I reached over and grabbed his hand. “Can we go to your place?”
Drew nodded and silently pulled onto the street, taking his hand away from mine to do it. He didn’t say anything as we drove, and I couldn’t even begin to wonder what he was thinking.
“Thank you for sticking up for my friend,” I said after a while.
He turned his head and locked eyes with me for a minute. “I will always defend you and the people you love.”
The intensity coming off him sent a wave of warmth through me, which was quickly chased by a cool shiver. His tone wasn’t just sincere. He was making a promise.
Drew guided me inside his house with a gentle hand on my waist, which was a far cry from how we’d entered the night before. The memory blew heat down my spine and straight to my core.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asked as he closed the door. “Or, I dunno, food?”
He thrust his hands into his jean pockets, and it was the first time I’d ever seen him look so…if not soft, at least not quite as hard. He was worried about me, I realized.
And there was only one thing I wanted.
I stepped toward him and threaded my fingers through his hair, drawing his face close to mine. Our lips brushed against each other softly, then Drew’s hands wound around my waist and pulled me closer. The kiss was unhurried and sweet. It was unlike any kiss we’d ever shared before. There was plenty of desire, but the hunger was different. It was comfort and something deeper.
I would never get used to kissing Drew Mikelson. Just when I thought I’d seen each of his layers, he would show this whole new side of himself that would have me falling for him all over again.
Like now, with his hands slowly running up and down the length of my sides, his lips pressing feathery kisses along my jaw, and his arms clasping me tight – as if he thought he would lose me if he let go.
I sank into him, moaned as my body relaxed into him. He lifted me into his arms, carrying me to his bedroom without taking his mouth off my neck. He gently laid me on the bed and lowered himself over me, resting on his elbows as he took my mouth again. He kissed me slow and deep, tongue thoroughly exploring every inch.
I’d clearly underestimated Drew’s potential for sweetness. Softness. He touched me reverently, gliding fingers along my bare skin as he removed each item of clothing. Trails of fire followed his touch, soaked into each cell.
His gaze made me shiver as he settled between my legs, then pulled them over his shoulders. I moaned as he ran his tongue over me in long strokes, slowly stoking the fire inside me into a blaze. I gasped out his name, reached down and buried my hands in his hair. He moved from my entrance to my clit, circling and sucking and licking until I screamed out my release.
My body fell back onto the bed as I dragged in one ragged breath after another. Holy shit.
I heard him getting undressed, but I hadn’t recovered enough yet to be able to move, even to raise my head to watch him strip. His cock brushed against the inside of my thigh as he moved over me again.
He flicked his tongue against my nipple, then circled it, licked across it. The sensitive flesh pebbled as he blew a cool breath across it.
“You taste amazing,” he murmured against my skin.
“Want you inside me.” I pulled at his shoulders, wrapped my legs around his waist. “Please, Drew.”
“I love hearing you beg,” he admitted.
As he pushed inside me, it was like coming home after a long, hard day. I pulled him against me, guided his strokes deeper. Deep into the very heart of me. I rocked up against him, my mouth moving over his neck. I bit down, groaning as his hips jerked. I needed him harder, needed to feel him for days.
I’d been so worried when I’d seen him going up against those assholes, when he’d gone to his knees. Now that I had him in my arms, I didn’t want to ever let him go. I’d known he was big and tough and strong, but now I knew he was more than that. And I was beginning to realize that I needed him.
I needed us.
My body was lit from the inside, fire raging just below my skin. Each kiss, each touch, made me burn hotter until I thought I’d explode.
Drew breathing my name in my ear was the only thing I heard, the only thing that I cared to hear. My senses only extended far enough to take him in. The rest of the world could wait.
His thrusts were slow and steady, building the pressure in me like gathering steam. Suddenly, he rolled us over, putting me on top. I rose up, put my hands on his stomach. Muscles bunched under my palms as I rolled my hips. He cursed as I began to ride him, arching back to urge him even deeper. His hands covered my breasts, kneading them, fingers plucking at my nipples, sending little shocks of pain through me.
He gripped my hips, fingers digging in as he helped push me up and down his thick shaft. What had started out so sweet and gentle was becoming more passionate, more intense, but it was still so different from the sex we’d had before.
It was like we were making love.
Was this what making love was like? I’d never actually had sex with someone and thought about it in such a way. It’d always been sex, fucking, sleeping together. Never love.
He sat up, hand between my shoulder blades to hold me in place as our bodies moved together. His gaze locked with mine, something swimming in those green depths. He dug his hand into my hair, yanked my head back. I moaned, closed my eyes as he nipped at my throat.
I was so close.
He leaned me back, then immediately cleared my mind of everything as he bit down on one of my nipples. The beautiful pain shot straight through me and I climaxed...hard. My body stiffened, tightened around him, as everything went white. He cursed as the waves of pleasure rolled over me. Holy hell. What had I done to deserve such pure pleasure?
