Be With Me(28)

Another deep, alluring laugh rumbled from him. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should." We were still horribly far away from the door, and Jase wasn't moving quickly enough. Maybe he would stay. I didn't think Debbie would be back for a long time. We'd have the place to ourselves. And we'd have a bed and-­

"I didn't know you'd been drinking."

Stopping at the somberness in his tone, I spun around and nearly lost my balance, which didn't help my case. His hands landed on my hips, steadying me. "You regret it, don't you?" My happy bubble was about to burst. "I'm not plastered. I know exactly what I was doing. I wanted to do it. Maybe it wasn't my smartest idea-­"

"I fucking disagree with that," he commented, eyes glimmering for a moment. "It was brilliant, but . . ." His features softened as he placed his large hand against my cheek. "If I'd known you'd been drinking, I would've stopped you."

Tilting my head to the side, I tried to figure out what that meant. "And if I wasn't drinking?"

"I think you know the answer to that."

I guess I sort of did. "But I'm not drunk. I wanted to do that to you. I wanted-­"

Jase groaned. "You have got to stop talking like that."

"Like what?" My brows knitted.

"Telling me that you wanted to. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to hear that, but it makes me want to let you do it again. And for me to do it again. But I wouldn't want to use just my tongue." He pressed his forehead to mine, and I drew in a shaky breath at his closeness. "I'd start with that, but I'd want to use my hands and I wouldn't stop there."

His words scalded my cheeks, and maybe I was a bit more intoxicated than I realized, because a rush of boldness invaded me. "I wouldn't stop you."

He closed his eyes, and a deep sound came from the back of his throat. "God, Tess . . ."

I swallowed hard, and then tilted my head, lining up our mouths. "Jase?"

There was a moment of hesitation, and then he kissed me softly, a gentle sweep of his lips over mine. A barely there touch that somehow affected me more than any of the other kisses. "I know you've been drinking. I don't want that hanging between us."

"But-­"

"We'll talk more later. Okay? Right now, let me just get your not-­drunk-­but-­slightly-­tipsy cute ass upstairs."

"You think my ass is cute?"

He pulled away, laughing. "Baby, your ass is like my own personal holy ground."




       
         
       
        
"Oh my God . . ."

A grin appeared. "Come on."

"I can't believe you just said my ass was-­ah!" I squealed as Jase slipped an arm around my waist and lifted me up, holding me to his chest. Stars cartwheeled for a few seconds. "What are you doing?"

He looked down at me, eyebrow arched. "Getting you to your room."

"Carrying me is necessary?"

"Yep." He strode across the pavilion. "Card?"

Wiggling around, I dug it out from my back pocket of my skirt. He hefted me up and managed to grab it without dropping me. I didn't protest when he asked me to open the door and caught it with his foot. Resting my head against his chest, I closed my eyes. Seconds passed and the gentle bob of his steps swayed me back into that pleasant state. We needed to talk. About stuff. Serious stuff. And waiting until tomorrow was probably a bad idea, but I snuggled closer. Being in his arms, well . . .

Tomorrow could go screw itself with a rusty spork.

Much of the trip to my room was like being underwater, and opening my eyes required way too much effort. As usual, our suite was empty. He used his elbow to turn on the light.

"Are you sure you have roommates next door?" he asked, turning, somehow juggling me and the door.

"Uh-­huh," I murmured sleepily and opened my eyes long enough to confirm that my dorm room was also empty. "I hear them every once in a while."

"And you've never talked to them, right?" He crossed the small room.

"Nope."

Jase laid me down on the bed, and as I opened my eyes, he'd already moved to the foot of my bed. "Tell me something."

"Something."

He grinned as he peeked up through his lashes. The light from the suite cast enough glow that I could see only him. "Did your brother know you were drinking?"

Cam was the last person I wanted to think about right now.

"Tess?" he persisted, tugging off one of my shoes. I wiggled my toes, and he captured my foot, holding it in his hand.

