by J. Lynn
“Are you sure?” I teased. “Because I’m here at your service and taking your jeans off is something I feel I’d be exceptionally wonderful at.”
Her lips twitched. “I’m sure you would be. Put your hoodie back on.”
I leaned against the sink, stretching out my back. “I like when you look.”
“I remember.” She turned and wiggled her ass in the most enticing way, shedding her jeans.
Looking away, I snatched my hoodie off the floor. “You think you’ll be good out of the bathroom?”
“I hope so.”
Once I had her back in the living room, I found aspirin and grabbed another bottle of water. After she drank up, I sat on the couch and tugged gently on her arm. “Sit with me.” When she started to climb over my legs, I stopped her. “No. Sit with me.”
Confused, she shook her head. I leaned back and pulled her down. She was stiff as a dollar bill for about a second and then her body caved into my lap. I grabbed the quilt, tossing it over her bare legs.
“You should try to go to sleep.” I wrapped my arms around her waist as the TV cast flickering shadows across the room. “It’ll help in the morning.”
Shortcake let out a little sigh as she snuggled against my chest. “You’re not leaving?”
“Nope.”
“At all?”
Lowering my chin, I brushed my lips across her forehead. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here when you wake up, sweetheart. I promise.”
I woke the following morning the same way I had fallen asleep. Avery was still curled up in my lap, but she was awake now and she kept wiggling around. I groaned, tightening my arms around her as her hip pressed against my erection.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s morning and you’re sitting on me. That’s a combination meant to bring any man down.”
I opened my eyes in time to see a flush sweep over Shortcake’s cheeks. I moved a hand to her hip, watching her sleepy expression through heavily hooded eyes.
“Do you want me to get off you?” she asked.
“Hell no.” I slid my other hand up her spine, threading my fingers through her soft hair. “Absolutely fucking not.”
She grinned. “Okay.”
“Finally, I think we’re actually agreeing on something.”
Tilting her head to the side, she studied me for a long moment. “Did last night really happen?”
I grinned. “Depends on what you think happened.”
“I took my shirt off for you?”
At the mention of that, my gaze dipped. The hardened tips of her breasts were nicely visible. “Yes. Lovely moment.”
“And you turned me down?”
My hand drifted to the side of her thigh. “Only because our first time together isn’t going to be when you’re drunk.”
“Our first time together?”
I grinned lazily. “Uh-huh.”
She turned a pretty shade of pink. “You’re really confident about there being a first time between us.”
“I am.” I leaned back against the cushion, watching her as I smoothed my hand up and down, from hip to thigh.
“We talked, right?” She glanced at her bare wrist. “I told you when I did this?”
“Yes.”
Her lashes lifted. “And you don’t think I’m a raving bitch?”
“Well . . .”
She pinned me with a dry-as-sand look.
I grinned as I moved my other hand up to the nape of her neck. “You want to know what I think?”
“Depends.”
I led her head down so that our lips almost touched. “I think we need to talk.”
“We do,” she whispered.
But the longer she sat in my lap, the less likely we were to talk. I gripped her hips and lifted her up, dropping her on the cushion beside me.
“I thought we needed to talk,” she asked as I stood.
“We do. I’ll be right back.”
Confusion poured into her expression.
“Just stay there, okay?” I started for the door. “Don’t move from that spot. Don’t think about anything. Just sit there and I’ll be right back.”
She rested her chin on the back of the couch. “Okay.”
“I mean it, don’t think about anything.” I opened the door. “Not the last couple of minutes or last night. Not the last month. Or what’s coming next. Just sit there.”
“All right,” she whispered. “I promise.”
I held her gaze for a moment and once I was sure she wasn’t going to lock herself in her bedroom, I hurried to my apartment. It was quiet inside, but there was a pair of heels next to the couch. Smiling, I quickly brushed my teeth and then grabbed the required items from the kitchen. Took me all of five minutes and when I returned to her apartment, she was where I left her.
Her gaze dropped to what I held in my hands and she smiled. “Eggs—you brought eggs.”
“And my skillet.” Using my hip, I nudged the door closed. “And I brushed my teeth.”
“You didn’t put a shirt on.”
I cast her a long look. “I know it would break your heart not to be able to see me shirtless.”
As I put the eggs on the counter, I heard a muffled squeak and turned toward the door. “Avery, what in the hell are you doing?”
“Nothing,” was the response.
I smiled to myself as I turned back to the counter. “Then get your ass in here.” When I heard her feet hit the floor, I frowned. “And don’t you dare change.” I paused. “Because I really like seeing you in my clothes.”
“Well, when you put it like that . . .” She appeared in the doorway.
“What?” I looked over my shoulder at her. “You missed my eggs that badly?”
She blinked slowly. “I didn’t think I’d have you in my kitchen making eggs again.”
Those words affected me more than she knew. I adjusted the controls on the stove. “You missed me that much?”
“Yes.”
I turned to her, running a hand through my hair. “I’ve missed you.”