Drew continued moving me back and forth, in circles, his hands squeezing my hips hard enough to bruise as he used my body to work out every last drop of pleasure for us both. He shuddered as his head dropped forward onto my shoulder, clutching me to him.
We sat like that for a long time. Holding each other. Breathing together.
The thought drifted into my head that a part of me would always be here, locked in his warm embrace.
The next morning, I woke up in Drew’s arms. The first fully formed thought I had as I opened my eyes was how happy this realization made me. Just being around him was like a drug, and I knew I’d be riding high on it all day.
“Good morning,” Drew murmured. He pulled me in closer and planted a kiss on the top of my head.
I nuzzled sleepily into his chest and whispered my good morning into the light fuzz that covered it. Who’d have thought that something so hard could be so comfortable?
“What do you have to do today?” he asked.
I thought about it. What did I have to do? More appropriately, what did I want to do?
I’d come to a decision the night before, as I’d drifted off to the sounds of Drew’s light snores, that I wouldn’t be happy if I went back to Boston now. I couldn’t be – not with the knowledge that the guy who made me feel better than anyone else ever had was living hundreds of miles away.
Which meant I now had something to do on my now non-vacation. I had to find a job nearby. I’d figure everything else out afterward.
But I wasn’t quite ready to share that just yet.
“Nothing special,” I said to him. “You?”
I didn’t want to get his hopes up...and maybe a part of me wasn’t quite ready to know how he’d react.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’ve got a big show in Florida at the end of June, beginning of July, so I should probably start prepping for that.”
I wondered what my parents would think when I told them I’d decided to stay in North Carolina with my stuntman boyfriend. Could I call him my boyfriend? Hell, if I was committing to staying down here for any longer than necessary, we were gonna put a label on it. Not a talk for this morning though.
I’d wait to talk to my parent
s too. They didn’t exactly like that I’d chosen journalism, but I had a feeling this would send them over the edge. They never would have let me come with Rhett if they’d known something like this would happen, but I knew there was no way they could’ve seen Drew coming.
I hadn’t.
I knocked on Drew’s door, a big smile on my face. I’d spent the whole weekend and yesterday making calls around Holmwood and Grantsboro, as well as a couple towns close by just to cover all my bases.
As it turned out, an honors journalism degree from Boston University actually held weight in small towns. I suspected they didn’t get many applicants from top universities.
The door swung inward, and Drew’s face transformed when he saw me. His mouth stretched into a wide grin as he pulled me in for a kiss.
“I thought you weren’t coming over until later,” he said when we finally broke for air.
Damn, he knew how to kiss.
I pecked his lips again and couldn’t resist squeezing his butt. It was tight as hell, and I loved touching it. “I wasn’t, but I have some news.”
Drew raised an eyebrow, giving him an almost comical expression, but the look in his eyes was anything but funny. “I’m not sure I want news.”
He’d been waiting for me to announce that I was going home for some time now, and I had no doubt that was what he was thinking. Because he knew I’d always wanted to be a journalist, it made sense that would be his first thought.
“Are you gonna invite me in?”
Drew surprised me by hoisting me into his arms, then slamming the door behind us with his foot as he took me into the living room. He plonked down onto the sofa with me in his lap. I couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping.
“So, news?” His tone was flirty, but I could tell he was worried.
I smiled and reached for his face, running my fingers along his stubble chin. “I got a job.”
His smile flattened. “Oh. That’s...that’s great, Jinx.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to ask me where I got a job?”
He blew out a breath, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in the question that came next. “Where did you get a job?”
I couldn’t hold back my exuberance anymore. “The Grantsboro Gazette!”
For a second, I wasn’t sure he’d heard me, which was crazy considering that I’d practically yelled it in his ear.
“The Grantsboro Gazette?” he asked finally, his eyes lifting to meet mine. “So, you’re…staying?”
I nodded. “For now, at least. This gives me some time to figure stuff out, you know?”
His lips pulled back into a dazzling smile as he bent his head to kiss me. It was a long, slow kiss, his tongue teasing the seam of my mouth until I parted my lips to let him inside. I could practically taste his relief as he ran his hand up and down over my spine.
“You’re not going to stay at Rhett’s the whole time, are you?” he asked when we parted.
I laughed. “God no.”
Rhett and his family had gotten closer since the fight outside O’Reilly’s, but I doubted even Rhett would be staying with them much longer now that he had a job. Loving one’s family didn’t mean not needing some space.
“I guess I’ll just rent somewhere in town. I’m sure there are lots of places.” I actually wasn’t that sure, but I didn’t want to dampen the news by thinking about my unsecure living situation.
“You can move in with me,” Drew said suddenly. “Some people might think it’s a bit soon for you to be my live-in girlfriend, but it feels right, doesn’t it?”
It did feel right. It felt so right, in fact, that I was able to muster up all the enthusiasm in the world for a job that wouldn’t have even been on my radar a few weeks ago. That shouldn’t have been on my radar even now.
