Page 42 of Winning Her

I couldn’t handle that, not now. Not when I was about to get exactly what I wanted.

This time, I even came prepared. I’d hoped he would come by to see me, and it had seemed like a vain hope the more I packed and he still hadn’t shown up. I had some condoms on the nightstand in my bedroom waiting for us. It was easier than taking another pill, and I couldn’t just take one on the off chance he would come looking for me.

The condoms made me seem just a little less desperate. If he wondered why I had them in the first place… I was going to lie like my life depended on it. I wasn’t sure what lie to tell just yet, if he even asked, but I would have one to give.

“The bedroom,” I muttered, after long moments of memorizing his face, and he didn’t once interrupt me as he looked me over himself, still with that gentle look that I wasn’t used to receiving from him. “It’s this way.”

I squeezed his hand where it lay in mine, then turned and led the way. It was a short trip, but we had to walk around the boxes to get there.

“You don’t have a lot of stuff,” Trent muttered, probably to himself, but I heard him anyway.

“Yeah, well. We don’t all have the kind of background you do. I don’t have a lot of stuff to my name.”

All the stuff I had was already packed away in the boxes, and it was just enough that I could fit it all into my car if I used the trunk and the backseat. The only stuff I had left out was my outfit for tomorrow and the bedding because I wouldn’t be leaving until the morning.

I will be leaving, I promised myself. Once it’s morning, everything is over. But just one more time…

Trent turned me around once we got into the bedroom, and I let him walk me backward to the bed. He didn’t break his gaze once, and I could feel my heart start to beat fast and hard in my chest as my excitement grew. As much as I’d tried to make myself stop thinking about our first time, I couldn’t, and I wanted tonight to be just as good, if not better.

“You’re something, you know that,” Trent murmured, finally coming to a stop. The hand still holding mine released it, only to wrap back around my waist and tug my body against his. “You grew up beautiful, Jessi.”

I pursed my lips, feeling my cheeks warm with a blush. Don’t listen to him, Jessi! It’s a trick!

“You’re just saying that,” I accused.

He smiled crookedly at me. “Believe what you want. I could always show you what you do to me?”

It was worded as a question, but I wasn’t given time to answer. He ducked his head and I sighed into his kiss, standing on tiptoes to kiss him back, my hands sliding over his shoulders again. His coat was gone from when we’d first embraced out in the front room, so he was left in just his shirt. I’d undone a few of the buttons but had forgotten the tie because it was still there around his neck.

I took my time, mapping the inside of his mouth. I didn’t know quite what I was doing since Trent was the only man I’d ever kissed. But I tried to call on what I’d learned from last time. I licked his lip to gain access, then tentatively slid my tongue into his mouth, licking the roof of his mouth, then tangling our tongues together. Trent sucked on my tongue, and I moaned as I held myself even closer to him.

Focus, Jessi. Get to the bed first…

My arms moved around his neck until my hands were at his collar, and I went to work on his tie. It came loose with a couple of tugs, then I was working on his buttons. It was going a little slow because he kept distracting me with kisses, but I did manage to get all the way to where his shirt was tucked into his pants. I tugged it out, finished unbuttoning, and then pushed it off his shoulders.

I groaned when he stopped kissing me to pull it off when I’d managed to avoid it so far. He chuckled at me. With his shirt off, he undid his belt and my lips parted as I watched him slowly strip down in front of me. He paused with his fly undone, and when I met his gaze he had an eyebrow arched my way.

“I’m not going to be the only one getting naked, am I?” he asked cheekily, adding a little grin.

“You’re in an unusually good mood today,” I muttered with a pout. I reached around my back to pull down my zip, realizing just then that he’d already pulled it more than halfway down already. I finished pulling it down, then wrapped my arms around myself, hands on my shoulders, trying to talk myself into actually taking it off.

This is the worst kind of time to start feeling shy, I chided myself. But Trent staring at me so intently wasn’t exactly helping.

“I have been looking for you for the whole week,” he admitted. “Well, trying, anyway. I was too busy. I came here the day after we were together last time, but I didn’t see you.”

That had me stilling in shock, but in the next moment, I was dismissing it in my mind. It couldn’t possibly mean anything. Trent looked so beautiful, so sincere in that moment, but how could I take his word for it? There was no way it could be true.

Leopards didn’t change their spots, after all, and especially not so quickly that it would give me whiplash if I wasn’t already planning on running away, so I didn’t see him go back to his usual self.

I was giving myself this one last chance. So I could feel the way he’d made me feel that night one last time.

“Are you just going to stand there?” I snapped after a moment of neither of us moving.

Trent smirked and let his pants drop, kicking them to the side. My jaw dropped at how readily he did it, though he still had his briefs on. Steeling myself, I slid the dress off my shoulders and kicked it to the side as well. I stood in front of him, half naked, wanting to cover myself with my hands, but holding back the urge.

“So beautiful,” Trent murmured, closing the space between us again and taking me in his arms as he pressed our lips together for another kiss.

We tumbled into the bed. My bed wasn’t as big or as soft as Trent’s bed. If we rolled around too much, one of us would probably end up on the floor. He didn’t seem to mind, holding me close as he settled right in the middle. I shoved at his briefs as he undid my bra, and we stripped our underwear off, tossing them to the floor.