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Chapter Twenty-Two
Hollyn woke at dawn, her head aching a little and her mouth bone dry. She blinked in the semidarkness and froze at the soft, steady sound behind her. It took half a second for her brain to register what the unfamiliar noise was. Breathing. Jasper had slept over.
Being careful not to jostle the bed too much, she rolled over, finding him on his back, covers shoved down to his waist, his bare chest moving with deep, sleep-heavy breaths. Maybe it was creepy to watch someone sleep, but she didn’t care at the moment. A gorgeous, half-naked man in her bed was a gift that deserved some study. She let herself take a long look, enjoying the luxury that she hadn’t yet been afforded with Jasper—time. Their naked antics thus far had been frantic and intense, no opportunity for savoring.
She drank him in slowly without the worry of him catching her staring. His dark hair had fallen across his forehead and was sticking up in other spots, making him look almost boyish save for the stubble covering his jaw. His lips were parted slightly, the bottom one looking full and bitable. Her gaze drifted lower, over his chest, his flat stomach, along the dark trail of hair at his navel that disappeared beneath the band of his boxers. Her body stirred with awareness. She wanted to keep going with her perusal, to slide those boxers off and take in the whole luscious view. She resisted—barely. But Lord, he was fun to ogle.
And he’d stayed.
She didn’t know what that meant. Fake dating didn’t involve sleeping over. Anytime they’d hooked up over the last couple of weeks had been at his place after an improv lesson, and she’d always gone home afterward. She’d been content with that arrangement, used to having her own space, but last night she hadn’t wanted him to go. And she’d sensed he hadn’t wanted to leave either. So despite knowing it was probably a bad idea, she’d invited him into her bed. They’d cuddled.
Cal was going to give her the third degree when he got her alone later. She’d been trying to sell this relationship with Jasper to him, but maybe she’d gone a little overboard.
She sat up, wincing at the dull throb in her head, and reached for the water Jasper had left on her side table. She gulped down the whole thing. Her hangover was mild. Getting rid of the contents of her stomach as soon as they’d gotten home last night—not her most shining moment of the evening—had probably helped, but she needed to brush her teeth more than she needed to take her next breath.
Careful not to wake Jasper, she slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom to take care of all the necessities. She made sure her mouth was minty fresh, washed her face, and drank another glass of water. There was nothing to be done about her wild hair, but by the time she made it back to bed, she felt somewhat human again.
The springs in her mattress protested as she snuggled back under the covers. The memory of last night came back to her in pieces. Jasper standing there in the dark. The scent of his freshly showered body slipping into bed a while later. Somehow her fruity shower gel had smelled completely different on him—enticing in a way she never would’ve anticipated berry-burst body wash could be. Then there was Jasper spooning her, the thick heat of his erection growing hard against her backside. So much of her had wanted to rub herself against him, to take things to that place. But she hadn’t trusted her stomach. She already had a barfed-on-a-dog story in her past, no way was she adding a barfing-on-a-hot-guy tale to that list. A girl could only handle so much humiliation. So despite the physical ache feeling him against her had caused, she’d resisted. And he hadn’t tried to persuade her or push the issue. He’d been a gentleman.
No, he’d been Jasper. A guy she was quickly learning could be trusted to respect her boundaries.
However, this morning, she was feeling better, and seeing him lying there next to her, the desire flourished anew, and she was much less concerned with drawing lines in the sand.
She hadn’t slept in the same bed with a guy since Cal, and even then it hadn’t been an overnight thing. When they’d dated, they hadn’t had their own places. Cal had been in a boys-only dorm. She had been at her mother’s. This was new. A gorgeous man tangled up in her sheets. She wanted to indulge.
She propped herself up on her elbow next to him and decided to be bold. She let her fingertips trace over his chest, mapping the hard planes there, feeling the little patch of crisp hairs between his pecs, and then circling his nipples and watching them stiffen from her touch. The sheets twitched at his waist, the male part of him coming online before his brain did, and she smirked with satisfaction.
Jasper might not be awake yet, but some parts of him were taking notice. She liked the surge of sexual confidence that came with that knowledge. Yes, she had her issues, but she could be sexy, too. She could entice and tempt. She let her fingers track lower, mapping his abdomen and then traveling the little treasure trail down to his waistband. Jasper’s breathing changed as the sheets became tented.
“Hollyn,” he said in a sleep-clogged voice.
“Good morning.” She didn’t look at his face, but instead let her nails scrape gently along the sensitive skin below his navel. A flicker of nerves tried to surface because she didn’treallyknow how to seduce a guy, but she shoved down the anxiety. There wasn’t like…a seductionprotocol. She just needed to follow her own desire. She could do this. She could be the aggressor. “I’m touching you. Do you want me to stop?”
His belly dipped with a sharp breath at her touch. “Right, because it’s awful to wake up to a beautiful woman getting me hard. Worst nightmare ever. This torture must stop.”
She bit her lip and dared a glance at his face. His half-lidded gaze was firmly on her, the hazel in his eyes more green in the early-morning light.
He propped an arm behind his head and smiled that dangerous half smile of his. “Good morning to you, Hollyn Darling. Feeling better?”
She dipped her head, suddenly shy under his gaze. “Much.”
He glanced down at his now obvious erection. “Me too, apparently.”
Her face warmed, and her nose scrunched a few times. “Sorry I woke you.”
“You better not apologize for that. Best alarm clock ever.” He reached out and pushed her hair away from her face. “But if you have some secret fantasy to mess around with a sleeping guy, I’m here for it. I can close my eyes and pretend.”
She huffed a quiet laugh. “You’re safe. NoWhile You Were Sleepingfantasies.”
He settled into the pillow. “Good, because it’s hot to watch you touch me.”
Her heartbeat was sinking lower, thethump, thump, thumpfinding its way to the spot between her thighs. “Yeah?”
“Of course.” He gave her an evaluating look, his forehead crinkling. “You look like you’re thinking too hard for this early in the morning. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
She rolled her lips together, trying to work up the courage, to not be embarrassed by what she wanted. “Would it be weird if I asked to, like, explore you?”
His lips parted slightly, and his gaze swept over her, lingering in certain places. No doubt her nipples were hard points beneath her T-shirt, announcing how secretly turned on she was by all this. “Explore?”
