Jae’s laugh reminded me of snow flurries and sparkles. “Funny, I didn’t get a ‘how to be a perfect best friend’ manual either.”
“Life really should come with manuals.”
“It should! Especially when you turn eighteen. Everyone needs a ‘how to be an adult’ manual.”
“Damn right.”
Jae leant forward and pecked my lips. “I guess we’ll have to figure this out without a manual.”
“I guess we will.”
“Where should we start?”
“With another kiss.” I embraced him, pulling him against my chest to kiss him deeply. “And another.”
Jae hummed against my lips. “That sounds like the perfect end to the perfect day.”
“Perfect?”
“Except for me running away from you.”
“We can forget that.”
Jae grinned. “Thank God. I was worried you were the kind of guy who would whip that story out to embarrass me.”
“I’d never do that.” I brushed his hair away from his face. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
Jae’s chin quivered. “I believe you.”
“Another kiss?”
He pressed his lips to mine. “Another kiss.”
Time floated by in a haze of kissing. It was easy to get lost in the press of Jae’s lips and the soft, sensual feel of his tongue playing with mine. His hands ran through my hair, kneaded my shoulders, and squeezed my biceps while I ran mine over his supple back. I couldn’t figure out why I’d never contemplated kissing him until this week. What was different now? Was it because, over the three years we hadn’t seen each other, we’d changed to be exactly what each other wanted? I didn’t know, and I knew I’d run myself in circles trying to figure it out. I needed to live in the moment and enjoy kissing him now, not worry about why I hadn’t kissed him before.
Jae rocked back on my lap, resting his arms over my shoulders, and stared at me with his head tilted to one side. “Why London?”
“Sorry?”
“When you left home. Why did you come to London?”
I shrugged. “It’s where people run away to, isn’t it?”
“Can you run away at twenty-one?”
“I think you can run away at any age. I wanted to get as far away from my parents as possible. I wanted to go somewhere I could get lost. London seemed as good a place as any.”
“You can’t have moved straight in here.”
I laughed and stole a kiss. “Nope. I stayed in a shitty bedsit to start with. It was in the cellar of a bigger house. That’s where I started my early-morning workout streams.”
“And you built your streaming empire from there.”
I grinned. “Pretty much. I got a part-time job stripping in a nightclub—”
Jae held his hand up. “Hold up. You were a stripper?”
“Yes. I even pole danced for a while.”
