“I do. Don’t get me wrong. I do…very much. But I don’t want you to feel pressured or hurried.”
“Am I hurrying too much?” Her expression said she was taking this the wrong way.
He grabbed her elbow and led her to the bed two steps away. “No. But sit down.”
She remained standing and crossed her arms. “If you’re going to say you’ve changed your mind, do it now. I don’t need to hear any fancy explanations. If you’re just not into me, you’re not into me.”
“Huh? Iaminto you.” He smiled and then winked. “Or I will be, if you’ll give me a chance.”
“Oh…oh! You, um, need a few minutes?”
“What? No.” He laughed. “I’m good to go. I’m just making sure that this is what you want.”
“For fuck’s sake…” she said under her breath.
Obviously she didn’t know what to think of his gallantry. Maybe she’d never experienced a man being considerate before. He didn’t want her to get the wrong idea and think he was backing out. Far from it. At last, he tackled her and pulled her down on top of him.
She came up laughing. “Women aren’t the only ones who give mixed signals.”
“I guess not. I’m sorry.” He rolled her onto her back and loomed over her. “I’m very into you. Maybe so much that I got a little scared.”
Her brows shot up. “I’ve never heard that one before.”
“Because it’s not a line.” Before she could comment on his embarrassing burst of honesty, he dipped his head and devoured her mouth. She returned his passion, and they rolled across the bed. As the heat built, he needed to get his clothes off. He should never have stopped her as they were entering the room.
He reached behind her back and lowered the dress’s zipper. Slipping it off one shoulder revealed a pretty lavender lace bra. Maybe she had been joking about the granny panties.
Getting the rest of the dress off her was a bit of a trick. She seemed fine letting him remove the dress from the other shoulder and pop her bra open, but that’s where her cooperation ended. She didn’t lift her bottom, so he couldn’t pull the dress down and off. He couldn’t yank it up over her head either. He tried to slip his hand inside, and she batted it away.
Fine. He’d lavish attention on her breasts until she was ready to move forward. As he suckled, she moaned and arched into him. There was no question in his mind that she was enjoying this.
Finally, it occurred to him what the problem might be. He rose up on his elbows and stared down at her. “Kristine, are you wearing granny panties?”
“Um…” A blush stained her chest and worked its way up to her cheeks. “Yes.”
Jayce leaned back and laughed. “Oh, honey. You don’t have to worry about that. I was just giving you a hard time that day in Boston. It was just part of the fun.”
“Really? You don’t mind?”
“It’s certainly not a deal breaker. I like you too much.”
“Well, that’s a relief, because I like you too.”
“I propose that we give this long-distance thing a try. After all, it might work out, but we’ll never know unless we give it a shot.”
“I accept your proposal.” She immediately broke eye contact and blushed.
* * *
Later Kristine practically floated into her apartment after her date.
On the lookout for her mother, she crept to the bathroom. She didn’t want to go into details, and her mother would have grilled her. She just wanted to bask in the glow of adoration for a little while. It had been a long, long time since any man had treated her this well. She knew the high wouldn’t last, but by God, she was going to enjoy it while it did.
Her mother must have gone to bed early. She never went to bed before eleven, and she usually read for a while. It was after midnight when Kristine tucked herself in and turned out the light without waking her. At that point, she’d considered her night a complete triumph.
Would he really call her today like he said he would? Or was it a one-night stand? She’d given him her landline number just in case her mobile phone’s battery died.
Crap. Now she’d obsess about it all day. Oh well, at least she had a dentist appointment to take her mind off him. She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. Yeah, right. Like anything would get her to stop thinking about Jayce Fierro.
