I snort and look up at the ceiling. “Yeah, we figured it out, all right,” I mutter, flinging myself back down on the couch, snatching the blanket and covering myself up with it again.
Jace looks down at me with narrowed eyes, and while I can tell he’s tempted to turn around and walk out of the room, he can’t help himself. He sits back down and tucks himself back underneath the blanket next to me and says, “What are you talking about? Didn’t y’all kiss last week?”
With a sigh, I nod. “Cannon and I may be best friends, but sexual chemistry we do not have. It was a good kiss, I could tell it was everything I had wanted. Everything you described. But I felt nothing. Nothing at all. And neither did he. In fact, I felt ten times more in that moment with you after the charity dinner, and we weren’t even in the same room.”
“Fuck, Desi.” He slides his fingers through his hair and falls back against the cushions. Staring up at the ceiling, he watches the fan rotate in slow circles. I’m convinced he’s hypnotized himself until he says, “It’s not that I didn’t want to kiss you. Obviously, my actions after turning you down prove that the thought turned me on.” He sits up and his gaze travels over my face, soaking in every inch of me. “I was thinking about you even before I noticed you watching me.”
My breath catches and I swallow before admitting a secret of my own. “I think of you every time I touch myself.”
He lifts a brow and one side of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “Every time?”
“Every. Single. Time.”
“Since we’re being honest about what we do alone, that wasn’t my first time thinking of you either.”
Desire courses through me, hot, wild, and nearly uncontrollable, but I manage to stay on my side of the couch and keep my hands to myself. “Really? And what exactly is it that you think about? Because I can tell you that just the idea of you pleasuring yourself to thoughts of me gives me more pleasure than that kiss with Cannon. There’s no telling what knowing details would do.”
“Are you asking me to add mental images to go along with your secret drawer of sex toys?”
“Maybe.”
“I’ll let you fill in the blanks, but I will say it has to do with my bathtub and a lot of bubbles.”
I cover my mouth but a giggle escapes even as my core clenches. That’s a perfect example of what Jace does to me—makes me laugh and turns me on in the same damn breath. How is that possible?
“You’re turned on by the thing we had our huge argument about?” I tease, scooting back to my original spot on the couch so my legs are resting on his again.
“Come on, Desi. I had a gorgeous woman naked in my bathroom. Was I happy that you went into my room without asking? No. Did I get turned on by finding you in my tub? Absolutely.”
Jace said the night of the charity dinner that he wasn’t afraid to talk about sex. I never thought it meant he would be so candid about his fantasies. He’s so careful about everything else in his life, but he acts carefree when it comes to this subject. It’s a huge turn-on to see him release the tight grip he has on everything else.
“Well, while we’re confessing things, that’s also not the first night I’ve watched you from my bedroom window,” I say, covering my eyes when I realize how creepy that sounds. “I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that. I assume you usually do that in the bathroom. Anyway, I know your whole nightly routine by now. Only because I sleep on my left side, and when I turn over, I can see right in. I know I could close my curtains, but you’ve never closed yours. And I guess part of me hoped you were watching me too.”
He pulls my hands away from my face and flashes me a dimpled grin. “Don’t close your curtains unless you want to. It would be a shame for everyone involved.”
My lips part in surprise. “Wait. You were watching me?”
He takes the remote from my lap and before he presses Play, he says, “You need your spank bank material and I need mine. No harm in that.”
It turns out that luring my roommate into an uncomfortable conversation with Star Wars movies is very beneficial. I got more than I bargained for, but I think he did too. And like he said, there’s no harm in what we’re doing. We’re both attractive people spending day in and day out with each other. There’s bound to be sexual tension—sexual tension that just reached new heights.
The movie carries on and the next thing I know, I’m running the back of my hand over my closed eyes and the sun is beaming through the living room window. I wiggle my toes and brush against something hard and hairy. Inching my eyes open I find Jace asleep on the other side of the sectional couch. I glide my foot up and down again and realize our legs are tangled and I’m touching his calf.
I start to disentangle our limbs, but I can’t find it in myself to do it. He looks so peaceful—his eyelashes so long that they’re grazing his cheekbones, his chest rising and falling in a gentle motion. There’s something about his skin against mine that is so sensual. It makes goosebumps rise on every inch of my body, and I thank my lucky stars that he’s still asleep because I’m sure he would be able to feel them against his leg.
That ache returns, the one that was ignited during last night’s conversation. I can’t believe we fell asleep so close to each other. I swallow hard and gnaw on my bottom lip. Turning my face into the couch cushion to try to calm myself, I—
The doorbell rings and Jace and I jump up from the couch, nearly kicking each other in the face. Jace lets out a shout, looking back at the door. “That scared the hell out of me.”
“Me too,” I pant, still startled by the sensations being so close to him had sent through me. “Who’s here this early?”
“I don’t know. I’ll get it,” he says, pulling down the leg of his joggers where it’s bunched below his knee.
He walks to the foyer, tugging at the front of his pants, and I try not to notice. Don’t most guys have to adjust in the morning? It’s natural and not something I should overthink.
After I hear the click of the door, a moment passes before Jace calls, “Desi, you have a visitor!”
Jumping up from the couch, I tug my shorts down and pull my hair over my shoulder, trying not to look like I just woke up.