Page 75 of Crave

“Key lime. Sweet, but not as sweet at you.” She rolls her eyes at me as she takes a bite. And that’s how we spend the night of our first official date. After hours of making love, she sits on my abs and we share cheesecake. The dogs, who were major cock blockers just hours ago, are now lying peacefully in front of the couch. After sharing dessert, she falls asleep on top of me, with nothing but a thin blanket covering us, her face in the crook of my neck, and one of my palms covering one of her ass cheeks.

Too comfortable to get us up and go back to the bedroom, I decide we can just sleep on the couch until Sandy wakes up, but then I hear the front door open and heavy footsteps.

“Wake up, asshole,” JD yells from down the hall. “Where are you? You have any food in this house?” he yells again.

As Sandy starts to stir, I become irritated. “Shhhh,” I say as quietly as I can, but loud enough for him to hear. He turns the corner and approaches the couch, stopping short when he sees Sandy lying on top of me.

“Oh. Totally not what I was expecting,” he says, staring at us dumbfounded. “I guess you got your head out of your ass finally.”

I give him the middle finger before putting my index finger to my lips, signaling to him to shut the fuck up, but despite my efforts, Sandy wakes up, turns her head and sees JD.

“Hi, JD,” she says sleepily.

“Hey, Dee.”

Sandy turns towards me and looks into my eyes. Something in her expression causes my heart to ache and accelerate all at the same time. No woman has ever looked at me that way.

“Hey, handsome.” She smiles at me and I’m gone.

“Hey, gorgeous.” Despite JD standing there watching us, she kisses me. The kiss is far from chaste and I resist the urge to squeeze her ass, but soon, I break the kiss.

“Interesting turn of events. The last time I saw you two, Jake had screwed everything up and Sandy had slapped you across the face, but now I walk in on this.” He points at us on the couch.

“Well, that was weeks ago. You’d know that if you’d return any of my texts, asshole.”

He just shrugs his shoulders at me. “I was dealing with some personal shit, and I was pissed at you.”

“What personal shit?”

He once again shrugs his shoulders. “I need food. Had a date tonight not too far from here. I’m starving.”

“You didn’t eat on your date?” Sandy asks.

“Not that kind of date.”

“Okay. I’ll go to bed so you two can talk.” Sandy stretches and starts to stand up. I hold her in place and kiss her temple.

“Jesus. You two aren’t going to be one of those couples, are you?” JD asks, still watching us closely.

“What kind of couple?”

“The touchy, feely kind.”

“Nope. We are definitely not going to turn into one of those couples,” Sandy says as she takes my earlobe between her teeth.

“Because we already are.” I kiss her again as JD sighs and walks away, announcing his quest for food.

I carry Sandy to the bedroom and put her to bed. “I won’t be long,” is the last thing I say as I close the door and walk back to the kitchen, where I find JD eating our leftovers.

“What’s going on with you?” I ask him. He looks tired, more so than usual. And despite his claim that he’s stayed away because he was pissed at me, I know better. He’s been pissed at me before and it’s never lasted more than a few hours.

“Just dealing with some shit. Melanie has gotten herself into trouble and fired from another job, and my parents can’t help themselves. They blame each other, instead of holding my adult sister responsible for her choices. I had to go home last weekend and it got pretty ugly.” He takes a slow sip of his beer before he turns back to the food.

JD’s relationship with his sister is even more complicated than mine is with Troy. JD and Melanie have never been close, and from what JD’s said, he could never understand why.

“I’m sorry, man,”

“Yeah, me too. I tried to help, but she didn’t want me there. She had no issues accepting my money to bail her out of jail, however.” His words are sad, resigned, and for the first time in a long time, he looks defeated. “So, you and Sandy, huh?”

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