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She looks up at me with her round, doe-like eyes, and for a moment, I lose all sense of where we are. My brain must have lost all reason as well, because I can't find another explanation for coming up with the corniest line ever. "I promise I'll make them worth it."
Bugger.
I cringe and try to think of something clever, fast, so I can turn it around and make it sound like a joke or something when she starts laughing. But Jessica doesn't laugh, and I breathe relieved, because—I realize to my own surprise—I didn't mean it as a joke at all. A pink tint colors her cheeks, and she takes the cigarette out of her mouth, dropping it in her bag.
"Well, as far as arguments go, that's more convincing than statistics," she says, and I'm delighted to hear a slight tremor in her voice. I run my thumb over her lips and pull her into a kiss. I tug at her lip with my teeth, greed overtaking me, and then I pound her sweet mouth with desperation. Slinging my arms around her, I pull her closer to me, kissing her deeper.
When I stop for air, I have an uneasy feeling that she'll ask for more words; press me for. . . more. Since I barely understand what the hell just went on, I'm in no position to offer more. But she doesn't ask for more than I can give. She pulls me into another kiss, and I give her all I have with this kiss, all I can't put in words. A need awakens inside me within seconds, one that is all too familiar whenever I’m around her. I run my hands down her delicious arse, pressing her body against my hard-on.
She sighs in my mouth, and I lose all self-control in that sweet yet savage way only she can make me lose it.
"I need to be inside you," I say.
"That could be a bit problematic, seeing as we are in a park." I feel goose bumps forming on her skin under my touch. She wants this as much as I do.
"I can drive fast."
Chapter Eighteen
Jessica
"Any recommendations?" I ask Parker two weeks later as he, Helen, and I wait for Dani at her favorite sushi place. Dani and Parker have met weekly ever since the two of us moved to London, but since I was doing my best to avoid him, I slipped out of these meetings as often as I could. Now I am happy to be here. We’re still waiting for Dani before we order.
"The mixed platter is great," Parker answers with a smile.
I’ve slept at his place most nights for the past weeks. After the first week, I was seriously worried I’d overstayed my welcome. Parker hadn’t hinted at anything like that, but I know men.
I was preparing myself to sleep a few nights in my own apartment for a change, when I noticed a box of my favorite cereal in the kitchen. When I thanked him for it, he shrugged, saying he thought this would cheer up my mornings since I hate them so much. But I could read between the lines. His words were an invitation to stay. So I stayed.
“Anyone knows where Dani is?” Helen asks.
“She texted to say she’ll be a few minutes late,” I say. “Maybe she had a hot date.”
Parker glares at me. “You know something?”
I roll my eyes. “No, but you need to relax. You and James. Dani will date eventually, and you have to accept it, even if it's not someone either of you would approve. You know, I hate to tell you this, but every girl will have dated at least one bad boy.”
"Amen to that," Helen says after a few seconds. "Some way more than one. Bad boys are quite addictive, aren't they? I guess it's a case of once you go bad you never go back.”
Laughing, I start flipping through the drink menu. Quite generous, seeing as it's a sushi restaurant. Twenty-six pages. I almost decide on a tequila sunrise when my phone starts buzzing. James. I excuse myself from the table, wanting to take the call outside. Ah, mid-August agrees with London, at least when it isn’t raining. It’s warm, but not hot.
"I have news," he says. "Ready for it?"
"Shoot. I have a menu with twenty-six pages of alcoholic drinks. I'm sure I can find something appropriate whether this is good or bad news."
"I haven't figured out how, but I know where I'll ask Serena to marry me. In London."
Whoa. Talk about whiplash.
"Jessica? Say something. What do you think?"
"I'm thinking that someone should invent a drink specifically for news you don't know if it's good or bad." Serena moved to California almost ten years ago after her sister's death and hasn't returned to London once. Bad memories, I suppose. I'm not sure whether this is such a great idea. "Why don't you take her to the chocolate factory again?" I ask, referring to the one thing that turned me into a James fan for life. He took her on a private tour of a freaking chocolate factory. His chocolate factory. Well, his father's, but that still doesn't make the whole thing any less swoon-worthy.
"Nah, you never do the same trick twice," James replies.
"Better safe than sorry."
James chuckles. "My, my, my. How the mighty have fallen. Since when is that your prerogative? You sound like Parker."
