“You never said it was fluffy. Now I’mreallyin.” He grabs his shirt by the bottom seam and pulls it over his head. I’m staring at his pecs, his abs, imagining reaching out and touching them. Then the wet shirt hits me on the face.
“Excuse me?”
“Excuse you. I caught you ogling. Now where’s that robe?”
Damn. I didn’t mean for him to see me. I first put the shirt in the dryer, then retrieve the robe from my room. He slides into it. It’s…tight, the sleeves going only halfway down and the fabric taut around his shoulders.
“Are you sure you’re going to be comfortable in that?” I can’t imagine him sitting through an entire movie in something so snug.
“Sure. My shirt won’t take long to dry. Shall we watch the movie?”
“Yeah. Do you want popcorn or anything?”
“I’m good.” He moves past me and sits on the couch. I sit next to him, giving space between us, though. I don’t know how close he wants me.
It’s difficult to focus on the movie. In my peripheral vision I see Jimmy, and he’s staring intently at the screen, his jaw clenching at the more tense parts. I’m fixated on his lips, remembering how soft they were, how they grazed down my neck and made my hair raise on the back of my neck. Tingles surge between my legs, and I readjust how I’m sitting as if that will help.
I manage to make it through more of the movie without my thoughts of his naked body completely overtaking me. He scoots a bit closer to me. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, it’s fine.” It’s more than fine. As his knees almost touch mine, I silently hope that they eventually do. I like having him here, next to me, which is a far cry from when I wanted to smack him across the face every time I saw him.
Ten minutes pass and Jimmy moves himself in a way that he’s leaning more toward me. Does hewantme to move closer to him? I turn my body a little and that’s when our knees are finally touching each other.
I turn to him to say something, but as I do, he turns at the same time and our heads bonk into each other.
I touch the top of my head as if to check for bleeding. “Are you okay?” Jimmy asks, a shy smile on his face.
“Yeah, sorry,” I respond. “I just wanted to see if you want some popcorn now. Are you hungry?”
“Popcorn?” He nods. “Yeah, sure. I could eat some popcorn.”
As I stand up, Jimmy grabs my hand. I turn around. “What? No butter? If that’s the case I’ll make two bags because I load mine with butterandsalt. I know it’s not that healthy but I love it.”
“Reese, no.” He pulls at my hand again so I sit down and stop rambling. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“Okay.” I swallow, my guard immediately going up. What could he possibly have to tell me? What else can go wrong in my life? Things finally seemed to be back on an uptrend and now he has something to drop on me. “You didn’t damage my fence now, did you?” I can’t afford another project on my house.
Jimmy’s eyes hone in on mine, his face hard as stone. “If I did, would you hate me?”
“You didn’t!” I can’t believe he’d do something like that. Why can’t he be more careful? The tingles I had before switch into reverse and now I’m steaming mad. I jump off the couch ready to tell him to leave.
“No, I didn’t, Reese. You’re so easy to tease. Please. Sit.”
“Oh.” I slide back onto the couch, my face flushed. “What is it then? Is everything okay?”
“No. It’s not okay. I miss you terribly.”
He misspoke. That’s not what he wanted to say. “You mean Kale misses me.”
“No. I meanImiss you.” He reaches his palm up to my cheek. “Every day I hope you’re going to come by, and when you did this afternoon, life started to make sense again. That kiss…that time in your bedroom before your doorbell rang, well, it was amazing and all I keep thinking about is finishing what we started.”
It’s not April first, so this isn’t a joke. The way he’s licking his lips, the increasing speed of his breaths. If I hooked him up to a lie detector test, he’d pass. I don’t doubt this.
“What are you waiting for then?” I don’t wait for him to take the reins. I crash my lips onto his and within seconds we’re in a horizontal position, him on top of me, and I can feel every part of him.Everypart. His lips graze my neck and collarbone, and his hand makes his way under my shirt. I wrap my leg around his waist as he sucks on my lower lip.
“I’ve wanted you since the first time you knocked on my door,” Jimmy whispers in my ear as he unbuttons my pants and slides his hand underneath my underwear. I gasp in delight as his fingers slide into me.
The rain pounds on the roof as we lose ourselves in each other, all the tension we’ve ever had between us exploding in one night of incredible passion.
