Chapter 22 #2
Cash has calmed down, and we watch him give Lenni a lesson in rolling joints, which is kinda entertaining because she doesn’t smoke.
Then Jade challenges him to see who can roll the perfect joint.
I can’t keep my eyes off her as she sits working at the coffee table, her manicured fingers lining up the weed, the delicate tip of her tongue carefully wetting the rolling paper.
Oof. It’s sexy. Now and then she tosses her hair over her shoulder and catches my eye in that burning gaze of hers.
When our eyes meet, it feels like no one else is in the room.
When the joints are done, Cam is the taste tester—smoke tester?—and Jade wins by a landslide; then Cash declares the results invalid because Cam’s so drunk he can barely tell the difference between a joint and a ballpoint pen.
The food gets demolished even though I don’t eat and Jade barely touches anything. She follows me into the kitchen when I start to clean up Cam’s mess.
“You’re quiet tonight,” Jade says. “You sure we didn’t wake you up?”
“Nah. Just busy being Mr. Mom over here.” I turn off the burner that was left on and close the egg carton. “Usually that’s Cam’s job, but I guess he’s overdue for blowing off steam.”
Trying to prevent a house fire isn’t really what’s keeping me quiet, though.
I feel completely off my game. I’ve had a hundred nights like this: me and my drunk friends hanging out, some beautiful girl at my side.
But it’s never felt like this because the girl has never been Jade.
I’ve always known she was different—smart-mouthed, unpredictable, totally unimpressed by the things that have always won me attention.
What I never expected—and can’t deny anymore—is that Jade makes me feel different.
Do I like the feeling? I don’t even know.
It’s unfamiliar and a little scary, but I can’t stop wanting more.
“Give me a rag. I’ll clean up this mess on the stove,” Jade says.
I toss her a wet rag and wash the pans in the sink, watching Jade work.
With her bent over slightly and scrubbing like mad, I’ve got a perfect view of her body jiggling deliciously.
I force myself to look at the dishes in front of me, but my eyes keep going back to her ass and the exposed skin on her lower back when her shirt rides up.
I’m sweating. Is she doing it on purpose?
If so, good job. I feel like I’m choking on my own lust. Finally, I can’t take it anymore.
I turn off the faucet. “Give me that rag.” I go over and put my hands lightly on her waist, moving her aside. It takes everything I have not to let my hands linger. “You clean like someone who grew up with a housekeeper.”
She doesn’t argue. “Football, Spanish, domestic chores. What don’t you excel at?”
“Reeve,” Cash calls from the couch. “We need more beer? Lincoln and a couple guys are coming by.”
“Fridge up here is empty. There’s a case in the basement, I think.”
“You want to be a doll?” Cash asks hopefully.
“Not really, but I’d rather that than your drunk ass falling down the stairs.”
“I can get it,” Jade offers.
I shake my head. “I couldn’t send you to the basement alone, not with the mice and spiders. A little lady like you might get frightened.”
“Okay, big man, then come with me,” she says coyly, her eyes challenging me. Doesn’t matter that she’s teasing, her words completely turn me on.
“Basement’s down the hall.”
I follow her, watching the sway of her hips in her tight jeans the whole way.
At the top of the basement stairs, she feels for the light switch but doesn’t find it.
I reach for the familiar spot on the wall, accidentally covering her fingers with mine.
Her hand feels small and impossibly soft.
She lets it stay for an instant, then pulls away. I flip on the light and we go down.
Jade pauses at the bottom of the steps to survey the dank basement. “Not a mouse or spider to be seen.”
“Oh, they’re here. Just lurking. They probably heard you coming and didn’t want to get bitched out.”
“Is that why you wanted me to come down here with you? You’re scared of little critters?
” She tosses her hair and turns her head over her shoulder so her face is in profile.
God, she’s such a little tease when she’s drunk.
The way she throws off signals is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
She doesn’t embarrass herself, not like some girls, but I can read her clear as day.
“That’s not why.”
“What are you scared of then?” She blinks slowly, still watching me in her periphery.
“Nothing. Not a thing.” I move closer to her, drawn like a magnet, and loop my fingers through the belt loop at the small of her back. I’m aching to press my hips against the perfect curve of her ass. “You.”
Jade turns around and she’s practically in my arms. The air I breathe is all her.
The heat of her body spreads so deep into me I feel it down to the bone.
