I’m having a drink with Jason Anderson!

I’m having a second drink with Jason Anderson!

I’m going to Jason Anderson’s room!

“You haven’t had a real boyfriend yet, have you?” Jason asks as he settles up our bill. “The last I spoke to Mark, he said you were bouncing around from guy to guy and never settled down.”

“He would say something like that,” I say, finishing my drink. This thing is strong. “I wouldn’t say that I bounce around from guy to guy, but he’s right, I definitely haven’t had a serious boyfriend yet.”

“Why do you think that is?” Jason says, putting his lips on the edge of his glass. His lips are so damn sexy, and I shouldn’t be wet just from a few small touches, but I am. I can feel myself already soaking through my panties. It’s like my body is so fucking eager for something to happen.

God, I don’t know what the hell I’m getting into. I’ve always thought of Jason as dangerous, and now that he’s looked at me the way I’ve craved for so long - the way I’ve thought about and fantasized about for so long! - I know the meaning of dangerously sexy.

Jason Anderson makes my panties wet without even kissing me. That’s dangerously sexy.

Jason Anderson takes my breath away with just one look. That’s dangerously sexy.

“Why do I think what, exactly?” I reply, tracing my finger along the edge of my martini glass. “Why do I think Mark told you I bounce around from guy to guy, or why do I think I bounce around from guy to guy?”

“How about you answer both?”

“Let’s see. I don’t know why he told you that. That was kind of rude of him,” I say with a smirk.

“That’s your brother being overprotective. He doesn’t want me to think I have a chance with you. You’ve got too many guys fighting over you. I can’t compete with that.”

“Now why would he want that?” I ask.

“Please Cassie, you know he doesn’t want me near you. It’s simple. You’ve got to know that.”

“Huh?” I ask, feeling my eyebrows knit together slightly.

“He doesn’t want me to corrupt you, or some shit.”

“But if I’m bouncing around from guy to guy, aren’t I already corrupted?”

“Nah,” he replies, “I know you’re not screwing all of those guys. That’s not you. You have to really know someone to have sex with them.”

I feel my belly flip over and fill with giddy, furiously-flapping butterflies.

“How do you know that?” I say. Oh god, I want to know what the hell he’s thinking. I need to know what he’s thinking.

“The more interesting question is why you haven’t settled down yet,” Jason says.

“It’s because…” I start, but I don’t know how to answer.

I guess I’ve never thought about it much before. I am only twenty-three, after all, and I was in school for a while. I have definitely dated a lot of guys, Jason is correct about that, but he’s also right in saying I haven’t slept with many of them at all. Only two, actually, which I think is relatively few.

It’s not like I was saving myself for Jason. How would that even work? Saving myself for what, exactly? For me to get married to, and have a million babies with, the older boy I hopelessly crushed on in high school?

Jason looks at me expectantly, his eyes wide but a little sleepy looking, like he just wants to jump into bed, his teeth digging down gently into his lower lip, mouth parted, delectably kissable.

“It’s because love is stupid,” I say, meeting his eyes. It comes out before I know what I’m saying. I don’t really mean it. It just feels like the right thing to say in the moment.

“You really think that?” he says, coming closer to me. “Prove it. Prove you think love is stupid.”

“How?” I breathe, inhaling his intoxicating scent. He is getting to my head. He is getting inside me.

“Any way you want.”

Jason Anderson does what I’ve thought about for five years, and he puts all of my fantasies to damn shame. He puts his hands on my hips, pulling me closer to him, scooting my butt to the edge of my seat, takes my body in with a scan of his eyes from my lips to my knees, and I feel his chest move with a low rumble when he spreads his knees apart on either side of mine.

His hands move from my hips up my back and he leans in, but I have to stop him.

I can’t believe this is happening, but I have to push him away.

“Not here,” I sigh, “not yet.”

I must be dreaming. This can’t be real.