"Then don't hurt me."
He leaned forward and ran the tip of his nose down mine. "You really shouldn't be with me."
"I want to be with you." I unwound my fingers from his and grabbed the sides of his face. "Rory, I've wanted to be with you ever since you first stepped into my apartment. Please don't give up on this before we've even started."
"I'm not. I'm just...worried that you want what's out there." He pointed to the door. "I'm not there yet. I'm not even sure if I'll ever want those things."
How had we gone from being un-exclusive to talking about marriage? How did he know that I felt like I was falling behind my friends? What he didn't seem to understand, though, was that I didn't care about any of that when I was with him. I didn't feel the clock ticking when I looked into his eyes. Getting married in one year or ten years didn't matter if he was going to be beside me. I just wanted to be with him.
"Rory, you're exactly what I want." I ran my fingers between his naked torso and his silky tie.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
He turned away from me and looked around for the light switch. When he found it, the sight of him took my breath away. His hair was mussed up in that way that it could only be after sex. He had already zippered up his suit pants and hinged his belt back in place, but his shirt was still unbuttoned. His tie hung loosely around his neck and was pressed against his naked torso. I couldn't help but wonder why men ever wore shirts. Just a tie seemed to work fine.
He smiled at me. "Okay, let's give this thing a shot."
I wanted to clap my hands and yell and dance around the closet. Instead, I slid off the table, walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Does that mean if people ask if you're my boyfriend you won't freak out? Maybe I could even say yes?"
"Hmm." His hands slid to the small of my back. "Maybe you should say it a few times so I can get used to it."
"So like...no we're not just roommates, this is my boyfriend, Rory." My boyfriend, Rory. I wanted to say it a million times.
"It sounds pretty good actually."
"It does." I smiled up at him.
"We should probably get dressed so we don't spend our first night as boyfriend and girlfriend in jail."
"That would just make a great story."
"Yeah, but I think we could make better use of our first night back home in bed, don't you?" He let go of the small of my back and lightly slapped my ass.
I laughed and turned around to search for my bra. I quickly grabbed it off the table, put it back on, and zipped my dress back in place. I looked around the small closet in search of my thong, but I couldn't seem to find it anywhere.
"Are you looking for this?" Rory pulled my thong out of his pocket and let it dangle from his index finger.
"Thanks." I reached for it, but he pulled his hand away.
"I thought I told you not to wear underwear."
"I didn't realize you meant never again. I thought you meant just that one night."
"I like having easy access to you. So I'm keeping these." He put them back in his pocket.
"Rory, it's part of a lingerie set."
"Maybe you can convince me to give it back to you later." He raised his eyebrow at me. "You're pretty good at convincing me to do things I wouldn't normally do."
I laughed and straightened his tie. "You mean like breaking our roommate pact?"
"That roommate pact was doomed from the start. Especially since neither one of us really wanted it."
"I thought you did want it?"
"I wanted the pact solely because I thought it would make you more comfortable with our living situation. But I always intended to sleep with you." He gave me one of his panty dropping smiles.
"Rory," I said and pushed on his chest.
He grabbed my hands. "And when you kept flirting with me, I knew you wanted me too. It was only a matter of time before you begged me."
"You're the worst!" I said playfully. I already knew he had been stringing me along. That's what he did. He was a player. I had known that from the start. I just never realized how much he wanted me too.
He scratched the back of his neck. "But I never expected to like you this much."
"Thanks, I guess?"
He laughed. "You know what I mean. I'm not used to girls being so down to earth. I like that you can hang out with my friends and talk about sports and play poker. I find that very sexy."
The way he was talking made it seem like he wanted me again. "Well, I find everything you do sexy."
"Then maybe we should go home and do more sexy things to each other. I have a few things in mind." He grabbed my hand and led me out of the closet.
Chapter 32
Making love in his bed was even better than making love in a closet. I had thought that my ex-boyfriends had loved me, but now I was certain that they hadn't. Because none of them had made me feel like this before. And if I hadn't written an article about playing Rory, then I'd be the happiest I had ever been.
Instead, I was starring at his beautiful face after he had fallen asleep, worrying about telling him the truth. My last article was coming out in the morning. It was the last step, "Make Him Jealous," which involved going on a fake date. And about how it worked. How Rory said he wanted more. How we had become friends with benefits. I had written it the way my editor wanted me to. But it wasn't true. My original goal of the piece had worked, though. I had gotten a player to stop playing. I had gotten him to break his norms of one night stands and settle down with me. I had tricked him into falling in love with me.
I sat up in his bed. That was the problem. I tricked him into liking me. Maybe he would find the whole thing funny. God. How would anyone find that funny? I needed to know more about his ex. I needed to know what went wrong. If it was just betraying his trust then I was completely screwed.
I pulled on one of Rory's t-shirts and tiptoed out of his room. My purse was sitting on the kitchen counter. I grabbed my phone out of it, scrolled through my contact list, and found Connor's name. It wasn't even 8 a.m. I wasn't sure what Connor's normal weekend schedule was like, but I hoped I wouldn't be disturbing his sleep too much. I pressed the call button and drummed my fingers against the counter as it rang.
"Hello?" Connor sounded awake. But he also definitely didn't realize it was me calling.
"Hey, Connor. It's Keira."
"Is everything okay?" He sounded concerned. Like he thought that last night had most likely gone horribly, horribly wrong.
"Yeah, everything's great." I sat down on a stool. I knew what I was about to do was awkward, but I needed to know. "I was actually just calling to ask you a favor."
"What do you need?"
"I was wondering if you could tell me what happened between Rory and his ex?"
Connor was silent for a second. "Shouldn't you just ask him about that?"
"He doesn't seem to want to talk about it." I stopped tapping my fingers against the counter. "Please, Connor, it's important."