He opens up the front door and we don’t even say a word.

His hands find my waist and mine reach for the back of his neck as he draws me inside the house. In a single motion, he has me pinned against the wall, kissing me so hard I feel a storm building up inside me already. His touch crackles with electricity, a thousand volts of lightning striking wherever his fingers meet my skin.

He reaches to grab my thigh as I wrap my leg around his body. I need to feel the heat of his chest pressed to mine, need to dig my fingers into the bare skin of his back. I reach for the bottom of his shirt.

“Uh guys, can you please take this to the bedroom? I have some friends coming over in a minute.”

We break apart from a kiss so deep I’m surprised our lips don’t make a suction cup noise when they separate. One of Jordan’s roommates is staring at us, and I can’t help but wonder how long he’s been there. Jordan’s been living in his new place for about three weeks now and his roommates still act weird around me.

“No problem,” answers Jordan. “To the bedroom we go.”

I shriek in surprise when he grabs me around the waist and throws me over his shoulder.

“Help!” I cry. “He’s dragging me away to his cave.”

“I most certainly am,” Jordan answers, carrying me towards his room. “Don’t think Paul will save you. You’re not going save her, are you, Paul?”

“You guys are insane,” Paul mutters, flopping down onto the living room couch as Jordan reaches his bedroom and closes the door behind us.

He throws me down onto the bed and then lets himself fall on his back beside me.

“Paul is kind of creepy,” I observe.

He pulls me onto his chest, cupping my ass with both his hands. “You love it. You’re secretly so turned on by creepy Paul.”

“I am not!”

Jordan starts to trail his hands up under my shirt as he whispers in my ear. “Just think. He’s out there in the living room right now, listening in on us and picturing you naked.”

“Ew!” I shout. “Stop!”

He laughs and starts rubbing my back. “One day I’ll be rich like you and won’t have to have roommates.”

“Speaking of getting rich, how was work today?”

“Soul destroying.”

Jordan’s been working at a call centre for a cell phone company, giving technical support. From the stories he tells, ‘soul destroying’ isn’t much of an overstatement, but the pay is above average and he’s going to try to stick it out until he has enough to go back to design school.

“I feel much better now that I have a beautiful girl lying on top of me,” he adds, “although I still don’t understand why you insist on coming over here sometimes when we could have your place all to ourselves.”

Right on cue, Paul’s friends arrive and the TV starts blasting out the sounds of a video game.

“I just like...seeing your life,” I try to explain. “I also like sleeping in sheets that smell like you.”

“Creep,” he teases, giving my ass a squeeze.

“I am a creep. I should date creepy Paul. We’d make a perfect creepy pair.”

“No way.” Jordan rolls us over so that he’s lying on top of me, my legs wrapped around him as he braces himself with his forearms on either side of my head. “You are not dating anyone but me,” he announces.

“So are we dating?” I ask.

We still haven’t had the ‘Relationship Talk’ and while I’d assumed it was just a formality we had yet to go through, my heart starts pounding when Jordan goes silent. I stare into his coffee-coloured eyes, his body so close to mine I can feel the rhythm of his breathing.

“Hailey,” he begins, his voice solemn, “do you want to be my girlfriend?”

I do my best to mock his serious tone. “Jordan, I would love to be your girlfriend.”

A smile breaks out over his face, and for probably the millionth time, my breath catches at how beautiful he is.

“Then consider me your boyfriend,” he answers.

“Does that come with any perks?”

He smirks, and a thrill runs through me. My thighs clench tighter around him. He leans his head down and brushes his lips over mine.

“I’m going to strip you out of your clothes,” he whispers against my mouth, “so slowly that you’ll be begging me to touch you before you’re even naked, but I’ll make you wait. I’ll just sit here and stare at you, let you feel my eyes travel over your every curve. I’ll make you wet without even laying a finger on you and then, just when you can’t take it anymore, I’ll spread your legs and put my mouth between your thighs.”

I close my eyes and let out a soft moan. He keeps going.

“I’ll lick you as slowly as I took your clothes off, until you’re squirming on the bed, pulling my hair and calling out my name. Then I’ll slide two fingers inside you and fuck you with my tongue on your clit until you come so hard you forget where you are, or what day it is, or anything other than how good I can make you feel. If you consider that a perk, then yes, it comes with perks.”

He presses his mouth to mine, as softly as if he’s trailing a feather across my lips. I open my mouth and the taste of him fills all my senses.

When the kiss ends, he shifts himself so that he’s kneeling between my legs.

“Now,” I murmur, my eyes still closed, “do everything you said you were going to do.”

He reaches for my shirt, and then he does.