Page 27 of It Just Feels Right

She shrugs, and I have to ask her, “Will you move back to Whiskey Run? Or stay in the city?”

“I really don’t know.”

I grab the plate of cake in the middle of the table and cut two pieces. I set one piece in front of her. “Here.” She shakes her head, and I insist. “Haven, you ate chicken and lettuce with no dressing. Enjoy the cake.”

She picks up the fork and takes a small bite then moans and smiles at me. “That’s good.”

I nod. “Yep, really good.”

We spend the next couple of hours talking. When Baker comes out of his office, Haven stands up. “I really need to get out of here. I have a shoot in Jasper tomorrow afternoon.”

Baker looks apologetic. “Don’t leave on my account. I just needed to stretch my legs.”

She shakes her head. “No, I really need to go. It was nice to meet you, Baker, and thank you so much for dinner and the cake. See you later, Cass.”

We walk with her to the front door, and I call out to Haven as she walks down the steps, “I love you!”

She waves back, and we stand on the porch and watch her pull out. When we walk into the house,Baker is smiling. “She’s nice. She seems like a good friend.”

I agree with him. “She’s the best.”

He wraps his arms around me. “So are you mad at me?”

I squeeze him around the waist in a big hug. “No, I’m not mad at you.”

I pull at the hem of his shirt and pull it up his body. He lets me remove it, but I don’t miss the surprised look on his face. As soon as I have my hands on his bare skin, I caress him, running my fingers across his nipples. He grabs my hand. “Cassie?”

I lean in, pressing my lips to his nipple, circling it with my tongue like he did to me. “Argh,” he moans.

When I grab his belt and try to undo it, he grabs my hands and stops me. “Cassie, stop, what are you doing?”

I look at him through hooded eyes. “I’m sorry. I thought you wanted me.”

He shakes his head. “You know I want you.”

I laugh, hiding my insecurity. I pull away from him. “Forget it. I’m sorry, I just thought…”

I don’t finish my thought. I’m not sure how to explain what I’m thinking, but after this week, I knew that I wanted to take our relationship to the next step. Baker is amazing. He’s called and texted with me all week. He brought me lunch at school, and it was obvious he wanted to hug me and to kiss me, but he respected my wishes of keeping this secret.

“You thought what?” he asks me.

I shrug my shoulders as if it’s no big deal. “Forget it. Let’s watch a movie. That was the plan, right?”

I walk away from him and sit on the couch. When he doesn’t follow me, I grab the remote and turn the television on. “What do you want to watch? Action, comedy… I think that new superhero movie is now streaming if you want to watch that.”

He comes over and sits down next to me. He takes the remote from my hands and turns the television off. “Cassie, talk to me. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

I jut my chin at him. “Well, I thought we could, you know, but I guess not. It’s not a big deal.”

He tips my chin and searches my eyes. “You’re saying you want to give me your virginity and it’s not a big deal?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You act like I’m some kind of slut or something. I’m not.”

He puts a hand on each side of my neck. “Listen, okay? I want you. I’ve said it over and over, but this feels like a game to you. You want to keep this hidden—heck, you weren’t even going to tell your best friend about us. You don’t want anyone to know, and you said this is nothing serious. I don’t want to make love to you and then have you walk away like it means nothing.”

I choke back a sob. He’s voicing all the worries I have for myself. I’ve thought the same thing about him. I’ve worried that if I slept with him, he’d walk away, but I told myself I had to trust him. “And you say I’m the one with the trust issues. What about you? You don’t sound like you trust me at all.”

His voice is pained. “Can I trust you? You’ve said over and over that this is not going to work.”

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