Boarded by Love (Bellevue Bullies 1)
“Sorry.” He chuckles and I know he isn’t sorry one bit. “Why don’t we start this tomorrow and go up to your room now, and I’ll do what I just suggested.”
I shake my head, trying to take a step back, but his grip on my ass is ironclad. “No, sir, not only is my roommate up there, but I don’t want this to be about sex. We both know we’re sexually attracted to each other, like intensely, so let’s make sure there’s more to it ’cause I don’t want to fall for you while you’re busy just fucking me.”
He eyes me, and then nods. “I get that, but I can fall for you and rock your world at the same time.”
I laugh. “After the two weeks. Come on.”
“Okay,” he says slowly. “But please don’t tell me I have to remove my hands.”
I think it over and then nod. “Fine, hands are fine but no other places, and watch what you say before I forget this mess and hump your face.”
“Yes, please do that,” he says and then we both start laughing. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I grin up at him as I take in his beautiful face. He has a little scar along his jaw and then one on his lip. I point to them and ask, “What happened?”
“I busted my lip last year in a fight after a drunken night out, and then I fell when I was a kid off my four-wheeler and a branch went through my face.”
I make a face. “Shit, that had to hurt.”
“Like hell, but my mom says it brings character to my face.”
“It does, makes you hotter in a rugged, mean way.”
His face breaks into a huge grin before wrapping me up tighter in his arms and dropping his mouth to mine. We kiss for what seems like hours, but I know it’s only seconds. His kisses are so damn intoxicating, and I feel like an addict needing another hit of his mouth. And as I watch him walk away with a promise that he’ll see me later, all I can think is that I don’t know when that will be, but I can’t freaking wait.
After my last class, I meet up with Skylar and we head to the rink. We’re both carrying our dance bags with the hopes we made it. I’m sure we did – we’re both fantastic and Skylar did get some tens from the guys – but still, I’m a little nervous I won’t. I would be so embarrassed if I didn’t. Not only would telling Reese and Phillip that I didn’t make it suck ass, but telling Jude would too. Oh my heart, anytime I think of him, it goes crazy in my chest, and my stomach does some weird flip thing that makes me breathless. I’m falling for him, even though I told myself I wouldn’t, which is bad, very damn bad.
“Heard you and Jude were making out in the quad.”
I smile as I glance over at Skylar, shrugging my shoulders. “Making out is a little overdramatic, we kissed and touched some but talked mostly.”
“About?”
“About taking two weeks without sex to see if there is something there.”
She stops mid-step and gives me a look. “And he agreed?”
“Yeah,” I say with a grin. “And I trust him.”
“Wow, I’m completely floored. Jude? A one-woman man? I’ve known him for the last two years and this has never happened.”
“Yeah, he says he’s never had a girlfriend.”
“And look, didn’t I say you were gonna rock his world. Once everyone finds out that it took one day with you in the sack, guys are gonna come out of the woodwork trying to get you to leave him.”
“Whatever,” I say, waving her off. “It wasn’t even the sex that got him. It was me, he said. He just likes me.”
“Aw, that’s so sugar sweet. Jeez, I have a toothache, get out of here with that mess. Jude does not say things like that!”
“He does to me!”
“Whate
ver, I feel like I’m in The Twilight Zone. There are men made for just sex and some who are meant for relationships, and Jude was thrown in the other category a long time ago. I don’t know how to adjust my categories in my head now. When I see him, I always see manwhore, not a one-woman, Claire-loving dude.”
“We’re not in love,” I stress. “We’re dating.”
“Weird,” she says with a shake of her head, and I laugh as we head toward the rink. Once inside, a group of girls from the day before is standing around a bulletin board, and slowly each one peels away, either happy or disappointed or crying.
“Ack, more Nos than Yesses, it seems,” Skylar says as we make our way to the list.