“I haven’t made you choose anything,” she cried in exasperation, making me glance over to realize she might’ve interpreted my words completely not the way I’d meant them. “Have you ever once heard me ask you to make any kind of decision?” she growled, narrowing her eyes. “I understand completely why you do this. You don’t have to choose.”
Wait. Did she think I was trying to choose between her and prostitution? That was just crazy.
“Except I already have,” I tried to explain. “I have declined every offer I’ve gotten lately because the only person I want is you.”
Her eyes went hopeful and her throat worked as she swallowed. “S-since when?”
Shit. I couldn’t remember when I’d been in that office with her English professor. But it’d definitely been, “Since the night before we almost kissed in your apartment during Eva’s party,” I said, even though I’m sure it had been longer than that.
Joy lit up her expression. When she stepped toward me, I knew she was going to kiss me. I freaked, wanting her to be sure, because once she decided to be with me, I wasn’t letting her back out. I was keeping her.
“It might not last,” I blurted.
Frowning, she stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean?”
God, why was I trying to talk her out of it? I didn’t want her to reject me. But I did need her to be certain without a single doubt.
“I tried getting out a year ago,” I started. “I refused everyone for four months straight. But it didn’t change how people treated me. Then the bills started piling up. Not as bad as they had been before. But it worried me, made me fear that our lives would plummet again. Then one day, this client got so desperate, she offered me double my price to keep me from refusing. So I agreed. And everyone else began to pay that price. Before I knew it, I was all the way back in again.” I shook my h
ead, revealing an ugly truth I didn’t really want her to see, but knowing she needed to anyway. “I want to say I’ll never go back to it, but… I did before.”
She shook her head as if to reassure me that I wouldn’t do any such thing. But her eyes filled with fear and doubt, the very doubt I needed her not to have.
“I never should’ve told you how I felt,” I rasped, regretfully. “When I learned he was going to take you out, I should’ve just gritted my teeth and kept my mouth shut. At least we’d still be friends.”
She glanced away sadly and shrugged. “But then we never would’ve kissed.”
When she turned back, I smiled softly. “Yeah,” I had to agree. At least I had a memory of how her mouth tasted.
And now, she’d successfully managed to ruin me for every other woman out there.
With a sigh, she came to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her cheek on my shoulder. I exhaled and hugged her back, burying my face in her hair. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known,” I confessed. “I love your spunk, your crazy thoughts on life, your caring soul.”
“And I love you…period.”
Warmth filled me. This time, she kissed me, and I was done with resisting.
I kissed her back longingly, claiming what she’d just given me. Sinking my hands into her hair, I tilted her chin up how I needed her for the best access, and we both moaned our pleasure when we hit that sweet spot of perfection.
I couldn’t stop kissing her, she couldn’t seem to stop kissing me. We stroked each other, exploring. Her hair was so silken soft against my fingers, her flesh warm and supple. I could’ve held her all night.
After she slid her hands up under my shirt and palmed my back muscles, she caught the hem of it so she could tug it off completely. I lifted my arms to assist.
Once she had me bare-chested, she sucked in a breath, just staring. “You are so…beautiful.”
I snagged her around the waist, tugging her back to me. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”
She sighed and closed her eyes, smoothing her fingers up my sides to investigate the dips between my ribs. It felt heavenly.
Finally, someone I wanted to touch me was touching me.
I kissed her closed eyelids, then her cheeks, forehead, and finally her chin, cherishing every sweet inch. As I started down her throat, she skimmed her hands around to the base of my back before slipping her fingers into the waistband of my jeans.
I cupped her face with one hand as she touched me, my other moving up inside her shirt to her bra. When she arched against me, my phone began to ring from my pocket, making me realize where we were and what time it was.
My mom could come home at any moment.
Reese released my ass and guiltily jerked her hands from my pants.