But I was happy with Drew, and I figured I’d be happy enough at the Grantsboro Gazette until we figured out what we wanted to do from there. This would give us both the time we needed to figure out where this thing between us was going.
Except I hadn’t counted on getting a call from The Boston Globe only a week later, requesting that I come in again. Apparently, I’d only completely messed it up inside my own head. Sharon, the hiring manager, made it sound like the job was mine if I wanted it.
But did I want it? That was the question. Because if I did, surely that would mean the end of Drew and me.
14
Drew
The Florida show was coming up quick. It felt like all I’d done every day for the past week was practice, plan, and pack. Because it was a big event, I knew there would be talent managers from the movie and TV industries there. If I did a good enough job, I stood a chance at signing with one of them. That would be huge for me. If I could do this, I could get off the state fair circuit and start doing something meaningful with my career. It was worth devoting every spare second I had into my act. The only downside was that, between that and Jinx’s new job, the two of us hadn’t spent much time together.
That was why I planned a special dinner for her at the end of the week. That, and we’d been living together about a week now and hadn’t killed each other, which I figured was something to be celebrated. I’d never been great at living with other people, even my twin – which was why I’d lived alone since I was eighteen – but it was almost frictionless with her.
“Why does it smell like the inside of a volcano in here?”
Almost.
But hey, if there wasn’t at least a little bit of friction, shit would get old real quick.
“I’m cooking,” I called, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
Her footsteps echoed off the laminate, and she appeared in the doorway a second later, looking hot as hell in her blouse and pencil skirt. I’d told her that she’d probably be the best dressed one there and that she didn’t have to try so hard, but Jinx was determined to dress the way she thought a professional should. I couldn’t complain. Not when she looked like that.
“Shit.” She winced. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought maybe you’d been trying out something for your show.”
I raised an eyebrow and pulled the smoking pan of chicken off the burner. “You thought I was doing pyrotechnics inside?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d be making dinner. It’s a nice surprise.”
We’d been so busy over the past week that we’d ordered take out every night so that we could spend less time cooking and more time having mind-blowing sex. Sometimes in life, sacrifices had to be made.
“I’m not sure it’ll be edible.” I frowned at the pan. Now that the smoke had cleared, I could see that the chicken thighs had a nasty char on them. “I tried something new. Shouldn’t have.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck. I leaned down for a kiss and was about to go for a little more when Jinx pulled back with a sigh.
“Okay, let’s see what we can salvage,” she said.
I frowned and watched as she started poking at the chicken with a fork. “Maybe we should just get take out again.”
“But you put in so much work.” She pointed to the burnt mess. “And you know what, I think we can work with this.”
I plucked the fork from her hand, dropped it onto the counter, and scooped her into my arms. No way was I going to waste any more time trying to make that damn chicken work when I had way better things on my mind.
I’d missed getting to spend time with Jinx over the last week. Sure, we spent every evening together, but we didn’t get the same kind of quality time that we had before. We didn’t go down to the beach. We didn’t take rides along the coast. And I missed that. I missed her.
I hadn’t expected to. In fact, I’d assumed I would get tired of her. But it seemed the more of her I had, the more I wanted. And I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
My career should have been my first priority, especially at a time as crucial as this. And it was. For now. But Jinx was rocketing up the ranks.
I just n
eeded to focus.
15
Jinx
Drew’s truck merged onto the highway, rumbling like an angry bear. I fiddled around with the radio, which I was still amazed Drew let me do. I’d been trying to find the perfect radio station in North Carolina almost every time we got in the truck and still hadn’t come up with anything I liked. There was a lot of country. Boston girls didn’t do country.
“Our first road trip,” I commented, settling on an oldies rock station. I knew Drew would like it at least.
He nodded, eyes fixed on the road ahead. I knew he was nervous about the show and what it might mean for his future career. He’d obsessively checked and rechecked the trailer before we’d taken off. When I tried to talk to him about it, hoping to ease some of his anxiety, he’d pretended like everything was fine. Like he wasn’t worried at all.
Men.
Now I could tell that it was completely consuming his thoughts. But would he say anything? Of course not.
Like I said. Men.
In all honesty, though, part of the reason I wanted to talk him through his nerves was because it meant there was less time for me to concentrate on my own. At some point, I knew I’d have to tell him about my new upcoming interview. But I really didn’t want to.
Maybe something else was in order.
I was wearing a little pair of jean shorts and a green tank top. I figured both of us could use a little distraction, so I propped my bare feet up on the dash and stretched back in my seat.
He turned his head, likely to give me crap for putting my feet on his dash, but the reprimand never came. His eyes darkened as they ran up my tanned legs. When they reached my face, I smiled coquettishly.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
His jaw tightened as he turned back to the road. “Nope.”
“It’s so hot today,” I complained, but instead of turning up the AC, I reached for a water bottle from the cooler between the seats and took a long drink, making sure to let some of the water dribble down my cleavage.