Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
JANE
“There?” Ian returned, a lilt of a question in his voice.
I felt replete and sated. The pleasure of that encounter was indescribable. My nerve endings felt oversensitive, almost as if I couldn't take it if anything else happened because it was too good. I'd known from the very first kiss that the chemistry between us was powerful.
But chemistry didn't mean much sometimes. That was a part of why I was still a virgin or, rather, had been until just now. Because some kisses told me right away that it wasn't worth it. With Ian, every single second was incredible.
His fingers sifted through the ends of my hair. The gesture, though idle, felt intimate. I did a mental inventory of my body. I felt so relaxed, so easy. I thought I should feel tense, almost businesslike in the aftermath.
My very comfort sent threads of tension through me. As if he could read my mind, Ian said, “You're thinking.”
I rolled my head to the side, catching his eyes. “Of course, I'm thinking. Aren't you thinking?”
His lips kicked up at one corner, and dammit if butterflies didn’t spin in my belly. “Not thinking too much. Sometimes it's good just to relax, you know.”
I swallowed and nodded. Even though a tiny bell was clanging a warning, all I wanted to do was curl up with him and forget the rest of the world.
My feet were tucked under my knees on the couch, and I held a glass of wine in my hand as I sipped it.
We’d had a busy afternoon between Ian going with me to finally take a good look at my parents’ house and picking up my car from Joe’s garage late this afternoon.
To my relief, the house had mostly been buttoned down.
Ian had helped me move the few boxes left behind by my parents into a storage area in the basement here, and I’d called my parents with an update.
Now, it was dark outside, and we were relaxing and watching basketball.
“Yes!” he exclaimed, punching a fist into the air.
I chuckled, and his eyes slid sideways to mine. “What?”
“Nothing. I didn't know you were a basketball fan.”
He shrugged, almost sheepishly, as he leaned back into the couch cushions. “I like it. It's distracting, plus it’s something completely not part of my life.”
“What do you mean?”
“My life is busy, filled with numbers and stress and counting and worrying about things like that. Watching a sport is entirely removed from my life.”
“Do you like all sports?”
He shrugged. “I’ll watch anything, but I like the pace of basketball the most.”
I sipped my wine. “I can't recall. Did you play sports in high school?”
“I ran track. I wasn't that great. I didn't have enough discipline. Total middle of the pack guy as far as my speed. What about you?”
I lowered my wine glass. “What about me?” I prompted.
“Did you play any sports in high school?”
His brows hitched up when I shook my head. “None at all?” he pressed.
I rolled my eyes. “No, and this is why you didn't even recognize me at first.”
He looked affronted. “That's not fair. I graduated from high school fourteen years ago.” I opened my mouth to argue some random point, but he shook his head.
He reached over, curling his arm over my shoulder and sliding his fingers into my hair.
“Don't give me hell for not recognizing you.
I would have. It's just I didn't expect to see you here in my family's home over the holidays.”
Heat flared in my cheeks when his thumb teased along the side of my neck right behind my ear. It sent a hot shiver through me. “Okay,” I managed to reply, hoping it wasn’t too breathy.
“Plus, you were a freshman when I was a senior.”
“Right, that's decades,” I countered dryly.
Ian rolled his eyes, his intent gaze on me.
There was something about being encompassed in his attention.
He was thorough, very thorough, and I knew that intimately now.
I also sensed I'd underestimated him. He was a perceptive man, and I suddenly felt skittish under his gaze as if he could read more into me than I could read into him.
“I was focused on my grades in high school, not sports. I probably should’ve done some sports,” I said finally.
“What would you have done?”
“I have no idea. Maybe swimming. I’ve always loved swimming.”
His eyes shifted to look out the back window into the darkness. It had started to snow. Again. “No swimming right now,” he commented.
I laughed. “No, definitely not. It's freezing out.”
“We'll have to come back in the summer.”
“We?”