“Well, good for you.” It was a childish comment but she felt a bit childish right now.
“Jan, it’s doing yourself a disservice to be that invisible force, when I know you can be so much more. How can you not see what you deserve as clearly as I do?”
She shrugged, unable to answer. All sorts of emotions she didn’t want to deal with were welling up inside her, begging to be released. Jan didn’t do emotional displays or anything like that, and this was disturbing. What was it about Keith that pulled these feelings out of her, and how could she ram them back in where they belonged?
Jan couldn’t understand this. She’d always known Keith, but never seen him as she was seeing him tonight. As an independent guy, not a friend or a dad. Now, but the hell was she going to do with all this emotion?
“I… Thank you. Nobody’s ever thought of me as an irresistible force before.” She really liked his faith in her. It was one of many things she liked about him. Even when she’d been struggling in high school, he assured her frequently that she could do it.
“I’m tell you what I see,” he said. Jan took that moment to stare into his eyes, trying to figure out his emotions. Was he interested?
And if he was interested, was Jan? Could she really go there? Jan bit her lip staring into Keith’s green eyes. Could she take the chance? Should she take the chance? What if he wasn’t interested? Would she screw up a really good thing?
“Stop thinking so hard about it,” he said with a little smile.
“Thinking about what?” Jan asked slowly. He couldn’t possibly have any idea what she been thinking, could he?
“You thinking about wanting to kiss me. And you wondering about consequences.” The last was delivered as a statement, not a question. He seemed to know her almost as well as she knew herself.
“I…” Jan snapped her mouth shut. What had she been going to say anyway? It was a strange tension swirling in the air, not just sexual, something she couldn’t identify. But the attraction was overwhelming her. She wanted more than her hands on this man. She wanted to fuck him.
“So, what will it be, Jan?
“What you mean?” She asked, aware that she was stalling for time.
“Well, the way I see it, there’s only one question. Your place right here?” Oh God. Oh God, were they really going to go there?
Keith regarded her, he could almost see the wheels turning in her head. It was clear that she wanted this. But, like him, she probably had some very realistic reservations. She was Daddy’s girl, and he was his best friend. This could be a disaster anyway he sliced it. But there was no turning back, the possibly hadn’t been since she’d walked into his ER mothering that little boy
“Jan, take a chance. You don’t always have to be conservative. In fact, I’d really like it if you weren’t conservative, at least in bed.”
Her face flamed, that pretty blush coloring her cheeks, and she shifted from foot to foot. What else did she need, engraved hard cock?
“Keith, I’m just not sure…”
“Not sure about what?”
“You. Me. Us?” Her voice rose in inflection, making the question almost comical. He might’ve laughed, but all spare concentration was going into trying to figure out how to make this work. How to ease her mind.
“I want you. Is it really so hard to conceive?” She closed the distance between them, taking her face in his hands, cupping her cheeks. “Tell me,” he whispered, “what you really have to lose? Jan, you spend your life waiting for something to come along. If you do, you might still be miserable in the long run. I don’t want you to be alone. I want you to be screaming in my bed. It’s your choice. But you know where I’m going.”
She sucked in a deep breath, and her eyes widened. But to her credit, she didn’t hyperventilate, or even continue to breathe hard. “Take a chance, Jan. Living life conservatively isn’t really living. I see life-and-death every day, I see regrets there, always what wasn’t done instead of what was done. Come with me, I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
According to Jan’s expression, her emotions kept changing from hope to need to want, and then to something else entirely. “Do you really want me? Not is my dad’s daughter, not as a friend, but as a lover?”
He supposed that was a reasonable question, one she needed to ask. Not that he particularly liked it, as he thought he’d displayed his needs pretty damn clearly. But, okay, he could go with it. As long as it got this beautiful woman in his bed.
“I want you. Jan. Not somebody who’s related to somebody I know. Not somebody I’ve known a long time, though those teen years were a little rough.” She laughed at that, a beautiful smile coming over her face. “Jan, I want you more and more every moment. As you, Jan. Not someone related to someone else. That has nothing to do with you. Or you and me. Why don’t we stop talking and you let me kiss you silly.” Her eyes flared wide at that but she relaxed and he stroked his hands over her cheekbones. “There you go, honey. Just relax. I promise it will be the best you’ve ever had.”