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“You’re my knight in shining armor.” He whispered.
Oleander laughed. “Well, I’m definitely no damsel in distress.”
“I was mostly jealous that you might dance with him.”
Shaking her head, Oleander cupped his face. “I’m here withyou, therefore, I dance with you.”
“I’m not a good dancer.”
Oleander moved closer. “Sway with me and you’ll be fine.”
And Jackson did. His hands moved over her back, down to her ass and around to her hips as Oleander spun in his arms, her back to his chest, ass to his dick, and back to face him. He lost track of the number of songs they danced to, but eventually, she got tired and dragged them back to their table. And after countless drinks, Oleander wasn’t entirely steady on her feet. But she seemed to be aware of her surroundings and the fact that she’d had too much to drink. A soft giggle escaped her lips as she smoothed a hand over the front of her dress.
“Maybe it’s time to go home.”
Jackson chuckled and patted his pockets for his wallet, but Oleander was faster and held out her card. He stared at it a moment and smiled, getting a wink in return.
“I’ll go pay the bill and be right back, don’t go anywhere.”
She nodded, “I won’t.”
Once he’d paid with her card, Jackson walked out and helped her into the cab. They weren’t too drunk, but they were definitely tipsy and Jackson knew that he would feel better if she was with him. He gave the cab driver his address and helped Oleander untie her hair, his fingers brushing through the soft strands as she nuzzled into his shoulder.
When they reached his apartment, they used each other for support out of the cab. He was really glad that his roommate, Carson, was gone for the weekend, because he had no idea what was going to happen.
Jackson let them into the apartment and Oleander leaned against the wall to kick off her heels. He sniffed the air and made a face at the smell of old garbage. Jackson opened a window, dug out one of Carson’s Bath & Bodyworks candles from his secret stash and lit it. As Oleander looked around, Jackson took the trash out and came back in time to hear her squeal.
“You have a turtle!”
“Meet Raphael,” Jackson said, coming up behind her. His pet turtle had been like an emotional support animal, except Raph did nothing but sit there and stare at him. “He’s named after my favorite Ninja Turtle.”
“Shut the front door!” Oleander turned to face him, her hands landing on his shoulders. “You’re a Ninja Turtles fan?”
“Fan is an understatement.”
She fanned herself. “Youareperfect.”
“What’s going on here?” Jackson frowned, seeing wonder and awe in Oleander’s eyes. Not a single woman had been excited about Raph before. Hell, even his friends thought Jackson was crazy to be obsessed about talking reptiles. Oleander was practically bouncing as her fingers curled around his biceps and Jackson couldn’t help but smile at her excitement.
“Growing up, I would get all of my brothers’ old toys and the most precious of the lot were the Turtles. One Halloween, I dressed up as April O’Neil and every year after that I went as a different Turtle.”
Jackson’s eyes widened, because there was absolutely no way that this woman standing in his apartment was saying those words. “You might be my perfect woman.”
“How did we never talk about this?”
“I think you were too busy stuffing your face to ask the important questions.”
“Hilarious,” Oleander deadpanned and Jackson laughed. “Other than Raph, who is your favorite?”
“Master Splinter, of course. He was the coolest dad-slash-sensei. I sometimes imagined thathewas the one teaching me karate, instead of my actual sensei.”
“That is fucking adorable.”
“When I was 18, I got this…” Jackson trailed off, shrugging out of his jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, going as high as he could to show her a bit of his tattoo. Oleander swayed slightly, with a dreamy look in her eyes and Jackson chuckled “It’s the only tattoo I have, but it felt like the right thing to get done.”
“I can’t see it—your sexy forearms are distracting me.”
Jackson pulled out his phone, found the picture and held it out to her. “There you go.”
