Page 29 of Off Season

“Isn’t this fun?” Jacob gleams.

“Yes, I’m having a great time,” I deadpan.

“Aw, come on!” He stands on his tiptoes and wraps his arms around my neck. “Look at all this history around you. It’s kinda magical.”

I place my hands on his hips, pulling him closer to me and out of the way as a group of people walk by.

“If you say so.”

Jacob ignores my quip and gets out his phone again. “Let’s get a photo with the Palace in the background.”

That’s another thing.

He’s taken his decision to treat today like a date very seriously, and I’ve had to pose for more photos in the last twenty minutes than I did for my job last season.

Seeing how good we look together should alarm me, but I guess it’ll make it all the more believable.

He holds the phone up, leaning into my side, and I wrap an arm around his shoulders, but he doesn’t take the photo.

“You could at least try to look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

I groan and give a tight-lipped smile. He takes the photo and inspects it.

“We need to work on your grumpiness, because this,” he says, holding up the phone with the photo displayed on the screen, “does not say we are in a very steamy and loving relationship, Mr. Parkes.

“Just put an emoji over my face or something, or we’ll take another one when there aren't seventy thousand people around.”

He rolls his eyes.

I sigh, placing a hand on his neck and angling his head to face me. “It’s not that I’m not enjoying my time with you, J; I just hate all of this.” I motion toward the crowd with my other hand.

His eyes softens slightly.

“Come on, let’s take a walk through the park. Maybe it’ll be quieter there,” Jacob suggests, slipping his hand intomine and lacing our fingers together. He leads us through the throngs of people and toward St. James Park.

“Oh, what is this?” he asks, then gasps excitedly. “An ice cream truck! We’ve got to get an ice cream.”

I watch as his eyes roam the menu printed on the van window, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. He orders a soft serve ice cream in a waffle cone, topped off with a flaky chocolate stick poking out of the side. I politely decline ordering anything, but when Jacob goes to pay, I quickly tap my phone against the card reader.

“Ethan,” he protests.

I raise a brow. “Jacob.”

“I could’ve paid.”

“Yes, you could have, but I wanted to get it.” I lean in and whisper in his ear, “Boyfriend privileges.”

He tries his best to look annoyed, but the smile playing on his lips makes me the winner.

Guiding him away from the truck with my hand on the base of his spine, we find an empty wooden bench facing the lake and sit down.

My eyes zero in on Jacob’s tongue curling around the ice cream, his own eyes closing as he swallows and lets out an indecent moan.

“Omigod,” he whimpers before taking another seductive lick. He takes a bite out of the crumbly chocolate stick, and another sultry moan rumbles in his throat. “This is so good.”

With every sensual sound that he makes and each tantalizing sweep of his tongue, my dick thickens behind my zipper. I clench my teeth and ball my hands into fists in my lap as I try to control myself.

Is he trying to kill me? I can’t act on this in the middle of a busy park.

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