Jace tipped his head back and laughed, shaking his head. “You sure you don’t remember, Lee?” When he met her eyes again, his expression had a hint of seriousness. “Because I remember everything about you. Everything.”
“Remind me,” she whispered.
“First I want to see your t-shirt.”
“What?” She wrinkled her brow at his non-sequitur.
“You had a drawer full of t-shirts with all sorts of sayings on them. I want to see what you have on now.”
“It’s not raunchy, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Are you stalling?”
“Nope.” Well, maybe she was. In an attempt to make this evening about who they were today, she had decided against dressing up. Instead, she grabbed an old standby t-shirt that said, Cute but CRAZY, the Z backwards, with a bat hanging from the Z, teeth bared in a wicked smile. But now that they were in the bedroom, the shirt felt more childish than fun. Still, this was Jace. Selena found the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled it off.
“Cute but crazy?” he read, staring at her chest. “I like that in a woman.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”
Jace tilted his head to the side, as if he were considering his next words carefully.
“You came with some drama, Selena,” he said. “Especially those last months when we were together. But I liked your kind of crazy.”
“And what kind is that?”
“The kind that’s fun and sexy and so goddamn hard to forget.”
She took a steadying breath. How many times did she have to tell herself that this was just sex? Her stupid heart still hadn’t gotten the message.Thump, thump, thump, it pounded in her ears as the spark between them brightened.
Enough talking. Enough thinking. It was time to get to the good stuff.
“Are we done with the tour?” she asked.
He smiled. “I could make a really classy comment about the kind of tour I’m interested in next.”
Selena waggled her eyebrows at him. “Would you like a private tour, Jace?”
“I want to do my own exploring.”
His laugh was so sexy, and it was just for her. She had forgotten how much they used to laugh together. That deep ring of his voice awoke another flood of memories. Saturday nights at Ruth’s Pizza Place. Movies on his parents’ couch, his little sister squished onto the couch with them. She had buried these memories, hidden them from herself, but the more time she spent with Jace, the more they came back.
He stepped closer and tugged gently at the bottom of her shirt. “Can I take it off?”
She nodded and lifted her arms, and he brought the shirt over her head. His expression grew more serious as he traced the edges of her bra with the pads of his fingers. She looked down at her body, heavier, nine years older.
“I’m not as…perky as I used to be,” she said, her cheeks heating up.
His brow furrowed a little. “Selena, I promise you that judging your body is the last thing I’m concerned with.”
She swallowed. “It’s hard to miss.”
“You want to know what’s going through my mind right now?” he asked, his fingers running over her stomach.
She nodded.
“I’m thinking, goddamn, did I really spend nine years without you?” he whispered.
Selena closed her eyes and swallowed hard. The more he touched her, the more he whispered in her ear with that husky voice, the more serious this felt. And she didn’t want it to stop.
