“No, that’s not—” I took a deep breath and looked at him, his eyes narrow and guarded, and I almost gave up. But then what? Go home and keep hiding so I wouldn’t have to face the possibility of failure again?
No.
“I got scared.”
He hesitated before responding. “And you’re not scared anymore?”
“I’m terrified! I’m scared you’re going to say that no, I missed my chance. I’m scared you’re going to realize you don’t actually like me. I’m scared I’m going to leave in a few days, and that this is going to be too hard.” I blinked, then brought my eyes to his. “But I’m more scared of knowing I didn’t try.”
We looked at each other for a long minute, neither of us moving. Then his posture relaxed, and he took my arm, pulled me inside, and shut the door, then pressed me up against it, his mouth on mine, one hand in my hair, the other on my waist, traveling upward. I shifted my weight, allowing him to move closer, wanting to touch every inch of him, when I felt— “Jax!” We both looked down. She had pushed her way between his legs, her nose nuzzling into my crotch.
I started to laugh as Joe tried to step over her without falling, and I took her face in my hands. “Sorry, girl. I think I’m stealing your bed tonight.”
Joe laughed and shook his head. “Do you want a drink?”
I said I would love one and followed him into the kitchen, where he poured two glasses of wine from the same bottle as the night before. I was leaning against the kitchen island, musing how it felt like so much longer than just a day ago. Joe was leaning against the opposite counter, watching me.
“Where are you right now?” he asked.
I set my glass down and held out a hand to him. “Right here.”
He didn’t need another invitation. He picked me up and sat me on the island, our faces level as he kissed me hungrily. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he groaned softly. I felt one of his hands under my sweatshirt at my back, and it was too much material between us, so I reached down to remove it, only breaking the kiss long enough to get my head out of the hoodie, then tugged at his shirt as well until he pulled it off and reached around to unhook my bra.
Leaning over me, he pushed gently until I was lying on the island, and I ran my fingers through his hair as he kissed my neck, my body on fire at his touch. His thumbs hooked into the waistband of my shorts, and he slid them down over my thighs before discarding them on the floor. His head moved lower, and he looked up at my sharp intake of breath.
Our eyes met, and he shook his head slightly.
“What?”
His lips spread in a slow smile that absolutely melted me. “You’re beautiful,” he said, moving up to kiss me again, slower this time.
Then he stopped abruptly and looked to his right. I turned my head to see Jax’s face and paws at the edge of the island as she stood on her hind legs, her tongue lolling out as she watched us.
“What is wrong with her?” he asked.
I sat up and brushed my lips against his. “Bedroom?”
He nodded and offered me a hand as I jumped down from the island.
I glanced back at him over my shoulder as I walked out of the kitchen. “Please tell me you have condoms.”
“Don’t you mean prophylactics?”
I let out a shriek of laughter as he grabbed me around the waist and planted a kiss on the side of my neck, and whispered that yes, he did.
“Good,” I said as he shut the door, keeping Jax outside, and the two of us fell, still laughing, onto the bed together.
I smiled in the darkness after, pillowed in the crook of Joe’s arm as he drowsily ran his fingers up and down from my belly button to my collarbone. Just that light touch felt like it was setting off a chain reaction to every nerve ending in my body.
I turned to face him, pressing my body against his side, and he looked down at me. “Do I get to hear the bad date story yet?”
I made a face. “Do you want to?”
“Desperately.”
I shook my head. “Okay, so she tells me she’s fixing me up with this guy whose grandma she knows, and I agree to go. And we meet at a restaurant, and he seems normal and all, and we wind up going back to his place to watch a movie.”
“How old were you?”
“Maybe nineteen?”
“So you knew what watch a movie meant?”
“No, I mean, yes—normally. But we were actually just watching the movie. And then I looked down and—” I stopped talking.
“And?”