Boarded by Love (Bellevue Bullies 1)

I laugh as I lean my forehead against his. “Why, Jude? Why me?”

Looking in my eyes for a long time,

I think he isn’t going to answer, but then he says, “I prided myself on my game. I knew what I wanted from girls. I thought I only wanted sex from you, but then I second-guessed myself and thought maybe I should wait because I wanted to get to know you. I want to know everything, and then I want to know more. I don’t know. It’s crazy, I know, but it’s different. You’re different. You’ve changed my game completely.”

I love what he’s said, and I know he’s being truthful. I can see it down in the depths of his green eyes. He means every word; he cares for me. “The same can be said for you. I was fine before you, but the moment I saw you, I wanted more. I never had that happen to me before.”

His grin is unstoppable as laces his fingers with mine. “So I guess we’re both doing something new and scary.”

“Yeah,” I agree, leaning my head toward his, my nose moving ever so lightly against his. “And I couldn’t be more excited about it.”

“Me either,” he whispers and then he takes my lips with his. As I get lost in Jude’s kisses and soft touches, I know that Jude is the one I could fall for and love. It would be so easy because his innocence on the matter is endearing, and I want nothing more than to be his first love.

And maybe his last.

“So what are your plans for the rest of the day?”

Leaning against Jude, we walk toward my building after a nice lunch on the quad. “I have to go study for the quiz I have next in marketing – that’s in two hours – then I have to go to the rink to see if I made the dance team. If I did, I have practice tonight.”

“Cool, I’m sure you made it.”

I shrug. “We will see.”

“Yeah, so do you work?”

“I do. I work at the dance studio for Reese on Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but once I get the dance schedule, if I make it, then no telling when I’ll work,” I say, knowing that I left my other job out. “You?”

“Nope, I play hockey and study and get ready for the draft.”

“Oh, so you’re going in for sure? I assumed, but wasn’t a 100%.”

He nods, a proud grin on his face. “Yup, next year as long as everything goes well.”

I smack his arm playfully, puckering out my lip and say, “You jerk, you’re gonna start something with me and then leave?”

He stops, wrapping his arms around me, holding me so close that thinking isn’t an option. I’m completely intoxicated by his woodsy smell, his bedroom eyes, him, all of him. “By then you’ll be so in love with me that you’ll go anywhere with me.”

I laugh, trying to get away, but Jude’s biceps have biceps and they hold me close to him. “Whatever. I’m not going to follow you. I am an independent woman with a plan!”

He grins, pressing his lips to mine, and I melt in his arms, all past struggling disappears as I get lost in his kiss. Parting, he looks in my eyes as he smiles, but I can see that he is serious as a heart attack. “And I like that about you, but when the time comes, we’ll discuss it and decide what’s best for us.”

I scoff. “Jeez, Jude, I was kidding. We might not even be together then.”

“Oh, we will be, and you’ll be right beside me at the draft and then at everything after that. You got me now, Claire, there is no getting rid of me.”

Oh, heart be still and stay in the box!

I can say that all I want, but I’m pretty sure that my heart and my brain both know that there is no way my heart is gonna stay locked up when a guy like Jude Sinclair is after it.

“Ooowee, trouble you are, I knew it,” I say with a shake of my head, moving my hands up his shoulders and then into his hair. “And I can’t help but like it.”

His grin is killer as he moves his hands in and down the back of my sweats. I giggle as he cups my ass and then his eyes go wide. “Dirty girl, are you wearing no panties?”

“A thong and I’m pretty sure this is not allowed.”

His brows come together in such a perplexed way that I’m giggling even harder. “Whoa, we said no sex. Maybe we need to define that ’cause when I want to get me a handful of your sexy ass I’m going to, and if I want to bury my face deep between your legs, I’m going to do that, too.”

Heat floods between my legs as my knees buckle. “Jesus H. Christ, you can’t say shit like that during our two-week dating mode! That will lead to sex!”