Shortcake inhaled deeply. “I want to say I’m sorry for how I acted when you . . . well, when you saw my scar. I’ve never let anyone see it.” She inched forward, worrying her lower lip. “I know that’s not an excuse, because I was a terrible bitch, but . . .”
“I’ll accept your apology on one condition.” I folded my arms.
“Anything,” she said passionately.
“You trust me.”
“I trust you, Cam.”
“No, you don’t.” I walked to the table and slid out a chair. “Have a seat.”
Once she sat and adjusted the borrowed shirt, I went back to the stove and cracked an egg. “If you trusted me, you wouldn’t have reacted the way you did. And that’s not me judging you or any of that kind of shit. You got to trust me that I’m not going to be an ass or freak out over that kind of stuff. You have to trust that I care enough about you.”
At the sound of her soft inhale, I turned to her. “There’s a lot I don’t know about you and I hope we fix that. I’m not going to push you, but you can’t shut me out. Okay. You have to trust me.”
Her gaze met mine. “I trust you. I will trust you.”
“I accept your apology.”
I finished up the eggs and returned to the table with OJ before I broached the issue at hand. “So where do we go from here? Tell me what you want.”
She stopped with a fork full of fluffy eggs. “What I want?”
“From me.” I popped a whole egg in my mouth. “What do you want from me?”
Shortcake sat back, placing her fork down on the plate. She opened her mouth and then squared up her shoulders. “You.”
My chest spasmed and for a moment I couldn’t speak. “Me?”
“I want you,” she said, flushing. “Obviously, I’ve never been in a relationship and I don’t even know if that’s what you want. Maybe it’s not—”
“It is.”
“It is?” she asked.<
br />
I chuckled, feeling lighter than I had in weeks as I picked up another egg. “You sound so surprised, like you can’t believe it. It’s really kind of adorable. Please continue.”
“Please continue . . . ?” She shook her head. “I want to be with you.”
I chewed the egg slowly. “That’s the second thing we’re in agreement on this morning.”
“You want to be with me?”
My lips curved up. “I’ve wanted to be with you since the first time you turned me down. I’ve just been waiting for you to come around. So, if we’re going to do this, there are some ground rules.”
“Rules?”
Nodding, I peeled the third egg. “There’s not that many. No shutting me out. It’s just you and me and no one else. And finally, you keep looking damn sexy in my shirts.”
Her laugh burst from her, deep and real. “I think all of them are doable.”
“Good.” I wondered if she saw how my hands shook as I peeled the final egg.
“I’ve never done of any of this before, Cam. And I’m not easy to get along with all the time. I know that. I can’t promise this will be easy for you.”
“Nothing fun in life is easy.” As I finished off the milk, I was done talking for now. I needed to tell her about what happened three years ago and what I had to do every Friday night, but it had to wait. I needed to do what I’d wanted to do since the night of Thanksgiving.
I stood and went to her side. Taking her hands, I tugged her onto her feet and wrapped my arms around her waist. I lowered my head, brushing my lips across her cheek. “I’m serious about you, Avery. If you want me for real, you have me.”
Shortcake pressed her palms to my chest. “I want you for real.”
“Good to know.” I slanted my lips over hers. “Because, if not, this would get a whole lot awkward.”
She laughed, but the sound was lost when I pressed my mouth to hers. The contact felt right, as necessary as breathing. The kiss was soft and slow, but as she slid her hands into my hair, I deepened the kiss, giving her what she quietly asked for. My lips slid over hers, back and forth, nudging and pushing, and then coaxing them open with my tongue.
Her moan set a fire to my blood and she tasted like juice and something far sweeter. My hands dropped to her hips and I hauled her against me, lifting her up. Surprise shuttled through me as her legs wrapped around my waist. I pressed her back against the wall, fitting our bodies together.
Kissing her was all that I’d planned, but the feel of her breasts flattened against my chest and her core hot against me was my undoing. I was lost in her. Shortcake was timid and she was innocent of a lot of things, but she was also very passionate and her response was natural and so very seductive.
I groaned as she tilted her hips, pressing against me in that wonderful artless way of hers. Her fingers tightened in my hair as she held my mouth to hers. I was so hard and swollen and the scrap of clothing covering her between her thighs wasn’t enough of a barrier. I wanted nothing more than to take her right here, against the wall, and I doubted she’d protest, but it wasn’t right.
With effort, I lifted my mouth. “I need to go.”
Her hands slid back down to my cheeks. “You’re leaving now?”
“I’m not a saint, sweetheart.” My voice was deep, rough with desire. “So if I don’t leave now, I won’t be leaving for some time.”
She shuddered, and my body tightened. “What if I don’t want you to leave?”
“Fuck.” I gripped her thighs, briefly squeezing my eyes closed. “You’re making this very hard to be the good guy you said I was last night.”
Her lips grazed my cheek. “I’m not drunk.”
Laughing softly, I pressed my forehead to hers. “Yeah, I can see that and while the idea of taking you right now, against the wall, is enough to make me lose control, I want you to know that I’m serious. You’re not a hookup. You’re not a friend with benefits. You’re more than that to me.”
Her eyes drifted shut as her chest rose against mine. “Well, that was . . . really sort of perfect.”
