We had talked for hours. Then she had started yawning and I had started playing with her hair. The idea of taking her home wasn’t appealing. Not when I had to leave on Sunday. I wasn’t willing to give her up just yet. So we went to sleep on the couch. We were still in our clothes.

The only things she had told me that made me remotely happy were that she had a job she loved and that the ex boyfriend who had been harassing her was now married. He had been forced to marry the girl he’d gotten pregnant to prevent her from moving off to Arkansas with his kid. She hadn’t talked about the other guy, though. Not once. But then, I’d asked her not to.

Jess cuddled closer to me and shivered. I reached behind me and grabbed a white blanket to pull over her. I wasn’t moving, though. According to the clock it wasn’t even six in the morning yet. I had hours left of this.

Jess pressed back against me. “ ’S cold,” she mumbled.

I gave up trying not to touch her too much and used my body to warm her up by getting under the blanket with her. She made a pleased sound and began wiggling her ass again. I bit back a groan and tried to think about anything other than her body.

“You’re warm,” she said sleepily, and settled back down once she had burrowed against me so hard all I could feel was her body.

I pressed a kiss to her temple. As much as I wanted to promise her more, I knew I couldn’t. It would be wrong to ask for a relationship when I never knew if I would have time away on the weekends. Then there were my parents, and I had to deal with them. My mother was going to go apeshit when she found out I was taking off next semester and traveling.

Jess needed her freedom, but I had to have some sort of connection to her. I missed her. I liked being near her. While she was willing to give me this much, I would take it.

She began moving her ass against me again. But this time there was a rocking movement to it. I grabbed her hip to still her.

“Don’t. You like it, I feel it,” she said. Her voice had the thick sound of sleep. She reached for my hand that was on her stomach and moved it up to cover one of her tits. I squeezed it gently, and she arched into it, then threw her hand up and slid it behind my head. I could see my hand on her as the creamy, smooth flesh rose up out of the top of her shirt.

“Are you awake?” I asked, wanting desperately to slip my hand back under her shirt.

“Yes,” she breathed, and threw a leg over mine so that when she rocked back, my erection brushed closer to the heat between her legs.

I started to slip my hand under her shirt but grabbed the bottom of it instead and pulled it off. Her breasts bounced free from the tight halter top, and I filled my hands with them. I’d seen a lot of boobs, but never had I seen any this perfect. Jess arched her back, giving me an even better view of how good they looked in my hands.

She opened her legs wider, trying so hard to get the friction she needed for a release. Slipping my hand down her stomach, I pulled the short skirt up, and Jess cried out in anticipation. I played with the top of her panties, running my finger back and forth as she squirmed.

“Please,” she begged.

“What is it you want?” I asked, pressing a kiss to her ear.

“Touch me, God, please, touch me,” she panted. Her legs were wide open, and I could smell her arousal, which was about to push me over the edge. I slid a finger inside the lacy fabric, and Jess gasped and stilled. Her breasts rose and fell, causing them to bounce beautifully while she waited for me to move lower.

When my finger brushed her clit, she cried out my name and threw her head back. Fuck, that was hot. I ran one finger down the slick folds, and then I brought it up to my mouth to taste her as she watched me.

“So sweet,” I whispered, then moved my hand back down to touch her through the soaking-wet cotton crotch of her panties. “We need to take these off,” I told her, and she nodded frantically.

I reached up and unzipped the skirt because it was going too. Then I shoved them both down until she had to shimmy them the rest of the way and then kick them to the floor.

“Jason,” she breathed, opening her legs to me again. The room smelled like sex with her open like that. I was beginning to think I didn’t have to go back to school. I could just live down here with Jess naked on this couch with me.

“Yeah?” I asked, kissing her neck while I moved my hand back to cover her smooth, wet mound.

“Take off your pants,” she said, moving her hips against my hand.

“Why? I’m taking care of you,” I told her as I pressed my thumb over her clit.

“Not the same. I want you inside me,” she said, grabbing my arm and holding on tight as she bucked against my hand. “Just like this. Slide into me from behind,” she said.

The image in my head had me unbuttoning my jeans. I reached in my pocket and grabbed the condom I had stuck in there last night when we got back to the house. I hadn’t planned on it then, but I also didn’t want to be unprepared. If Jess put her mind to it, she could make me do anything.

I handed Jess the condom. “Open it,” I told her, then pushed my jeans down until I could kick them off.

“Here,” she said, handing it to me.

I grabbed it, then pressed a hard kiss to her lips before sliding it on. I was past the point of being hard. I was in pain. Reaching for her leg, I pulled it up high on my hip, then eased into her. She was more than ready as she pulled me inside, causing us both to cry out.

She moved her hand back behind my neck again and arched back into me. “You’re so deep,” she said on a moan.

“Forgot how fucking amazing you feel,” I told her as I fought to keep from losing myself right then.

