I shook my head. “I filled out the necessary parts and gave it to him.”
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you to read things before you sign them?” he asked with exasperation.
I shrugged. “I had a lot on my mind.”
“Did you at least read the part about how long this is going to take?”
I glanced down at the floor and pressed my lips together.
“Seriously, V?”
“How long?” I whispered, afraid to know the answer.
“Typically these things take three and a half to four months.”
“So that puts it sometime in June.”
He nodded.
June. Interesting. Mid-summer break.
Mid-Jesse’s solo summer vacation.
He had said he preferred to travel alone, to decompress after a long school year, but maybe he’d like some company this year.
A thought of Jesse in swim trunks on the beaches of Mexico flashed through my mind.
A thought of Jesse and me on a tour through California vineyards flashed through my mind.
A thought of Jesse and me in a big bed wearing nothing but sweat flashed through my mind.
“Can we talk more about ‘A’?” I asked, trying to ward off those deliciously wicked thoughts.
He gave me a strange look. “A?”
“Yeah. You said, ‘A, we haven’t done anything that would constitute cheating.’ And then you said, ‘don’t think that the thought hasn’t crossed my mind.’ Expand on that, please.”
A slow grin spread across Jesse’s face as his eyes lit up. “You want to hear more about that, do you?” he asked.
I nodded, and I couldn’t help the smile playing at the corners of my mouth.
He stood up and he walked to my side of the table. He took my hand in his and pulled me up from the table and into his waiting arms.
“Well,” he said, wrapping one arm around my waist while the fingertips on his other hand ran along my cheek. I threw my arms around his neck. “I have a confession.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“I’ve been having some pretty naughty thoughts about my roommate.”
Lady parts tingled as I stared into those dark eyes.
“What kind of thoughts?” I prompted.
He kissed my forehead, and then the tip of my nose, and then my lips. “V, I have dreamed of seeing you naked for the last five years,” he murmured. “This morning, my dream came true. And you know what?”
“What?” I asked, that damn blush giving me away as I tried in vain to maintain my calm, cool collectedness.
He lowered his head close to my ear and whispered, his breath tickling my ear and the warmth sending rockets of lust exploding through my veins. “It was even better in real life than in my dreams.”
Holy. Fucking. Hell.
How was I ever possibly going to wait until my divorce was finalized to give myself to this man?
His lips grazed behind my ear, and I shivered in his arms. I felt his grin against the skin of my neck as his lips moved down, and those lips on my body caused every coherent thought to leave. I mumbled something inarticulate – or maybe it was a grunt, I’m not really sure – as he continued his onslaught of seduction.
He pulled back from me and our eyes met, and that emptiness that had appeared in his when he found me and pulled me out of my car was gone. It was replaced with heat and desire, and all that temptation that he had been waving in my face since Friday night suddenly felt like a real possibility. I’d gone back and forth on whether or not things were going to ever happen between us, but after this, after I’d nearly left and he’d come for me and explained to me that I was already free of Richard in ways that I hadn’t even known, I knew for sure that when everything was over with Richard and the dust settled, Jesse would be waiting for me with open arms.
He moved in to press a kiss to my lips as his hands moved achingly slowly up my sides to my ribcage. Everything south of my belly button tightened as his mouth opened to mine, his tongue playing with mine in a slow, seductive tango.
When his fingertips grazed just under my breasts, I pulled back.
“Jesse, I—”
“Shh, baby.” He shook his head and then leaned his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“I don’t want you to stop,” I moaned. “But I can’t—”
“I know.”
My heart swelled with love for his understanding. I didn’t even need to say why, and he knew. He got it. And then his next words set everything inside of me on fire as I knew that waiting until June was literally going to kill me.
“I’ll wait with you, V,” he whispered, pulling me closer as I clutched him to me. “I’ve waited five years. I’d wait forever.”