“I’m really sort of perfect,” I teased, untangling her legs and setting her on her feet. “Everyone else knows that. You’re just a little slow on the uptake.”
She laughed, warming her eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“Take a cold shower.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
Another laugh bubbled up from her. “You coming back over?”
“Always.” I kissed her tenderly, pouring what I felt into the quick, all too brief kiss.
“Okay.” Her smile spread across her face and it was the most divine thing I’d ever seen. “I’ll wait for you.”
Twenty-Two
“You’re not coming over tonight, are you?” Jase asked, his voice barely audible over the thumping music.
Slipping my feet into my shoes, I held my cell between my cheek and shoulder. “Nah. I’m taking Avery out to dinner. I guess if we get back—”
“No explanation needed. I don’t blame you.” He sounded bored, not with me, but with the whole scene. There was a pause. “Your girl doesn’t seem like the type who’s into the party scene.”
I got hung up on the phrase “your girl” and the rush of pride it sent through me for what was probably a second too long. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
Jase chuckled softly. “She’s turned you into a changed man, hasn’t she?”
I smiled as I grabbed my keys. Jase might be right. Since I’d met Avery in August, a lot of my habits had changed, even more so during the weeks following fight night. “Something like that.”
“Well, have fun. Don’t impregnate her.”
A laugh burst from me. “Jase, man, come on . . .”
He chuckled again. “I’m kidding.”
Rolling my eyes, I said my good-byes and headed over to Avery’s.
We had a quick dinner in Martinsburg and then headed back to her apartment. I made a pit stop and picked up Raphael, letting him roam around Avery’s kitchen for a bit. The little guy needed his exercise after all. And Shortcake seemed to enjoy picking him up and turning him around in the other direction, so that he shuffled his way back and forth between us. This wasn’t something I ever thought I’d be doing on a Saturday night, but I wasn’t bored or wanting to be anywhere else. Truth be told, I was having more fun doing this than I ever had at one of the frat parties.
“It’s a terrarium,” I corrected her when she called his habitat an aquarium. “And he has a rocking terrarium. Got him a new one for his birthday.”
“You know when his birthday is?” She grinned.
“Yep. July twenty-sixth.” Speaking of such . . . “When is your birthday?”
“Uh, you have a while until you have to worry about that.” She crossed her ankles. “When’s yours?”
“June fifteenth.” I would not be deterred. “When is yours, Avery?”
She sighed. “It was January second.”
“I missed your birthday?” My brows rose as I leaned forward.
“It’s not a big deal.” She shrugged. “I went to the Smithsonian and then I got sick, so it’s probably a good thing you weren’t around.”
Went to the Smithsonian . . . ? It struck me then and I felt like an ass. “Aw, man, that’s why you said you wanted to go there on the second. You were alone? Shit. I feel so —”
“Don’t,” she said, raising her hand. “You don’t need to feel terrible. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. I would’ve taken her if she had let me, but it still didn’t set well in my chest. “Well, there’s always next year.”
Her lips split into a wide smile that caused my heart to stutter. Needing a moment to myself before I did something incredibly stupid like get all vagina-emotional, I scooped up Raphael and took him back home, promising to come right back. I planned to talk to her when I did, about what I had done, but when I did return, I discovered Shortcak
e standing in the hall that led back to her bedrooms with a look on her face that did funny, twisty things to my insides.
The look on her face was part anticipation, part uncertainty, and the driving force behind it was an innocent curiosity that literally blew my thoughts out of my head. I had no idea why exactly it was important to talk about serious shit right now. Since the Sunday we cleared everything up, I’d been taking things slow, so slow I wondered if I could go any slower. Every night I ended up going one on one with myself to the point that my hand was starting to get numb while I took notes in class.
It was worth it though. The last thing I wanted to do was rush her, but right now . . .
Avery wetted her lower lip as I pulled my sweater off, draping it along the back of her couch. Her gaze dipped to the width of skin exposed between my shirt and jeans and a flush spread across her cheeks.
Yeah, Shortcake looked like she wanted to be rushed.
I sat on the couch while she remained by the hall, fiddling with the edge of her sweater dress in the soft glow of the TV. When she had pulled off her tights earlier, after returning from dinner, I’d spent an ungodly amount of time staring at her bare legs like a teen who’d never seen so much skin before.
“You going to come over here or stare at me the rest of the evening?” I asked, grinning as she took a deep breath and approached the couch slowly. I lifted a hand to pull her down next to me, but little Shortcake had something else entirely planned.
My grin faded as she put her knees on either side of my thighs and sat in my lap. My body’s response was ridiculously immediate. I hardened as I curled my fingers around her hips. “Hey there, sweetheart.”
“Hey,” she whispered.
“Did you miss me this much? I was only gone a few minutes.”
She laid her hands on my shoulders as she pressed down, bringing our bodies together in all the right places. “Maybe.”
Moving my hands up her sides, I cupped her cheeks. She had to feel me between her thighs. There was no hiding that. “What are you doing?”
Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips, and I bit back a groan. “What does it look like?”