Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
She shakes her head, blinks, then shakes her head again.
“Is that a no?” I ask. “A yes? A maybe?”
“I don’t know,” she says, biting her lip the way she does when she’s fighting to keep from saying something she’d rather not share. It’s a battle she always used to lose. She proves she’s still the same girl I knew by blurting out a second later, “But the fact is you did show up tonight. On the night. The exact night we promised to show up for each other.”
“But I didn’t bring the capes,” I say, not bothering to mention that I still have them—both of them—in a special memento box in the attic at my country house.
Her eyes narrow. “It doesn’t matter. You can play innocent all you want, Sam, but I won’t and don’t believe you.”
Heart beating faster, I arch a brow. “No?”
“No.” She hitches her chin higher into the air. “I think you showed up tonight on purpose.”
“And if I did?” I ask, my entire body vibrating as she leans closer, bringing her lips mere inches from mine. “What would you think about that?”
“I’d think it was insane,” she says, threatening to pop my fragile hope balloon, before she adds, “There’s no way someone as hot as you are should still be a virgin. Unless you’re a really bad kisser or something. Are you a really bad kisser, Sam?”
I’m about to offer her a chance to decide for herself, but in typical Jess fashion, she beats me to the punch.
Before I can say a word, Jess’s lips are on mine.
Jessica Allison Cho, my dream girl for as long as I can remember, is suddenly kissing me—this isn’t a dream or a fantasy, this is real, and even more intense than I imagined it would be.
Her lips are warm and confident, but gentle, curious, too. Her velvety soft skin brushes against mine, teasing, exploring, making my blood rush in my ears even before her tongue teases along the seam of my mouth, triggering a minor cardiac event.
“I’m a virgin, too,” she whispers against my lips as I’m struggling to talk my heart out of my throat. “And a deal is a deal.” She sits back on her heels, watching me with glittering eyes that make it almost impossible not to drag her into my lap and her lips back to mine. “But I have two conditions: One, we have to get to know each other again first, or it will be too weird. I don’t get naked with strangers, even a stranger who used to be one of my best friends.”
I nod, my head bobbing loosely on my still-electrified body. “I’m here for two weeks, and I’d love to spend every second of my free time with you.”
“Every second is a lot of seconds,” she says. “But as I’m currently unemployed, I have a lot of seconds to spare. But I also have another condition.”
“Shoot,” I say, already knowing the answer will be yes. I’d sign over half my company to her if she asked for it, let alone whatever reasonable boundary she’s about to lay down.
She pulls in a breath, holding it for a second before she says in a rush, “After it’s over, we never see each other again. Ever.”
CHAPTER THREE
Jess
Sam’s face falls, and for a moment, I want to take it back, to assure him I didn’t mean it and that I want him in my life for the long haul.
Instead, I curl my toes into the bottoms of my sneakers and will my courage to hold.
I don’t want to hurt Sam, but I know myself. There’s no way I’m going to be able to have sex-of-convenience with a friend and then go back to being easy-breezy buddies again afterward. It would be too weird and embarrassing.
And that’s assuming I manage to pull off “losing it” without doing something mortifying like laughing hysterically during the act or making weird sex faces or accidentally biting his tongue off or something. I’m awkward as hell at the best of times and being naked with another person for the first time in my life isn’t going to be the best of times. It’s going to be terrifying and monumental, and yes, hopefully also fun, but there’s no way it will be fun enough to make me forget that it’s happening because Sam couldn’t find anyone else.
Because I’m his last resort.
I’m okay with being the last resort, I guess, but I don’t want to be reminded of it every time Sam and I hook up to fight orcs in a gaming party or meet up for coffee while he’s in town.
Besides, he had no trouble doing without The Bodacious Cho in his life for six whole years.
He’ll be fine with one and done.
And if he’s not, he can always say no.