And us.
We really are pretty damned great at being us.
“Get over here,” he says as I rise from my chair.
“Already on my way,” I say, reaching for the bottom of my long-sleeved T-shirt and drawing it up and over my head.
Soon I’m naked too, and Jesse is proving that butt stuff isn’t nearly as weird as I’ve always thought it might be. In fact, butt stuff is pretty freaking amazing.
Afterward, I lie in his arms, catching my breath from one of the most intense orgasms of my life, wondering why I waited so long to try that. But also so glad I did because I wouldn’t want to do anything like that with anyone but Jesse.
“Told you you’d be a fan,” he says, so pleased with himself I can’t help but roll my eyes.
“Smug isn’t a good look for you.”
“Yeah, it is,” he says, making me giggle as he rolls on top of me and brings his face closer to mine. “See? I’m handsome as fuck when I’m smug. You’re already excited for round three, aren’t you?”
“We can’t,” I say, still laughing. “We’re supposed to be at your parents’ place in an hour.”
“So? We’ll be quick,” he says, kissing my neck.
“But we still have to pick up wine on the way,” I say, even as I arch into his lips, shivering while he drags his teeth along the sensitive skin at my throat.
“It’s fine. Lots of things still open. We’ve got plenty of time.”
We do not, in fact, have plenty of time. After Jesse proves how sexy he is when he’s smug—a feat he accomplishes by hooking my ankles over his shoulders and rearranging my insides in the most amazing ways—we both shower and get dressed in our Thanksgiving finery, but we’re running twenty minutes late.
“Never again,” I pant as we race down the stairs to catch one of the few trains running today. “Next time, we’re going to leave early!”
But we don’t.
A little more than a month later, I’m at his place for New Year’s Eve and we almost miss the ball drop at the swanky Hollywood party he was lucky enough to score an invite to.
We’re too busy christening his new hot tub and chasing each other through his still only partially furnished rental house, seeing how many rooms we can break in over one weekend.
Four, it turns out.
I’m still thinking about the up-against-the-wall sex in his dining room when we slip into the party, grabbing champagne moments before the countdown starts.
Back home, I count the days until his next visit while helping Gigi move from her place in Flatbush to an apartment two doors down from Sweetie Pies, the better to watch over her store-baby at all hours of the day and night.
“It’s not my baby,” Gigi huffs, shaking the snow off her coat before hanging it on the hook inside the door of her new place. “It’s my boyfriend. I’m probably going to marry it.”
I set the box full of kitchen supplies on the island with a laugh. “Stranger things have happened. Didn’t a woman marry her car on Long Island last year?”
“No, she ate her car, piece by piece. She married a replica of the Eiffel Tower she had erected in her backyard.”
I grimace. “Ew. That’s . . . disturbing.”
“Yeah, I’m not an Eiffel Tower fan. If I had to marry a replica of a famous building, I’d marry Big Ben in London.” She sighs as she collapses onto her overstuffed flamingo pink couch. “He seems like a dreamboat, doesn’t he?”
“I meant the car-eating part,” I say, “but absolutely. Big Ben is a very sexy clock. Probably has a super swoony accent too.”
“Totally. I have great taste,” she agrees with a sigh before stretching a limp hand toward the fridge. “Cold-pizza me? Please? After all that lifting and carrying, I’m starving to death.”
“No way. I’m taking you out for real food to celebrate your new digs and new neighborhood, and the blow-out Galentine’s Day pie orders you’ve racked up so far.”
Gigi’s weary expression gives way to a pleased one. “Your mom is so happy. She thinks I’m a wizard. I keep telling her it’s just the new ads I put up on social media, but she won’t listen.”