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“Scarlett. I’ve waited my whole life for you to like me back. And you’re crazy if you think anything is going to keep us apart now.”

“But what if my dad won’t listen to you?”

“Then we’ll keep dating anyway. It’s not like he can actually keep us apart. Your secret lair downstairs helps with that.”

“You’d date me in secret?”

“I’ll do whatever we have to do. I meant what I said. Nothing is going to keep us apart now.”

“I love you.” I’d said it earlier tonight accidentally. But I wanted him to know how I felt. And I did love him.

“I love you too.” He pressed his lips against mine.

I wound my arms behind his neck.

His phone started ringing again.

“Are you sure you don’t want to answer that?”

“He’ll just tell me to come home because he wants to talk to me. And I don’t have any plans on going home right now.”

“You don’t?”

He shook his head. “I was kind of hoping my girlfriend would ask me to stay the night.”

I laughed. “Jacob, will you spend the night?”

He kissed me again. Slower this time. Like we had all the time in the world. “Is your door locked?”

I shook my head.

“Well, we don’t want you to get grounded for longer than forever.” He dropped his hands from my waist and walked over to the door. He turned the lock with a satisfying click. And then he started unknotting his bowtie. I watched him unbutton his vest.

I wasn’t sure if he was undressing to climb into bed. Or undressing for something else. So I just stood there staring. Yeah, I’d definitely be grounded for longer if my dad walked in on this.

Jacob pulled off his tuxedo jacket and walked over to my desk chair. He frowned when he saw Axel’s varsity jacket on the back of my chair.

Axel. Shit! Axel had been coming over every night recently. But...he wouldn’t tonight, right? I hadn’t even seen him when I left homecoming. He was probably off in some hotel room hooking up with someone. And for the first time ever, the thought didn’t hurt as much. No, he wouldn’t come tonight. It was homecoming night. He’d spend it with someone he actually liked.

Jacob didn’t say anything as he covered Axel’s jacket with his own jacket. He unbuttoned his shirt next and draped that on the chair too. And then he kicked off his dress shoes. He reached down to the button on his pants.

I stepped forward and put my hand on the waistline of his pants. This was one thing I actually had experience doing now. And I wasn’t sure how I ever thought what Jacob and I had was fake. Because he was staring at me the way he always did when I unzipped his pants.

My heart started racing. It didn’t seem like Jacob had any plans of just going to sleep. And I’d been dreaming of more with him. Every time he’d asked me if I wanted him to return the favor, I’d wanted to say yes. But I’d wanted him to want to do it. And now I knew that he actually did.

Jacob reached behind my back and unzipped the top of my dress.

I let it fall down my arms as I pushed his pants down. He kicked them off and then reached down and grabbed my thighs, hoisting my legs up around his waist. I was still wearing the skirt of my two piece dress. But the high slit made it easy to wrap my legs around him.

He placed me down in the middle of the bed and leaned over top of me.

I thought we were finished. Doomed from the very start. But he was here. And tomorrow he was going to fight for me.

I ran my fingers down the muscles on his back as I pulled him closer.

He slid his hand up my thigh.

This was what I wanted. Him.