Page 146 of New York Love Stories: Vol. 2

“We’ve never been those kinds of friends, Jackson. Are we friends at all? Or just friends by association?”

“Sometimes,” I admit, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be more with you.” I can’t say we were friends in college or evenafter graduation. Still, something over the past year changed—our patience with each other, or even Rad and Tealey eventually getting together—and suddenly, we were the only ones not dating. A lot of whiskey, a star-filled sky, and the sound of the waves became foreplay. We made a deal. We’ll tell no one, no getting our emotions involved, and only have sex until we meet someone else more appealing.

No one else more appealing came along, so we became a regular thing. So I’m not sure what we are anymore, but my guess is that we’re caught in the middle of the friends we are now, the acquaintances we were at best in the past, and a committed relationship.Purgatory.

Gliding my other hand along her ribs and tilting my head down, I kiss one corner of her mouth and then the other. “We’re friends. More than.”

“More than. I like that.” She smiles. “I’m here, so what are you going to do with me?”

“What do youwantme to do with you?”

Her gaze travels down my hallway. “Maybe we figure it out in the bedroom.” I scoop her into my arms, eliciting giggles straight from her belly.It’s a beautiful fucking sound.

She tosses her handbag on the table by the door when we pass by, but then she returns to kiss the underside of my jaw. “You never shave for me,” she says as we head for my bedroom.

“I can’t help that I’m so manly and can grow a beard by lunch.” I chuckle. Every other woman I date wants me to look like a lumberjack. Not Marlow. She’s always been about the clean-shaven, white-collar look. And most days I fit that, but when I get to choose, I’m more laid-back.

Reaching the side of the bed, I quirk a brow at her. “I can call you a car if it bothers you that much.”

Marlow’s eyes widen. “I’m not bothered.” The tension that appeared in her shoulders disappears just as quickly. “Not bothered at all.”

I smirk and then set her down on the mattress. Although we’ll be a frenzy of hands and other body parts in a minute, I take a moment to admire the woman on my bed. She lifts to toe off her shoes, each jeweled shoe dropping to the floor like she has no care for them at all. I know she does. Marlow loves her shoes.

But it seems she might like something else even more.

Me.

At least for the night.

CHAPTER 3

Jackson

“Do you mind unzipping me?” Marlow bats her eyelashes while looking at me over her shoulder. Now standing before me, she’s already well-aware of the answer without me saying it.

I kiss the curvature of her neck before unzipping the dress from her lower back and farther over the mound of her ass. “Why do you have to be so goddamn gorgeous?” I reach the end of the zipper. My cock stirs as I unwrap her red dress like a present I’ve waited for all year—savoring every moment. Placing my palm flat on her warm skin, I slide it down her spine. And then I follow with kisses, appreciating every inch of her with my lips.

Her body shivers when I blow across the trail I’ve left behind. Letting the dress fall to the floor, I expose her dangerously sexy curves, and then she moves back on the bed and rolls over. “You’ve never been big on foreplay before, St. James.”

Marlow’s never been shy, but with that body and her fantastic tits, she shouldn’t be.

“I like foreplay.” Leaning over her, I plant my hands on either side of her head and kiss her cheek. “Especially with you.”

She takes hold of my lapels, keeping me close. “What are we doing?”

“Sex. You’re familiar with it from my recollection.”

That smile just about does me in—bright and drop-dead gorgeous like she is. “Funny. But you know what I mean. We always said we’d stop when emotions got involved. It’s feeling a lot like they’re already pretty damn involved.”

“People change. Feelings change. Is that a bad thing?”

Tugging my jacket over my shoulders, she whispers, “Not bad. Different. New. Maybe we should?—”

“Talk about this tomorrow?”

“I agree. I’d rather get back to this sex you mentioned.”

Chuckling, I push off the bed and let the jacket hit the floor. “Are you going to take that strip of lace off or lie there teasing me like that all night?”

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