Roman

I stalked around the counter towards Jessa, my eyes pinning her in place when she fidgeted in her seat. “You want to tell me about the post you did the first week of class? The one where you had to introduce yourself and share something personal?”

“Umm, yeah. It was just the usual. Who you are. Why you’re taking the class. That kind of stuff,” she mumbled

“And you were as fucking adorable as you always are. Including in the photo you added to your profile,” I bit out, my head feeling like it was about to explode at the thought of her sharing so much personal information on the internet. “Which is probably why all the guys enrolled in your class chose to comment on your post.”

“They did?”

I swiveled her stool around so her back was against the counter, and then I boxed her in with my arms. “Every. Single. One.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” I echoed.

Her nose scrunched while she looked up at me with wide, brown eyes that held a mixture of hope and fear. “Do you think one of them might be the guy you’re looking for?”

“With any luck, they will be,” I grumbled.

“That’s good, right?” Her expression cleared, and she smiled up at me.

“Maybe,” I conceded. “We finally have a list of names Xander is going to run down so that’s a plus. But if you had mentioned the class to me a week ago, he could have done all this back then. We might have already caught him, and you’d be out of danger.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner,” she whispered. “But really, you only have yourself to blame because you distracted me by carrying me over your shoulder out of the office. How was I supposed to think clearly when you pulled a totally caveman move like that?”

I tried to bite back my smile at her little rant, but it wasn’t possible. Not when she wagged her finger at me and continued.

“Then you kissed me and I could barely remember my name, let alone to mention a class I’ve only been taking for a little while where I’ve never met any of the other students face-to-face.”

“You’re right about your memory being faulty because it was you who kissed me,” I corrected.

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “I gave you a tiny peck on the lips, and the next thing I knew your mouth was devouring mine.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” I teased, any lingering frustration melting away at her sassiness. I loved how she only showed this side of her personality to me and was still shy around Xander and Brecken’s teams.

“Not even close. It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Probably? Should I try again until I get to a definitely?”

“You’re not going to see me arguing about an offer like that,” she laughed. “But the probably was more because I’m not sure I can pick which moment with you that’s the best.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked as I lifted her off the chair and carried her over to the couch. Dropping down onto the cushions, I settled her on my lap where she snuggled against me.

“Our first kiss was amazing, but so was the first orgasm you gave me. And the first time we had sex. But then it was even better with the whipped cream. So, yeah...basically what I’m saying is that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me because you’re a part of all those moments.”

“Jessa.” I shifted her around so I could look into her eyes, and my arms tightened around her. “You know that I feel the same, right?”

She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at me. “You think that you’re the best thing that happened to me, too?”

“No! Shit!” I blamed my lack of experience in sharing my feelings for why I was handling this so badly. But it was important to get this right, so I pushed forward no matter how uncomfortable I was. “You’ve got it backwards, beautiful. You’re the best thing that happened to me.”

“Really?”

“Fuck, yeah.” I pressed a hard kiss against her lips. “Without a doubt.”

She melted against my chest, her head falling on my shoulder. “Then I guess that I can’t really be sorry it’s taken this long for me to mention my class. If I’d said something the first day, then we might not have had to come to your cabin. And if we hadn’t spent the last week together, then we would have missed out on the chance to discover how much we mean to each other.”

“Nah, we would have become a couple no matter what. I was just biding my time until you were more comfortable around me. This situation just sped the process up a little bit.”

And damn but if I didn’t want to thank her stalker for putting our relationship into overdrive...after I kicked his ass, of course.

She jerked upwards, her spine stiffening as she looked up at me with a glare. “What do you mean you were biding your time?”

“You were always so flustered around me. I was waiting until you were a little more comfortable, and then I was going to ask you out on a date.”

Her dark eyes narrowed. “Since when?”

“About a minute after I walked into the office, around the time when you stammered out a hello and almost fell out of your chair.”

“All that time!” Her forehead dropped against my chest. “I’d finally gotten used to being around everyone in the office, but then you came along and I was always so awkward because I liked you. But I didn’t need to be because you were interested.”

I chuckled, but it turned into a groan when she pinched one of my nipples. It pebbled underneath her fingers, and she shot me an irritated look.

“Don’t get all sexy when I’m mad at you! It’s all your fault I have a stupid stalker.”

“How do you figure?”

“I would never have taken that stupid class if it weren’t for my reaction to you; that’s why. If you’d asked me out on a date any time during that first week before I enrolled, I never would have done that stupid post in the first place.”

I flashed her a smug grin. “I thought you said you signed up for it improve your receptionist skills?”

“Whatever,” she grumbled. “It’s not like we both didn’t already know that you’re the reason why I did it.”

“I promise to make it up to you.”

“It might take a long time,” she warned with a pout.

“That’s okay, beautiful. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

“We do?” she whispered as my cell rang.

“Fuck yeah, we do.” Now that I had her, I wasn’t ever going to let her go.