“I haven’t seen Minnie in a while,” Jason mused before chuckling. “She was always the best at figuring out things nobody wanted to confess.”
Amy laughed and started to tell a story from when they were kids, and while I half-listened, most of my attention was focused on Jason, the beautiful, perfect man who, for some reason, loved me.
He was watching me too, his perfect face completely focused on me. His lips quirked in a small smile as he squeezed my hand under the table, and then because that wasn’t enough, he leaned forward and covered my lips with his.
“Ugh,” Amy said, little sister mode activated. “You guys! Get a room.”
“We just might,” Jason said, not taking his eyes off me.
I laughed, biting my lip as I imagined everything he would do to me as soon as we were alone. It took all my self-control to tear my gaze from his and turn to Colin.
“Any more baseball for you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, but I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl.”
“We usually have a watch party,” Jason told him. “A couple of my friends. You should come.”
“I would love to,” Colin said.
After the meal, Amy and Colin left together, and Jason drove me home. He was leaving the next day on a trip out of the country, and I hated that I would have to spend a few days without him.
Upstairs in the apartment, as the door closed behind us, he drew me into his arms. “I’m starting to think of this apartment as my lucky place. Good things happened with my business when I lived here, and then when I moved out, the best, sexiest, hottest girl to ever exist moved in to replace me, and I found her.”
“Lucky you,” I teased, delighted that he thought I was all those things. It never ceased to amaze me that he found me as attractive as I found him. He was perfection personified. “Maybe you should move back in.”
His arms pulled me closer to his hard body, and he kissed my neck, trailing his lips to the soft, sensitive underside of my ear. “Or you could move into my place,” he suggested.
I stiffened involuntarily, not because I didn’t want to, but because I was taken by surprise. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not really.” He released me and shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be right now, but yeah, it’s something that could…should happen at some point in the future.”
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. “I want to…but we should talk about it later—much later, Mr. Fast and Furious.”
“I know, but when it comes to you, I don’t want to waste any time.” There was self-mocking amusement on his face at first, but his expression turned serious, and his stormy eyes delved deep into mine. “I know what it feels like to lose you, Daphne.”
I swallowed the painful memory that appeared like a lump in my throat. I knew what it felt like to lose him too—like torture and emptiness. “That’s never going to happen again,” I said quietly.
“I know.” He rubbed the tip of his nose on mine, making me giggle. “I’ll do anything, but you have to want this as much as I do.”
I let out a short breath. “Do you even need to ask? I can’t imagine what I would do without you.” I threaded my fingers through his. “Losing you was like losing myself.”
He lowered his face and captured my lips, his hungry kiss taking over all my senses. He molded my body to his own, pressing my hips to his thighs and giving me no doubt about the hard, thick evidence of his desire for me. I licked my lips, wanting nothing more than to peel all his clothes away and taste every single beautiful, male inch of him.
“I hate that you’re going to be gone for days,” I said, pouting. “I should never have let you leave that beach house.”
“Well…” He lifted me off the floor, his powerful body supporting my weight like it was nothing, and I wrapped my legs around his waist and hugged his broad shoulders. “Why don’t we make the most of the time we have now??
? he suggested, one brow raised in an expression that sent heat racing to my core.
I grinned. “Sure thing, player.”
He chuckled and carried me to my room, and for the next hour, he made me forget everything, even my name.
“Oh, God!” Amy cried in frustration. “He’s going to try to kill a dragon with a sword!” She was clutching a cushion, peeking over it as one of her favorite characters in a highly rated fantasy TV series attempted another reckless act of heroism. “He’s going to die!”
Watching her was almost as entertaining as watching the characters on screen. She screamed, laughed, cheered, and repeated phrases in the made-up languages featured in the story. She’d recently gotten into the show, and for the past few days, I’d been coming back from work to find her curled on the couch with popcorn, watching knights, highborn ladies, and dragons battle it out for a throne.
“Okay, that was good,” I admitted at the end of the episode as the credits rolled accompanied by haunting music.