They hadn’t though with Jack. I never said his name when we fooled around, never even thought to try it. If I was being honest, I’d usually been thinking of someone else.
Jamie kissed me, ran his fingers through my messy hair, and rubbed the small of my back. It felt familiar, as if he’d done all of these things a million times before. “I’m sorry I ruined your dress.”
I shook my head. “It had too many buttons anyway.”
He laughed. “And so fucking tiny. Why would they make buttons that small?”
“To torture grown men, clearly.”
“Clearly.” Jamie scratched at the back of his neck. “Do you want to watch a movie?”
His eyes shone with affection and hope for something I didn’t quite comprehend, and then his fingers swept down my arm and tangled with mine, and all I could do was nod.
We made it to the sofa, him on his back, me lying on his stomach, and turned on an old movie.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Detroit Rock City. I was watching it before you came. We can change it, if you want.”
“No, that’s cool. Leave it.”
I squirmed on top of him, trying to get more comfortable. A few moments later, he shifted his hips, and I felt his stiff erection flush against my abdomen. There was no chance of understanding the plot or appreciating the witty humor, because no more than five minutes later, we were busy doing other things.
We drove up to my apartment building around eleven-thirty in the evening. Jamie had insisted on taking me home, and we spent the entire ride talking about the classes I was taking this semester. I liked how interested he was in this stuff. He said psychology was fascinating.
“When can I see you next?” he asked.
He was so direct. I liked that about him, too. “Is it okay if I text you?” I asked, hating myself for the non-committal response, but I needed to figure out what I was going to do, and I couldn’t think straight around him.
“Sure,” he said, a little too lightly. I knew he must have been hoping for a different answer.
“I had a fun time.” This time, I made myself look him in the eyes. “Really.” Leaning closer, I brushed my lips against his and felt him smile.
“Me, too.”
Inside, Zoey’s bedroom was closed and there was no light coming from under the door. Sophie was snoring on the sofa. Not wanting to disturb her the night before her big interview, I turned on my phone’s flashlight and went directly to my room.
I should have known that sleeping with Jamie was going to be different than fooling around with Jack. With the latter, leaving had always been easy. But with Jamie? I didn’t want to leave. Not after we’d done it again during the movie. Not after he’d gone down on me and made me come while the credits rolled. Not after he’d held me to his chest and traced lines down my bare back while I tried to coax my heart to calm down.
Something was brewing between us, and I no longer thought I could walk away from it after only one night.
I kept the lights off as I walked over and sat down on my bed. I had one more thing to do before going to sleep. My fingers were ice cold as I pulled up the message chain between Oliver and I.
It was time to delete it. Forever.
As I hovered over the red icon, readying to finally do it, the device vibrated three times. It was as if he sensed what I was about to do.
“We’ve been apart too long, haven’t we? Today, I almost booked my flight, but something important came up. Still, I’ll be there soon. I promise you. Don’t forget, beautiful. You belong to me.”
17
JAMIE
The morningafter Ivy came over, I woke up with a pit in my stomach. What if yesterday was it? It had been the best day I could remember having in ages, but I wasn’t sure about her feelings. When we were tangled together, my hands on her bare skin, my mouth pressed to her lips, everything felt perfect. But in the car, she’d seemed nervous again. What if she’d gotten her fill? What if she didn’t feel as ravenous for me as I did for her?
Then I picked up my phone from the nightstand and saw her message.“Free tomorrow?”
And that’s how it started. We met up on Tuesday, and the next day, and the day after that, and in a blink, a week and a half had gone by without us going more than twenty-four hours without seeing each other.