Jess’s hand touched my cock as it slid in and out. I held my breath as she then ran her fingers over her clit before circling them around me again. Having her play with me while I fucked her was pushing my resistance.

“I’m about to come,” she said, tensing up as I pumped into her hard. “Oh, God, Jason. I’m going to come. It’s . . .” She stopped talking and her head pressed against my chest as she bucked wildly against me, screaming my name, until I followed right behind her.

Her body started to tremble, and I held on tight as I jerked while filling the condom with my release. I had almost convinced myself that sex with Jess hadn’t been the most epic experience of my life. That because I had lost her, I had put sex with her on a pedestal. I realized now that it had been epic. It had never felt like this with anyone else. Ever. And I wasn’t willing to lose this again.

Chapter Twenty

JESS

I didn’t go home until Jason dropped me off on his way to the airport Sunday. Momma hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of me spending time with Jason again, but she didn’t argue with me about it over the phone.

However, I knew she would be waiting on me to get home so she could confront me about making stupid decisions. It was the reason I had told Jason not to walk me to the door even though he had tried really hard to. Eventually, telling him it would wake my momma and she needed rest before work had kept him standing at the limo instead. He had watched until I’d closed the door before he turned and got back inside to ride away.

He hadn’t told me when he would be back. He’d made me no promises. He had just said that he would call me. If this weekend had been even a tenth as special to him as it had been to me, then he would be back soon.

“Fire, baby girl. Playing with fire,” Momma said as she walked into the living room in her blue silk wrap.

“Don’t, Momma. Please. Let me enjoy this.”

She walked over to the window and watched as his limo pulled away. “You gonna sulk in your room again when this goes south? I can promise you Krit won’t come running back to save you.” She paused. “Then again, maybe he will. Maybe Krit is your Jess. Come to think of it, that makes complete sense.”

She was back to the Gilmore Girls thing again. I wasn’t doing this with her. Not today. “I have some things to do for work,” I told her before walking back to my bedroom.

“Did you love Krit?” Momma called after me.

“I wasn’t in love with him, no.”

She sighed loudly. “Well, I guess there’s always time for that. You did do this backwards, after all.”

I closed my bedroom door on my mother’s crazy relationship advice, then turned to my bed and lay down. Staring at my ceiling, I let the silly smile free that I had been trying to hold in. Jason had been different this weekend. He hadn’t been as standoffish. He had let me in. We had talked about his friends at school and his brother. I felt connected to him in a way I hadn’t before.

My phone started ringing, and I reached in my pocket to get it. Jason’s name was on the screen, and the happy giggle that erupted was one I hoped no one heard.

“Hello,” I said, unable to mask my happiness that he was already calling me.

“I wanted to hear your voice one more time. Once I get back, I have to study.”

“I need to do the same thing. I’m glad you called,” I replied.

I heard a soft laugh. “Good. I was afraid it might be too soon.”

“Hmm, maybe, but it’s cute,” I teased.

“Cute, huh? Do I need to remind you of my sexiness?”

This time I laughed. “Definitely not. I’m very aware.”

“Thought so. I’m hard to forget,” he replied.

“Agreed.”

He sighed. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Okay, be careful,” I replied.

When he hung up, I dropped the phone to my stomach. It was hard not saying anything more than that. Remembering that this was a casual thing was hard. There were no strings. Not that I intended to date anyone else, but still. The fact remained he could. And I wondered how I was going to handle it when he did.

* * *

The first part of the week, I stayed clear of all entertainment news and tabloids for fear I would see something with Jason in it that I didn’t want to see. When he hadn’t called me by Thursday, I caved and googled him to see if there was any news on him. But only old stuff popped up. There was news about Jax Stone’s new single and some photos of him and Sadie shopping on Rodeo Drive.

Friday I seriously considered going to Live Bay but changed my mind about five times during the day. By the time three o’clock rolled around, I had decided to stay home and work.

When my phone rang, it was almost four, and I ran for my phone. The sinking feeling hit when I saw Amanda’s name instead of Jason’s on the screen.

“Hey,” I said, trying not to sound too disappointed. I didn’t get calls from Amanda very often.

“Hey, Jess. It’s Amanda,” she said.

“I still have your number. Just because you hooked up with Preston and ruined all our partying fun doesn’t mean I disowned you as a friend,” I teased her. She was the kind of girl I would never be but often wished I could have been.

Amanda laughed. We had actually done very little partying. I hadn’t let it get too far. Back when Amanda had a wild streak, she had come to me to help her learn to have some fun. One night when she had gotten drunk, she’d let it slip that she was trying to get Preston Drake’s attention. He was the last guy she needed to be messing around with. Or at least, I had thought so. In the end she had wrapped Preston so tightly around her little finger that he’d cleaned up and stopped screwing his way through life.