Page 54 of False Confidence

“Very messy,” he confirmed.

“Excellent. I guess that means we get to shower it all off later, and that’s exactly why you picked it.”

Visions of Jasmine’s wet, naked skin beneath his fingers as the shower beat down on them both hadn’t been his motivation for picking their first date activity, but it certainly didn’t hurt. “That’s a bonus.”

A server brought their strawberry mojitos, and Jasmine held up her glass. “What are we toasting?” he asked, following suit.

“To orgasms,” she announced, garnering a scandalized look from the group at the table beside them.

“To orgasms,” Liam agreed, and they clinked their glasses and sipped. The taste of sweet fresh strawberries and tart lime flooded his senses. He didn’t drink often, but he couldn’t wait to taste the sugar on Jasmine’s tongue later.

“This is nice,” she said with a happy sigh. “I love spending time in our apartments, but it feels good to get out for a night.”

“We should do this more often,” he agreed, and she nodded, with a grin that set his stomach fluttering.

Liam fell somewhere between an extrovert and an introvert, but Jasmine was definitely the former. The restaurant wasn’t busy. There were maybe a dozen tables full and twice as many empty, but he’d felt the shift in her as soon as they’d walked in. It was like she absorbed the energy of those around her, amping herself up.

He didn’t really care where they were, he just liked holding her hand, asking her about her day. Liam opened his mouth to do just that, but Jasmine spoke first.

“How was breakfast with your moms?”

Liam snapped his mouth closed. He knew he shouldn’t compare, but… When had India ever shown a genuine interest in things like that? She was a pro at asking all the right questions, but they always felt like more of an obligation than her actually caring. Jasmine’s expression was genuinely curious, but it morphed into concern the longer he stayed quiet.

“Are you okay? You’re being kind of quiet tonight.”

Shit. “Sorry. I’m just happy to be spending the night with you and I’m soaking it in,” he said, and her expression softened. “Breakfast was good. My moms are thinking of converting their garage into a sauna room.”

Jasmine clung to his every word, and Liam vowed not to let India cross his mind again for the rest of the night. But that became substantially more difficult, an hour later, when they were putting down their forks from the fudge cake they’d shared, and his phone lit up on the table. India’s name flashed on the screen, and both Jasmine and Liam just stared at it silently for a moment.

“Are you going to answer it?”

The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. “No. I really have no interest in speaking to her.” The words weren’t bitter or angry, they were just matter-of-fact. There was no lingering heartbreak in his chest.

The phone rang out and the screen went black. “Has she called before?”

“Not since we broke up,” Liam told her, frowning at the phone in confusion. “And I can’t think of any reason she’d need to call now. It’s not like we have mutual friends or anything.”

“Maybe a pocket dial by mista—or not,” Jasmine finished as his phone lit up again.

India

(1) New Message

Jesus, had just thinking about her summoned her? He flipped his phone over, screen-side down on the table, and turned his attention back to Jasmine, who was looking between him and the phone, aghast.

“Liam!”

“What?”

“You have to check it.”

He cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Jasmine, darling, I cannot stress enough how little interest I have in anyone else in the world when you’re sitting beside me.”

Her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath. “That is a very nice thing to say,” she murmured.

“I mean it.”

Jasmine gave him a wicked smile. “I know. And I am going to need you to let me thank you properly later by coming in my mouth.” A woman at the table beside them choked on her drink, but Liam was getting used to the chaos that fell from Jasmine’s perfect lips. His blood thrummed. “But Liam?”

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