“You seem different,” I finally said.
She turned to face me. “Do I?”
“Yeah. I can’t put my finger on it.”
She arched an eyebrow and crossed the room to stand before me. “I don’t think I’m any different.”
Then she smiled that smile. The new one. It took all my self-control not to kiss her right then.
“It’s that smile. Like you have a secret.”
Her eyes dipped down, and then she looked up at me from under her lashes. “Maybe I do.”
“Oh?”
“I heard a rumor…that you like me.” She swallowed. “That you liked me when you proposed our fake dating.”
My eyebrows rose to the ceiling. “Is that so?”
She nodded. “Is the rumor true?”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I like you. Of course I do.”
Her body trembled slightly at my words. “And you wanted to fake date me…to real date me?”
“I…yes. I wanted to ask you out, but I didn’t think you’d say yes.”
She blinked. “Why would you think that?”
I laughed and ran a hand back through my hair. “Honestly, I didn’t think you were interested in me.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I mean, you hide your feelings so well. I couldn’t ever tell if you were humoring me or what.”
Her mouth fell open. “Oh God, you’re serious. I thought everyone in Lubbock knew how I felt about you, Julian.”
It was my turn to blink in confusion. “And how do you feel about me?”
She stepped forward, clearing the last bit of distance. “I’ve liked you since you fell into the pool on top of me at Landon’s party almost four years ago.”
My pulse jumped. I wanted her so fucking bad. I’d been trying to deny myself, to tell my body that whatever we were doing was fine. But I could no longer deny that I wanted her. I wanted all of her. And to hear that she’d wanted me all along…
It was so much wasted time. I refused to waste another minute.
My lips sealed to hers in a searing kiss. I should have told her how I felt from the start. I should have dived right in. Instead, I’d feared that she’d turn me down, and after my last relationship, I hadn’t wanted to put myself out there.
Now, she was here, in my arms, and I didn’t intend to ever let her go again.
“Oh God,” she groaned against my lips as my hands trailed under the hem of her black dress.
I ran them over her thighs, reaching the lace of her panties. I didn’t wait another second before ripping them down her legs. She squeaked in surprise. Her eyes were wide, but I was already standing against her, taking her lips for mine again before hoisting her up into my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I thumped her body back against the wall. She gasped again. I swallowed her cries, grinding my body against hers.
Fuck. I’d wanted this for too long. One night of her body would never be enough.
Her hands went for my belt, removing the clothes that lay between us, and pulled my dick free. She pumped it up and down in her hand, the friction hot between us.
“Need you,” I grunted.
“Yes,” she breathed.
Whatever I’d been feeling these past few weeks, she clearly had, too. Because as soon as I lined my dick up with her opening, I realized how wet she was and how much she fucking wanted this, too.
“Oh fuck.” I pressed the tip deeper.
Her head fell back against the wall. Her hands dug into my back. “Please.”
And then I thrust forward up into her, claiming her perfect body for my own. She moaned deep in the back of her throat. It went straight to my balls. I’d do anything to duplicate that sound.
So, I drove up into her again. And again. And again.
She was so fucking tight and wet. The sounds coming out of her mouth drove me to take her harder and faster. To feel every inch of her wet pussy wrapped around my cock.
I was hardly seeing clearly by the time I felt her tighten so hard around me that it was almost painful.
“Julian,” she cried over and over again as she came. My name the prayer on her tongue.
“Come for me,” I groaned, trying to hold off to let her come down, to maybe even get a second.
Her eyes opened then, golden irises only for me. She was panting. Her breasts heaving out of the top of her dress. “Come with me.”
It was a command out of her perfectly prim mouth that I’d never be capable of denying. I came with a fury, buried deep inside of her. I saw stars at the force of my climax, and it was a full minute before I pulled back to look at her again. She had a sated, happy smile on those lips. Another smile that I claimed as my own.
I gently dropped her back down to her feet, and after we cleaned up, we collapsed back onto the couch, nestled together under a blanket.
“I guess I should have told you how I felt earlier,” I said into her hair.
She chuckled softly. “I don’t know that I would have believed you.”
“Why not?” I trailed figure eights into her hip.
“I don’t know. It would have felt too surreal that you’d pick me.”
I kissed her shoulder. “I like everything about you, Jen. The way you light up when holding a camera, your most adorable reaction to your cats, that smile when you think no one is watching, the blush on your cheeks when I tease you…” My voice dropped seductively. “That little noise you make as you come.”
She flushed all over and buried her head in my chest. “Okay, I believe you.”
“Mmm. I can keep reminding you of all the reasons I like you.” My hands trailed lower.
“You have my attention.” She peaked back up at me. “So, I have a question.”
“Yes?” I asked, pressing a kiss to her neck and then her collarbone and then her breast.
“Um…I’m going to Cabo next week for an elopement. Do you...have any interest in going?”
I looked up at her from where I’d been laying kisses down her stomach. “To Mexico with you? Of fucking course, I want to go, Jen.”
She grinned. “Oh well, um…good.”
“My turn for a question,” I said right before I reached the apex of her thighs.
“Mmhmm?” she murmured.
“Does this mean you’ll go to the gala with me as my girlfriend?”
Her eyes flew open. “Not your fake girlfriend?”
I shook my head. “Real girlfriend.”
“I…could probably manage that,” she whispered. “And that makes you my real boyfriend?”
I covered her body with my own. “It sure as fuck does.”
Part IV
A Real Relationship
23
Jennifer
A text from Annie buzzed form my phone as I pulled up to Jordan’s place three days later and parked next to Sutton’s new Range Rover.
Come around back. The gate’s unlocked. xoxo
I plopped a wide-brimmed hat on my head and grabbed my beach bag out of the backseat. Annie’s residency started at Texas Tech in full force tomorrow. Her life was going to be a madhouse, but she had today off, and Sutton and I were taking the rare opportunity to get away for the afternoon. Jason was at summer camp all week, and they’d hired a full-time nanny for Madison. Sutton had jumped at the first opportunity to have a break.