Page 55 of Crave

“What are you thinking about?”

“Did you have any serious girlfriends before Tracy? Did you ever love anyone besides her?”

“I had girlfriends, but they never lasted more than a few months.”

“So, she’s the only woman you’ve ever loved, and now she’s married to your brother. I don’t think that leaves much room for me, Jake. I’m nothing like Tracy. I only met her once, but I have a feeling that she’s the total opposite of who I am. I don’t just mean in her appearance. She seems like a project, and I’m not that.”

“That’s unfair, Sandy. I know you’re not like her, and I’m not looking for you to replace anybody. I just like you. That’s it. It has nothing to do with anybody else, but I felt you should know the history. I wanted to explain about the night we met.”

“But you haven’t explained about that night specifically. What made you insult a pregnant woman and start a fight with your brother about his pregnant wife? After five years, they still get you upset enough to ruin your mother’s party? Is this what’s going to happen every time I’m with you and they come around? You’ll abandon me to go start some fight?”

He spins me around and looks at my face.

“He betrayed me and gets to live the perfect life. That’s what it’s about. I’m sorry about that night, Sandy. I was blindsided when you told me she was pregnant, and I acted poorly. I’m tired of these feelings, and I give you my word that I’ll never walk away from you again.” I try to look away, but he grabs my chin and forces me to meet his eyes. “I want you. I want to be with you. We’re good together.” While still holding onto my chin, he intertwines his free hand with one of mine.

In a need to get closer to him, I close the little space there was between us and lay my head on his chest. I close my eyes and breathe him in. This man blew into my neatly organized life like a tornado, destroying everything I thought I knew about intimacy.

“What about all the other stuff?”

“What other stuff?”

I look down at our joined hands, seeing the contrast between our skin tones. When I look back at him, he’s smiling.

“This stuff?” He looks from our hands to my face and back again, giving me that boyish grin that shows off his left dimple. “This is beautiful.” He kisses my knuckles. “Will you take me out of my misery already? Tell me you’ll give this flawed guy a chance because he’s kind of crazy about you.”

“Not just that stuff,” I stress the word as I hold up our joined hands. “Let’s be realistic here. We come from two different worlds.”

“We live less than five miles away from each other. We grew up in the same damn city. The house you grew up in is probably less than ten miles from where I grew up. We’re not that different.”

“Actually, the house I grew up in is one street over from where I live now. So, we grew up less than five miles apart, but it might as well have been different worlds. We—”

He kisses me, silencing any further protests. The kiss catches me off guard and is so intense that all thoughts leave my mind as I give in to his kiss.

“Just stop putting up barriers. Our story is as old as time. Guy meets girl and thinks girl is so damn beautiful. Hell, guy thinks girl is perfection. Girl finds guy incredibly handsome, smart, and irresistible. Neither girl nor guy can keep their hands off each other. They succumb to their passion. It’s explosive. Girl agrees she can’t stay away from guy because he’s too good looking to resist. The end.”

“Wow. You make girl sound desperate.”

He smiles at me, dimple on full display. “Not desperate. Just smart enough to know a good thing when she has it. So, good looking, are you going to put me out of my misery now and end this talk about you walking away? You know I would never let that happen. I’ve been chasing you for weeks now.”

“Fine. I’ll put you out of your misery.” I turn in his arms and wrap my arms around his waist. “Can we go back to bed?”

He throws his head back as if deep in thought.

“You want more, huh? Girl can’t keep hands off guy.” To prove his point, he grinds his now hard dick into my core.

“Girl is sore. Girl wants to nap.”

“How about an orgasm before that nap? You’ll sleep better, and I can do amazing things with my tongue.”

He still has his erection pressed into me as memories of just this morning awaken my body.

“Okay,” is all I say before he swoops me up and runs to his bedroom.

CHAPTER 18

JAKE

After checking my phone for what seems like the millionth time, I shove it back in my pocket before my dad catches me.

---