Once we finish with the dessert, I help him clear the table away.
“That’s just weird!” he protests, but lets me do it. “Don’t rich people have servants for this kind of thing?”
“Believe it or not, I am fully capable of cleaning up after myself. Cooking too, putting on my own clothes, shopping.”
My words pull a laugh out of him. “I challenge you to cook me something then!”
“As long as you are happy with normal people food, I’m positive you will be impressed by my skills.”
“Deal. Ilovenormal people food. In fact, it’s what I mostly eat unless I’m trying to leave a good impression,” he says, letting his voice take on that gravelly quality I find extremely hard to resist.
“Is that what is happening, then? Are you trying to leave a good impression on me?” I shoot back as I take the last plate over to the sink behind the protruding wall section.
When I reenter the lounge part of the room, Jake has started a fire. He’s lost the vest, which now lies tossed over the couch’s backrest, and undone a few of his shirt’s buttons. As I approach the fireplace and the heat from it envelops me like a cocoon, I can see why.
“I’ve been doing it since I met you, Ethan. I thought it was obvious. The question is whether it’s working or not.”
“Is this you asking me then?” I unbutton my own shirt, loving the way he sucks in a sharp breath when his gaze travels over the exposed skin of my pecs.
He pokes the fire a bit more, leaving me hanging. It’s the most excruciating and exhilarating feeling waiting for his reply, every fiber of my body participating. But he takes his time, approaching me slowly like a predator who knows their prey has no way to escape. If I am being honest, I kind of like it.
“No,” he says when he is only a few inches away from me. I’ve taken a few steps in the opposite direction and now the backs of my knees are pressing against the couch. “I already know the answer.”
I bristle, adrenaline surging through me. “And what is it?”
“You are interested in me and where this is going,” he declares like the badass main character of some movie.
“That’s awfully confident,” I challenge back, trembling in anticipation as he places his palm flat on my chest.
The feel of his skin against mine is heavenly. He pushes me gently, and I flop onto the couch.
“Only because I’m set on seducing you.”
Not taking his eyes off where his hand is touching me, he lowers himself on top of me. Then we kiss, sparks flying under every inch of my skin. It’s like our first kiss and nothing like it, the intensity and the hunger ten times stronger. His tongue battles with mine, then subdues it, taking charge of the pace.
I yield control of the kiss voluntarily, arching up into him as he lets me feel his weight fully. It’s both grounding and arousing to be trapped under him, to be unable to slip free yet have all the power in the world to stop all of this. One word is all it would take for Jake to let me go. For us to pretend nothing happened so far and return to our worlds.
But that would be too boring. Too predictable. The easy, familiar way out. And since meeting Jake, I’ve come to enjoy a little bit of unexpectedness in my life.
“Who says I’m not the one seducing you?” I argue, licking around his mouth after a short pause for air.
“Because your mere existence is enough to make me want you?” he deadpans, looking me straight in the eyes.
I blink. Then I blink some more and let out the most inelegant snort I can muster. Jake’s entire face smiles, lips, muscles and eyes all part of it. He’s beautiful. The sound of his laugh touches my soul, imprinting it with something I just know I won’t ever be able to forget. Just like him.
For no reason, he barged into my life by chance and has been turning it upside down from the first moment we spoke. He breaks down the walls I put up as easily as if they were madefrom cardboard. His undemanding friendliness warms my cold soul. His open smiles are infectious and hard to ignore. And his never-ending energy… It just makes me want to try things. To go with the flow, to jump against the current, because I know that if he’s with me, everything will be fine.
“This was way too cheesy and ridiculous. Even for you.” I chuckle, nuzzling his nose before I plant a kiss on the tip. “But I’m equally at fault for actually loving it.”
“You can’t fool me, you know. You only pretend to be stuck-up and alphahole-y, when in truth you are a bit of a dork.”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. “Shut up and kiss me.”
Chuckling, he smooches me, then stands and picks me up in a princess hold. I gasp and automatically clutch him, coiling my arms around his neck.
“You’re heavier than I thought,” he comments as he carries me across the room into the suite on the other side of the corridor where a four-poster bed in dark silks awaits under dim candlelight and flower petals.
I swat him playfully. “You aren’t even that bigger compared to me.”
