I wasn’t stupid. A guy like him, one who was obviously good at his sport, who was known by the girls the way he was, wasn’t the kind to settle down. At least not at his age. Which I assumed made him a senior? Maybe a junior if he wasn’t that great in his classes, though something told me he was more than a pretty-faced jock.
For all I knew, this was his schtick.
His game.
A way to keep things interesting, though I was hardly a jock bunny. But from what I felt press against my belly, it didn’t seem he needed someone fawning over his baseball skills to be interested in them. Maybe it wasn’t only jock bunnies he liked to hook up with? Maybe it was just the challenge? Saying all theright things for the love of the chase. But the moment he had you, he’d be done, since the challenge was long gone.
And I knew that.
I was ready for it.
Or at least that’s what I had been thinking about in the elevator ride and the short walk down the hall. I had no idea why my self-preservation had kicked in and asked him to be honest with me. I hated liars. I’d seen what lying did to relationships, the way it shattered trust and no matter how hard you tried to build around it, the chipped edges always showed.
“No lies.” His voice was steady and so damn genuine, I couldn’t not believe him. Good god, if he was playing me and for whatever reason baseball didn’t work out, the man should look into acting, because he could sell just about anything with the way those light brown eyes shone down on me.
“Okay. Good,” I whispered. Then, like I was taken over by the spirit of a seductress, I rose to the tips of my toes. With a hand resting in the center of his hard, muscled chest, I heard the sharp intake of his breath. He hadn’t expected this from me. Honestly, I hadn’t either. His hand on my lower back firmed its hold on me, pressing our fronts closer together.
Our height difference was laughable, even with the boots Tere let me borrow, but like this, with how he’d bent, I brushed my nose against his and exhaled slowly with a small little moan of pleasure. The hand he had on the wall moved to my hip, and the way it fit against the soft curve made me want to melt into him.
“Would you like to come in?” I whispered a breath away from his lips.
I didn’t kiss him.
I didn’t have to, to know the chemistry between us was real.
The only question now was whether it was strong enough to last over a twenty-four-hour period before it fizzled out for him.
“Come in,” he rasped, his brows bunched together. I nodded. It was the easiest decision I had ever made. “Little bird, if I go inside with you?—“
“We might have sex?” I asked bluntly, meeting his light brown gaze head on. “I have condoms.” I ignored the heat that hit my face. If you couldn’t talk about it, you shouldn’t be having it.
“Why do you have condoms, little bird?” His eyes searched my face. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Did you think I was a virgin?” The giggle slipped past me. “Really? After the girls downstairs? You want to be judging?—“
“Not judging. I just want to know who you’re currently hooking up with.” A tinge of vulnerability laced the deep tone of his voice that made me relax slightly. My hand on his chest stroked up and down his sternum gently.
“I haven’t been with anyone in a while.”
“How long?”
“I don’t?—“
“Don’t do that. You know. I haven’t been with anyone in two months.”
“Oh.”
“I’ve been tested, and I’m clean.”
“It’s been a little longer than that for me,” I confessed.
“How much longer?”
“Why does it…” I made a small, frustrated sound.
Of course, this would be the conversation that would happen to me! Why couldn’t I be like other girls who could just have a hookup without all the logistics having to be put down on the table? His hand left my hip, and for a split second, I worried he was going to change his mind. But I shouldn’t have. Jason tenderly held my cheek, his thumb stroking my bottom lip before he spoke.
“Baby, I need to know so I know how gentle I need to be.” His hand dropped and took mine before he brought it between us and right on... My eyes widened.
