Jana

Jake went to a freaking royal wedding that I read about in tabloid magazines.

I play with the top button of his shirt while I process this fact.

His jaw flexes as he looks at me. “Are you okay?”

I laugh under my breath. “Yes. I’m just being ridiculous because you’re like…a dream come true, and that just doesn’t happen. So I’m second-guessing how this is even possible.”

He squeezes my hips. A physical reminder that this is very possible, because I’m in his lap.

I reach for my wine and take a sip. It is, of course, the best wine I’ve ever had. I can’t imagine how much it cost.

“I could go and put on the SwiftEx uniform if that would help,” he offers as he brushes a strand of hair off my cheek.

He’s dead serious.

I sigh. “No. But yes, later.”

“What are you worried about?”

“I don't know. I didn't… If you'd asked me earlier today, I'd have said everything was totally fine.” I put my wine down and touch him, because when my hands are on him, everything is great. “I did, in fact, say exactly that to my friend Nina. Don't worry, I swore her to secrecy. But I was blushing over you.”

“Good. I like you blushing.” He catches my hand and kisses my fingertips. “Why did you swear her to secrecy?”

“I…thought I should. That maybe we weren’t…” My head starts to spin as he moves his mouth to the inside of my wrist.

“Jana. I want you. Exactly as you are and with all that entails. Nosy family members and fabulous friends. Even weird TV shows. And especially your cats.”

“I’m never going to be sophisticated about meeting the Queen,” I whisper.

“Honestly, if I ever got close enough to say anything to her, the last thing I'd be is sophisticated.”

I don’t believe him. As he rolls me onto my back and covers me with his body, I can’t believe he’s anything other than sure and smooth and devastatingly capable.

I wake with a start in the middle of the night. Jake’s arm is heavy around me, and when I move, he mumbles something into my hair.

I squeeze my fingers together, then force them to relax. I’d been dreaming. Something confusing and chaotic, and now my pulse is racing. I don’t normally—ever, actually—have nightmares. Not that it was necessarily that, but…it feels weird.

“So glad you’re here,” Jake murmurs as he shifts against me. He’s still asleep, but his cock is hard and pressing into my bottom. “Need you, Jana.”

I smile, warmth shifting in and crowding out the nerves. How am I not supposed to flex my hips and rub my ass against him when he says something like that in his sleep?

“Yes,” he growls. “Love you. Fuck, yeah.”

It’s just sex talk—and good sex talk, because now I’m on fire. But oh, I like that. A lot. He moves against me, his body hardening up as he wakes. His legs flex as he lifts my thigh on top of his, then notches against my entrance. Super hard.

Big, and thick, and…bare.

The flames inside me shoot higher. We’ve done a lot of skin-touching-stuff, but we haven’t talked about birth control yet and he’s always reached for a condom. I’ve got the former covered.

I take a long, shaky breath and roll away from him and fumble for the drawer. He’s on me as I grab a foil packet, his fingers sliding over mine to take it.

He’s awake now. I miss the ridiculous sleepy proclamations of love, but alert Jake is a talented Jake. His fingers deftly find my wetness, then he brings us together. Rough and fast, but not too deep. Shallow teases, rubbing all the right spots. Only when I rock back against him does he thrust all the way into me. I cry out, and he covers my mouth.

There’s no need for that. I made plenty of noise before we fell asleep, when he convinced me to stop worrying and just enjoy the moment of being together.

Now, though? Now he wants me to hush like a good girl. His breath is loud and fast in my ear as he takes me from behind, on our sides. Nothing polite and spoon-y about this position, though. It’s raw and sleepy and animalistic.

I need you, too. I fill in the silence with my secret feelings. They grow and pulse in my mind until they tangle up with my physical response and I cry them out against the press of his fingers as I climax.

“Jake, yes, need, unnnnn…” Love you, too. Please let this grow into that for real.

He jerks hard against me, coming deep inside me, and as his mouth drops to my shoulder, he sighs. “I could get used to midnight wake-ups like this,” he murmurs.

It’s the first thing he’s said since he woke up. My heart thumps hard against my ribcage. “Yeah,” I breathe. “Definitely.”

Hardly declarations of love.

He ditches the condom, then tugs me back against his side. “Why’d you wake up?”

“Weird dream.”

“Okay now?”

“Mm-hmm. Bone-melting orgasms have a way of scaring boogeymen away.”

“Are you scared of monsters in the night?”

“Not usually.”

“I didn’t think so.” He chuckles. “The first delivery I made to your place, you were on the phone when you answered the door. I don’t know what you were talking about, but you were fierce. And I thought…damn. I hope she gets packages regularly. I want to see that scowl again.”

I push myself up on my elbow so I can sort-of look at him in the darkness. “My scowl?”

“Yep. That’s what I fell for. Your hell-no-try-again face.”

Fell for. Fancy wine, crazy penthouse, weddings with the Queen. There is a lot to be intimidated about with falling in love with Jake Aston. But the way he sees me like nobody else—that’s one hundred percent authentic.

He keeps showing me over and over again he’s just an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances. At some point, it would be a good idea if I start trusting that he’s right.

Now, for example.

I lean in and kiss his jaw. “Tell me more about the Hamptons.”

“The Hamptons?” He grins. “You're willing to admit we might still be dating in the summer?”

I blush. Oh, he has no idea. I'm starting to think in dangerous terms like forever and always. “Like you say, these middle-of-the-night sexcapades are mighty addictive.”