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“You said ‘why’ and I said ‘why what’ and then you spaced out on me.”
“Right,” Ollie laughed, taking a bite of one of the bread rolls. “Why did you keep coming back?”
“To see you again.”
“Butwhy, Jackson?”
“Because…” Ollie arched an eyebrow at him and he laughed softly as she took another bite of the bread roll. “You fascinate me.”
“I terrify and fascinate you?”
“Yeah, you really do,” Jackson responded, licking his fingers. Ollie was clearly missing sex, because the simple act of his tongue sliding out to lick sauce off his fingers made her quiver. Her mind conjured up an image of his tongue doing that to her body and Ollie felt heat pool between her thighs. She even noticed his long fingers with neatly cut nails and bit back a growl at the thought of those fingers sliding inside her.
Jackson’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “The first time we met, you scared me. The second time, it was like you were a different person.”
She rolled her eyes, “Well, your hand was bleeding all over the place.”
“Sure, but there was something else. I can’t remember the last time I was drawn to someone the way I was drawn to you. It’s so cliché, but you were like the sun and everyone was rotating around you. And I wanted to be part of your orbit.” Jackson paused and Ollie bit her lip at his words. “Then you told me to fuck off because I was too young.”
“Oh my god, you’re an asshole,” Ollie laughed, chucking the rest of her bread roll at him. Her eyes widened when Jackson opened his mouth and caught the piece. “Impressive.”
“Thank you, I’ll be here all week.”
“Youhavebeen here all week.” Ollie teased.
She saw Jackson’s eyes darken as he spoke, “You took my breath away when I opened the men’s room door. I would have stood there and stared at you for the rest of the evening.”
“If I remember correctly, I was scowling and looking like something the cat dragged in.”
Jackson shook his head, the corner of his mouth tipped up in a smile, “You did look angry, but your eyes were twinkling and you had this thing about you that drew me in. I wish I had crashed into you on purpose. I wanted you to keep sassing me, except glass got stuck in my hand and that was a mess.”
“I was not sassing you.”
“I’ve never met anyone who sasses more than you do.”
Ollie laughed. “Frankie is definitely the queen of sass. I would not want to get too close to her.”
“I would like to get closer to you, though.”
“Oh,Jackson, that is a terrible line.”
“It’s not a line, Oleander.”
She stared at him, eyes wide and heart pounding. This whole time, he’d been cautious, awkward, polite and cute; the man sitting across from her now was a different person. And it was shockingly hot. Ollie swallowed the food in her mouth and licked her lips, watching Jackson’s eyes dip to her mouth to follow the action. She bit her bottom lip and fought back whatever sound was trying to make its way out of her throat.
“That day,” Jackson broke the silence. “At the coffee shop, I didn’t know how to approach you or what to say. If you hadn’t initiated the conversation, I might have stared at my coffee the whole time.”
“Do I make you nervous?”
Jackson nodded, “We barely know each other, but I like you. Or I like the person you’ve let me see. But you’ve also got this wall up and that’s fine—you can’t trust everybody you meet—but I constantly feel like I need to be better than myself around you and that makes me nervous.”
“Fuck, that sounds awful.Isound awful!”
“No, fuck,” Jackson cursed under his breath and shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I’ve never met a woman like you and I want you to give me a chance, so I’m working really hard to earn it.”
Ollie made a face and she realized Jackson was right—shehadbeen making him work for it, but it was the only way she could decide if he was worth it or not. He’d come by the bar a few times after their first messy interaction, but it was the coffee shop morning that really changed everything. Ollie now understood how important that day was to him. It was important to her too.
“I still feel bad for the way I reacted. It’s been…a long time since I’ve been interested inthis.”
