The One and Only(15)

There it was. He understood what I was saying and respected my honesty, but it wasn’t his scene. He needed sex. I’d heard it all before, only it had never caused quite this much pain.

Brian stepped up again and leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to my lips for a long, lingering moment. When he pulled away, it was only to rest his forehead against mine. I cracked open my eyes to find his hooded ones watching me.

I was a breath away from asking what he was doing when he finally whispered, “I’ll pick you up at noon.”

“Wh-What?” I asked in shock, my mouth dropping open as I watched him spin on his heel and jog down the steps before he began strolling down the sidewalk.

“Twelve o’clock tomorrow!” he called out, glancing over his shoulder to smirk at me as he held up two fingers. “Date number two!”

I stared at his retreating form with equal parts shock and awe until he rounded the corner and disappeared from my field of vision. Still slightly dazed by the kiss, I hurriedly dug out my keys and barreled inside, leaning my back against the door as soon as it was shut behind me.

It didn’t scare him away. Not only that, but we were going on another date.

He might have resembled the big bad wolf on the surface, but I was starting to think that he was hiding Prince Charming underneath.





8





Brian





If any other woman had said the words to me that Mallory did, I probably would’ve gone running for the hills.

Waiting to fall in love before having sex? I understood the sentiment, sure, but it was also an invitation for a larger problem.

Even she noted that she knew sex was an important part of a relationship and falling in love would make it that much harder to let go of the relationship if two people turned out to not be physically compatible. Love was all good and well, but a sexless romance wasn’t fun for anyone.

Mallory was a smart girl. I knew that if I was to explain that to her, she would see the entire situation in a whole new light. Maybe even given up on her plight.

But I didn’t want to. Mallory deserved to have anything she wanted, and if she wanted love from me… I was willing to give it a shot.

Besides, there was no way we weren’t going to be compatible in bed. I could still feel the lingering electricity of our kiss well into the next day. It was so stuck in my mind that I couldn’t resist kissing her the moment she stepped out of her apartment at twelve o’clock on the dot.

After getting that initial need out of the way, I tried to keep our second date as non-sexual as I possibly could. It was one of the main reasons I arranged the date to be during the day in the first place.

The other reason was that I needed the light. I planned for our second date to be not only with each other, but also with the city.

I’d been living in New York long enough for it to feel like home and I wanted Mallory to experience the same feeling. We chatted while the car drove us to the southern end of Manhattan where a helicopter was waiting to give us a private aerial tour of the city.

It was an embarrassingly tourist-like thing to do, but her excitement made the whole thing well worth it. As did the way she clutched my thigh during the flight.

After it was over, she admitted it was her first time in a helicopter. All I could think about was the million other firsts I wanted to show her.

In order to keep my dick in my pants, we ate a light lunch and I ended the date there. She was obviously disappointed—something that gave me a great deal of pleasure—but I couldn’t risk scaring her off.

Respecting her decision was one thing. Torturing myself for it was another. And even though I was willing to give it a try, I still had my limits.

The kiss at her door was just as intense as the first and ultimately led to my decision not to call her Sunday. I spent the day dealing with my desire in order to be better prepared for Monday morning.

It was a better idea in theory than actuality.

I jerked off enough times to feel totally prepared for the bombardment of lust I felt when I saw her Monday morning. I had replayed the kisses enough times in my mind that I was sure I wouldn’t be swept up with the desperate need to press my lips to hers in the office. I also arranged for her to report to Janice first thing so I could at least get some work done that day instead of pining after Mallory all fucking day.

Lunch rolled around and I felt ready. One hundred percent.

The one thing I wasn’t prepared for was something I never could have foreseen. After all, I couldn’t remember ever succumbing to the emotion before. It was unmistakable, though.

Jealousy.

I was heading to the break room and rounded the corner only to have my eyes immediately locked on Mallory’s form—and it was pressed against the wall while my nephew lingered over her. He was leaning down and whispering something while her wide eyes darted around in search of an exit.