I let my eyes drift shut. "No. He was too busy staring at Avery the entire time."

"He should've been paying attention to you." He removed my other shoe, dropping it somewhere on the floor.

A very attractive snort escaped me. "Why? I'm not a child. I can drink if I want to." 

"Uh-­huh." He danced his fingers along the sole of my foot, causing me to giggle. I tried to pull my foot away, but I was too slow. He backed off, picking up the quilt. "So are you going to be a weekly fixture at the parties now?"

Curling onto my side, I blinked my eyes open and smiled as he draped the quilt over me. "I don't know. I didn't see a lot of girls there."

He sat beside me, fixing the edge of the blanket so it covered my shoulder. "There aren't usually. Except the regulars."

"Regulars?"

"Girls who come around for the parties that aren't girlfriends."

I didn't like the sound of that. "Like the girl in your room?"

He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. "Yeah. Like her."

"What was her name again?"

Jase shifted his weight and leaned back, resting on one elbow. "Does it matter?"

Did it? Considering what had just happened between us? "Yes."

"She's a good girl."

"Ah . . ."

His lips hitched back as he dipped his chin. "I'm serious. She just likes to have fun and-­"

"I don't want to hear about that kind of fun."

He laughed, and I scowled. "Cam used to hook up with her."

"Ew." I wrinkled up my nose. "And so did you?"

"Not at the same time."

"God, I hope not." When he chuckled again, I nudged him with my knee. "You do realize that means you've slept with Cam, right?"

"What? Fuck no." In the dim light, he shrank back. "I told you it wasn't-­"

"He's been in there. So have you. So by association, you two have had sex."

"That is disgusting."

I grinned. "What's disgusting is that you've both been up in there and-­"

"Can we not talk about this?"

My smile went up a notch. There was a good chance tomorrow morning I wouldn't find any of this funny, but right now, I loved how he squirmed. "Perhaps you'll think twice about doing what you aren't quite proud of."

He arched a brow and then fixed his gaze on the empty bed across from us. "I was telling the truth, Tess. I've known Steph for years, and, yeah, we've fooled around a ­couple of times, but nothing since the end of last semester. And I . . ." He tipped his head to the side and sighed. "And I haven't ever kissed her. That was the truth, too. I hadn't kissed a girl since . . ."

My heart thumped heavily. "Since when?"

Jase shook his head and then let out a short, dry laugh. "Since a really long time."

I watched him in silence. A change came over him. I wasn't sure what it was exactly, but a distant, almost sad look crept into his features, tightening the lines of his face that would drive an artist crazy to sketch.

I knew he was talking about Jack's mother, and he'd been hurt, nursing a broken heart for all these years.

God, maybe I was drunk, because I had no idea if he had even been in love with her. Jase was a dude. Dudes didn't harbor old love wounds. They either drank or screwed them away.



       
         
       
        

My eyes became too hard to keep open. "I wish I had that cupcake now."

He laughed as he slowly shook his head. "You would have loved it. I got another Snickers one. I guess you're just not meant to eat that one."

"I guess not." A moment passed. "You staying?"

There was a pause, and then I felt his finger drift over my cheek, scooping up a strand of hair and tucking it back. "I'll stay until you fall asleep."

"That won't be very long." I willed my eyes open, but they wouldn't. "And we need to talk . . ."

"Sleep, Tess. I promise"-­the bed shifted and I felt his lips press against my forehead-­"we'll talk tomorrow . . . if your brother doesn't kill me first."

***

There was a small person living inside my head and it was banging on my skull with a sledgehammer. Moaning pitifully, I rolled onto my side and blinked my eyes open.

The small window by Debbie's bed let way too much light in and I winced, pressing the heel of my palm against my throbbing forehead.

"Ow," I moaned, sitting up. The quilt slipped down to my waist, revealing the clothes I'd slept in last night.