asked my Dad ‘what was up’, and now he knew that I was hiding something.

  He immediately narrowed his eyes and scrutinized every inch of me. He didn’t beat around the bush, either. “What are you hiding, Bells?”

  I let out a very fake laugh. “I’m not hiding anything. What are you doing here?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  He raised his eyebrow skeptically at me. “I’m a human lie detector, and you’re not very good at lying, Doll. Now, is there something you want to tell me?”

  I opened my mouth to deny it again when we both heard something fall in the living room, which caused us both to walk in there.

  James had somehow made his laptop appear on the coffee table, and he was currently swabbing up the water he’d tipped out from the glass next to it. It all looked very innocent, and it was a good distraction for Dad as well.

  “James,” he said in greeting. “How are things with you?”

  “Chief Braun,” James straightened out and walked up to Dad to shake his hand. Both of them were still very formal with each other, and I never commented on it. It was their business how they wanted to act with each other, and as long as they were civil, I was fine with it. “I’m fine, thank you.”

  “Good, good. I didn’t know you’d still be here. How’s the house hunting going?” I wanted to kick my Dad for that comment. I’d confided in him about my conflicting feelings of having James living with me, but I never thought he would actually throw a remark like that in James’s face when they met again.

  James cleared his throat uncomfortably and started to rub his neck that had gone slightly red. “Uhm, well, I, uh, I haven’t really found anything I like yet.”

  Dad nodded with that suspicious expression still on his face. “I see. Well, it wasn’t my intention to disturb you. I will come back another time.” He turned to leave, but by the door, he looked over his shoulder. “And James, you missed a button.”

  James immediately looked down at hi
s shirt, and sure enough, a button in the middle had been buttoned into the wrong hole, so the entire shirt looked crooked. I groaned lowly and hid in one of my hands.

  “Sir, I—” James started, but Dad had already left.

  Our eyes met for a second, and suddenly, I couldn’t hold in my laughter any longer. It took only a moment for James to join me. It was just the easiest way to handle the utter embarrassment I felt.

  James and I didn’t continue anything that night. The moment had passed and we both felt too embarrassed, having been caught by my Dad, to feel like doing anything, and James also revealed that he would have hated himself if our first time had been on my living room couch.

  “I want to worship and cherish you. I want you to know how much you giving me your trust means to me. I don’t plan to let any moment pass me by when I can show you exactly how I feel.”

  That declaration was enough to make my insides clench, but he was right. I didn’t want our first time to be on the couch, either. I wanted us to be able to take our time with each other, when we knew we wouldn’t accidentally be interrupted by uninvited guests.

  I would have to talk to my dad about that. I had a man in my life now, and some privacy would feel nice.

  “Jenn?” James said after a moment of silence.

  I turned and looked at him.

  “About what your dad said; how do you feel with me living here? I know we haven’t really talked about it.”

  I hesitated. I was so afraid to hurt him if I told him that I didn’t want to live with him any longer. Especially after everything that had transpired between us.

  “I don’t know,” I started carefully. “Sometimes it feels like we’re too far ahead on the path, moving way too fast, but other times it feels right. I’m rather conflicted by it.”

  He smiled and nodded. “I understand,” he said and stood up. He leaned down and gently kissed the top of my head. “I’ll start looking for a house in the morning.”

  I blinked and stared at him questioningly. “What?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry, Jenn. I know you don’t want to hurt me, but you need your space. I get that, so I’ll look for a house in the morning.” He started to walk away, but I wasn’t slow to follow.

  “You got all that from what I said?” I asked incredulously.

  He stopped and turned back to me. “If you’d actually wanted me to stay here, you wouldn’t have hesitated in telling me that, and that’s how I knew, love. I’m not hurt. I want you to feel comfortable with me, and so I’ll move out.”

  He gave me another kiss to my forehead and disappeared into the guest room, but I was frozen to the spot, only thinking that he had called me “love.”

  James kept to his promise and began looking for houses the following day, and because that kept him busy, and I suddenly got a new wave of workload that week, we weren’t able to explore any further into our physical relationship.

  I was also growing bigger and my excitement grew every day. I was due on October 21st, and it was now September 3rd, only ten days to my thirty-third birthday.

  I had no idea if James knew this, but it would be interesting to see what would happen.

  I knew Becca would want to throw a party for me, but I had no idea what kind. Usually, they consisted of all of my friends and family, lots of delicious food and booze, games and dancing, but with Baby on the way, I was pretty sure that the wildness would be extracted from the event.

  Later that afternoon, when James was out on a showing of a house he’d found, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, Becca came inside like a whirlwind, a binder on her arm and an excited glint in her eye.

  “All right! Let’s get to planning, babe! We have ten days and so much to do!”

  I only smiled and shook my head before I closed the door and followed Becca into the living room where she had taken up residence on the couch. Her binder was open, and she was writing something in a small notebook.