She runs her hands slowly up my chest, watching her fingers as I watch her.
My dick is a steel rod in my shorts. “I don’t believe that.
” A soft smile touches her lips, but when she lifts her eyes to meet mine, she pulls away.
Believe what? I don’t even remember what we were talking about, too horny to think straight.
“So where’s the beer?” she asks.
Oh, yeah. Beer. I clear my throat. “I’ll get the case, you grab a couple of those six-packs. They’re under the stairs, right between that rat’s nest and the giant spider web over your head.”
She shoots me a look, then turns toward the space under the stairs. When she bends down to reach for the beer, I sneak up behind her.
“Mouse!” I yell and squeeze her waist.
Jade shrieks and drops the cans of beer, then whirls around. The look on her face makes me cackle. “You asshole!” She laughs in spite of herself, reaching out like she’s going to attack me.
I grab her wrists. She fights to free herself, still laughing, and she’s stronger than she looks, but not strong enough.
I’m not letting go. When she finally stops flailing, I pull her closer, my fingers tight around her narrow wrists.
She’s warm and Jade scented and at this point I couldn’t let go if I tried.
The half smile on her lips is defiant, but her body softens against me the second I pull her close. She presses her hips to mine and gives a murmur of approval at what she feels in return, her eyelids lowering to half-mast as her gaze drops to my lips. She’s putty in my hands.
I kiss her, and for the first time, she’s ready for it.
Her soft lips part for me, inviting me in.
The taste of her mouth brings on a flood of hot memories of that night outside the bar, of getting my world completely rocked by these same lips.
Need hits me hard. Jade lets out a soft moan of pain, and I realize I’m squeezing her wrists. I let go and move my hands to her body.
“Sorry,” I whisper into her mouth between hungry kisses. My cock strains painfully. I need more of her. I push her backward until we hit the wall and press my hips hard against her. “Fuck. You know how good you taste?”
“How good?”
“Good enough to eat. Right here on the floor.”
Her response is a soft, teasing chuckle that only infuses me with more need.
My fingers curl against the wall behind her, fucking throbbing to squeeze her tits and finger her pussy.
Somewhere in my head, a single brain cell fires, warning me not to screw this up, but I can barely hear it over the other billion cells screaming at me to tear her clothes off.
Jade slides her tongue slowly along my bottom lip.
For a second I’m frozen, totally at this girl’s mercy.
It’s exactly the reminder I need. I fight off the voice telling me that if she were any other girl, she’d already be on her knees, tasting my dick.
Jade’s not any other girl. My bag of tricks isn’t coming out tonight, not the well-worn promises whispered in girls’ ears or the signature finger move that gets them so wet they can’t help but beg me to keep going.
My hands return to her waist, but they move slowly.
I kiss her neck and ears, tug her shirt lower, and lick her collarbone and the hollow at the base of her throat where her pulse pounds against my tongue.
Her head drops against the wall. She palms the back of my head and fuck, maybe I could get her naked on the floor, but I won’t.
Not with Jade. Just kissing her is amazing.
Just tasting the most innocent parts of her body feels like more than I deserve.
I could spend the whole night on her lips alone and not get bored.
“Reeve!” Cash’s voice cuts through the humid air between us. “Are you dead? Where’s my beer?”
I pause with my lips against the curve of Jade’s neck. “It’s coming,” I say shortly, then return my attention to her.
“Hurry up, man, our guests are thirsty!”
With every word he says, Jade’s body grows a little more tense under my hands, and the heat flowing under my skin turns a little colder. “All right,” I growl. “Fuck off already.” I hear him walk away, but I look at Jade and it’s clear our little bubble has burst. “Goddamn it.”
She sighs. “You really need to get your own place.”
“Oh, yeah? What would we be doing if I had my own place right now?”
She shakes her head sadly. “We’ll never know.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, making her smile. “Well, let’s grab the stupid beers and go up, I guess. While you’re at it, go ahead and drop the cans a couple more times. Let’s give Cash and our guests a little reward for interrupting us.”
Hours later, when the night is winding down, I predictably ask her to stay until morning and she predictably says no.
It’s for the best. If she’d said yes, I wouldn’t have been able to hide that the only thing I want to do more than spend the night inside her body is spend it lying next to her, holding her close and telling her I’ve never felt like this before.
I can’t go wanting things I’ll never have.