He grins.
But I don’t return the smile. This is a chance to say something that matters. “I like being with you. It’s that simple.”
A faint pink hue spreads across his cheeks.
Whoa.
I run my fingertip over the spot of color. “You just blushed.”
He dips his head. “Sometimes I do that.”
“Did I make you blush?”
“Yeah, you did. It was nice. I liked it. All right? Don’t make a big deal out of it,” he mutters, and it’s adorable how he tries to deny that the heat in his cheeks is a big deal.
It is a huge deal.
But I’m not going to press. I’m simply going to enjoy this delicious detail about him.
Jackson clears his throat and sets a hand on my knee. “What about your brother? You had a deal with him. What does this do to that deal?”
“The deal,” I repeat, buying some time.
Am I going to tell Jackson what the true stakes were? That Zane and I made a deal we wouldn’t fall in love?
“Because you said earlier we were already involved,” Jackson says, and there’s my answer.
I don’t have to tell him.
I already said enough.
But it feels good to let him know what he’s doing to me. “I do feel that way, J. I don’t know what it means. But I feel like there’s something going on here.” I meet his eyes, trying to read what he’s feeling.
He takes a beat, running his hand up my thigh. “Yeah. Me too.” It comes out heavily.
“What are we going to do with that?”
He sighs, still touching my knee. “I don’t know. There’s so much at stake. And I don’t know if I’m . . .”
I finish the thought for him, since I bet he’s thinking about Fabian. “Ready for anything more?”
“Right,” he says quickly, then gives a casual shrug. “But hey, you’re probably not either, right? That’s not your style.”
It hasn’t been my style, true. But my style is changing with him. Trouble is, I also don’t want to feel those nerves again. I don’t want to be made a fool.
I spent enough time playing that role when I was growing up. Don’t need to now.
I keep it cool.
“Let’s make a deal between you and me, then.” A deal is so much easier than anything else. And besides, I shouldn’t take chances with things like love. Things I know nothing about. Foolish things I don’t have time for. “Let’s make a deal that we’re going to fuck each other’s brains out for the next seven days.”
Jackson arches a brow. “You mean I’ll fuck your brains out.”
I roll my eyes. “Do you ever let anyone top you?”
He’s dead serious when he says, “Not often.”
“Why not?”
He blinks, like he’s thinking it over. “I suppose I like it that way. Same reason I like protecting people. I like taking care of people. And in bed, I like to be the one who makes sure everyone is happy. Everyone is having a good time.”
The honesty in his answer hooks into my chest and shimmies around there.
Settle down, heart. You’re in time-out.
“And you know I’m having a blast. But if I wanted to top you ever, would you let me?”
He pauses before he asks the next question. “Are you asking me right now?”
I laugh, then shake my head. “I told you before, I don’t care. If you want to spend this entire week fucking me over and over again, I’m more than happy with that. I love the way you feel inside me.” I put that out there so he knows I’m 100 percent good with our roles in the bedroom.
His hazel eyes shine with desire again. “I love being inside you.” He threads a hand through my hair, tugging on it. “But if you’re serious about topping me sometime, we can talk about that. I don’t want to be the kind of person who lays down the law and doesn’t bend.”
He’s making it hard not to fall for him.
Best to focus on the sex.
Yep. That’s what I need to do.
I slide my hand along his thigh, up to his crotch, and squeeze his dick. “Right now, I’m pretty happy with you laying down this law inside me.”
“Good answer,” he says with a smile, but it disappears again. “The deal with your brother about not getting involved. You’re okay with throwing it to the wayside? I want to respect your deal if you want me to.”
And there he goes again, making me like him so damn much.
But there is no place for that. So, hell, it’s a damn good thing I have the deal. I intend to honor it.
There is no way I’m going to let myself fall in love with Jackson Pearce, no matter how my heart feels around him. I’m not going to give it away for the first time ever to someone who’s unavailable to me.
Because his heart’s still burned from his last romantic encounter.
“Zane is cool. He’s doing a great job on the show. It’s all good.” I tap his chest. “And besides, you and me? We have unfinished business. We need to get this out of our systems, and that’s what we’ll do, right? Then we’ll move on.”
He swallows, looks away, then answers quietly. “That’s it. We’ll move on. Should be fine, since you told me you don’t get serious.”
“And you told me you don’t do hookups. But you also said you’re bending all your rules,” I say playfully, running my fingers along the buttons on his shirt. “So I guess you bent your hookup rule for me.”
His grin is relaxed, easy. The opposite of how he was before he talked to Cruz. “You like being my first hookup, Stone?”
That question nicks my heart. I don’t want to be his hookup. I want to be . . .
I can’t go there. Can’t let myself think of what I want to be.
So, I zero in on the physical. On the way he looks at me, the way he stares at me with that crooked grin. And yeah, I do like being his first hookup, but I also want as much of him as I can get. If all I’m getting is sex, though, I’m going to be so damn good with that. Besides, I’m really good at sex.
“Speaking of,” I say, sliding my hand over his growing hard-on, “you want to hook up again now?”
“Absolutely.” He pats his thighs. “How about on the couch?”
I hum my approval. “You want me to ride you right here?”
His eyes go glassy with desire. “Will that work for you?”
“It’ll work great. Let me just go get some lube. How about you get your fine ass undressed while I’m gone?”
I head to the bedroom, grab the lube, and bring it back, along with a condom.
And hell.
My breath catches at the sight in front of me. It’s like my birthday.
He’s already naked, legs spread, looking like a gorgeous Greek god. “Told you I was going to ride your ride,” I say.
“Hop on. Might get a little bumpy.”
“Let’s hope so.”
In seconds, I shed my lounge pants and climb onto his lap. Grabbing the lube, he slides a hand under my dick, going straight for my ass, getting me ready. As he preps me, he strokes my cock, sending sparks across my whole body. And when he has me all good, he opens the condom wrapper, rolls the protection down his cock, and then holds out his dick for me.