  We sat there and talked ideas the entire time and then a meeting I hadn’t planned for happened.

  James came home, and when he walked through the front door, Becca looked up and met his eyes. I saw something harden in her expression, and I knew that no matter how much I told her to leave it, Becca would always feel some resentment toward James.

  “Uhm, James, this is my best friend, Rebecca Walters. Becca, James Masen,” I said in hopes that introductions would smooth things out.

  “Oh, I know who he is,” Becca said and stood up from the couch. She held out her hand for him to shake. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said pleasantly, and he took her offered hand in his.

  However, for a second, I saw him cringe, and then Becca pulled him closer to her and whispered something in his ear.

  “Becca, stop it!” I sighed. I knew she was threatening him, but I was sick of it. She’d promised to play nice as long as I didn’t tell her any different, and this wasn’t playing nice.

  “What?” she asked sweetly when she leaned away from a wide-eyed James. “Oh, well, I believe we’ve planned enough for today, and I should be on my way. As I said, it was very nice meeting you, James.”

  As soon as the door closed behind Becca, James relaxed. “Holy shit,” he said. “Your BFF has a terrifyingly strong grip.” He held his right hand in his left and massaged it.

  The action caused me to giggle, but when James’s eyes snapped my way, I stopped.

  “I’m sorry,” I said and stood up. “Do you want me to kiss it better?”

  He finally saw the humor in it and smiled. “Yes, I do,” he said and held up his injured hand.

  I placed a soft kiss on the back of his hand and then held it between both of mine. “Better?” I asked.

  Very,” he replied with a smirk.

  CHAPTER 30

  CHANGES

  “Jenn?”

  “Yeah?” I looked up from my book and saw James leaning against the frame of the opening to my living room. He was looking at me in a sort of wistful way, and I immediately placed my book down on the table. “What is it?”

  He sighed. “I’ve found a house. I can move in next week.”

  I blinked. “Oh!” I had no idea why I suddenly felt so disappointed. I wanted James to move out, and I wanted my own space again, but I wasn’t as excited about it as I thought I’d be. “That’s great!” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, but James must have heard that it wasn’t completely genuine.

  He didn’t try to push me into anything, though. He just smiled gently. “It’s for the best,” he said, and I did agree with him about that. As much as I’d gotten used to having James around me all the time now, we couldn’t all of a sudden live together permanently. That would be moving way too fast in our relationship.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” I said and then tried to stand up, but the softness of my couch made it difficult for me, so James came up to me and gave me a hand. “How I’m going to get up without you around is going to be interesting, though,” I said jokingly, also referring to the fact that James had helped me get out of bed the previous day. My stomach was just so big now, and I could now understand why Sue and Dad wanted me to start my maternity leave this week.

  My birthday had been last week, and as it turned out, James had known about it, but he wasn’t sure if he would be included in the celebrations, so he had made me breakfast in bed, and once again, if we hadn’t been interrupted by the doorbell, the morning would have become a lot more interesting.

  Becca had been that morning’s cock blocker when she insisted on starting the decorating for the party later that night. I had gone along with it, until I realized that her guest list was one person short. I knew then that she had excluded James without my knowledge, but all I had to do was give her my death glare for her to surrender.

  It was a lucky thing for her, too, because I was getting seriously annoyed with her crap.

  James chuckled at my joke. “I guess you’re quite ready for this pregnancy to be o
ver, huh?”

  I rolled my eyes at the obviousness of that. “Uh, yeah! The nursery is done, but Baby still needs to bake for another five weeks. Of course I’m impatient!”

  “Shouldn’t you revel in your last weeks of freedom? You know nothing will be the same once Baby’s here,” he said and smiled.

  “I’ve had thirty-three years of freedom. It’s time I think about someone other than myself for a change,” I replied, and grinned when I felt Baby kick. “Besides, I’m not the only one who’s impatient.”

  James placed his hands on my stomach. “Well, keep him in just a while longer. We want him healthy when he comes out.” Baby kicked again, and James’s smile widened. “I’m gonna miss this little one telling me to stop touching his mama.”

  “Hey, you don’t know it’s a boy, and you’re only moving out,” I said, and James looked up to meet my eyes. I raised my hand and cupped his cheek. “It’s not like we’ll stop seeing each other. I kind of like seeing your face from time to time.”

  “That’s a good thing at least.”

  “I’d say that’s a very good thing,” I replied and stood up on my toes to kiss him. “What kind of house is it? Where is it?”

  “It’s not far—only two miles from here—and it’s all I need for the moment. It’s one story with a basement and a porch.”

  “Sounds nice. Will you take me to look at it sometime?”

  “Of course,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  That week went by very fast, and because of work, I hadn’t found the time to go with James to his new house, but I was going with him in his car when he moved all of his stuff, which wasn’t very much. He basically only had a bag of clothes and a few other essentials, but it only took one car load.