Page 46 of Wild Ever After
“Friends,” she whispers, and her stare drops to my lips.
Adrenaline makes my limbs feel jittery. I’d like to kiss her and say damn the consequences. Not that it’d do either of us a lick of good. But, hell, if it wouldn’t feel amazing.
We dance through the song and then stay for the next.
Slowly, the pained look on her face has abated.
“I feel like I still don’t know that much about you,” she says.
“What do you want to know?” I ask, hoping the topic doesn’t go back to my mom. I’ve told very few people as much as I told her today.
Her face flushes and an almost embarrassed smile pulls at her lips before she asks, “When did you get the piercing?”
“I was nineteen or twenty and drunk off my ass. I lost a bet.”
“A bet?”
“Yeah, it was dumb.”
“But you kept it.”
“Should I not have?”
Her face flushes again. “No. I like it. I was just surprised.”
I remember how much she liked it and the thought sends all my blood rushing south.
“What else do you want to know?” I ask, hoping to change the subject.
“Have you slept with a lot of people?” she asks. Then says, “No wait. Don’t answer that. What I really want to know is if it’s always like that for you?”
“Like what?” I ask, knowing damn well what she means, but wanting to hear her say it. That night was…unbelievable.
“I know we were drunk, but I’ve never gotten off that many times in one night.”
This conversation may actually kill me. My dick is inflating fast.
“No, it’s not usually like that for me either.”
She lets out a breath. “Maybe we should have spent the week banging it out of our system. It’s going to be a long year without sex after that.”
She’s right about that and if she’d said it on day one, I probably would have jumped at the opportunity. But tomorrow we’re going home, and we have to figure out how to be around each other and stay friends. Plus, I don’t think she’s over Sam, and I don’t want to be his stand-in when it comes to sex.
I press a soft kiss to her lips, letting myself linger there only a second before pulling back. Her pupils are blown wide, and I can feel her heart hammering in rhythm with mine. “Maybe, but I doubt I’d ever work you out of my system. I’d just want you more and more.”
18
SOME CHANGES
JADE
Declanand I arrive back in Minnesota late Friday evening. We’ve almost been married for one whole week. One down, fifty-two to go.
My nerves ramp up as he pulls into the garage at his house. I only have the bags I had for the wedding and honeymoon with me. I packed up everything I wanted in my apartment the day before the wedding, and had it sent to Scarlett’s house while we were gone. It felt like a safe plan at the time, in case Declan hadn’t shown up to the wedding, or any other myriad of possible issues that could have arisen, but now it feels like a pain. I am so tired and the last thing I want to do is go get my stuff, but I want the comfort of having my belongings around me.
Declan carries our bags into the house. I follow behind him, feeling like a stray animal he’s taking in for a while. Something shifted between us last night. An acceptance that no matter our attraction, nothing else is going to happen.
The house is big and open. Tools and construction materials line the kitchen counter, and his living room holds a really big couch that takes up most of the large area. The only other furniture is a dark wood coffee table and a Declan-size recliner.
