Page 38 of Miss Understood

“Oh.” I let the air out of my chest.

It’s no wonder why I’m single.

“So, what do you think?” Jesse waves his arms at his apartment.

“It’s nice,” I tell him, looking around the room. I keep to myself that it’s basically my dream apartment.

“But,” I say, narrowing my eyes on him, “knowing you, I did expect leather straps to be hanging from the ceiling, or maybe a stripper pole. Something more exciting than potpourri.”

“Only in the bedroom, baby.” Jesse gives me a dirty wink, and it flutters all the way down between my legs.

“Noted,” I tell him, trying really hard to seem unfazed.

I spin and walk to the wall of windows so he can’t catch the blush that’s crawling up my neck. It’s always giving me away.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’ll be avoiding that room, then,” I say.

The heat of Jesse’s body slides up behind me, a hit of sweet sweat closing me against the glass. Jesse’s breath tickles against my hair, and even thought I don’t face him, I can feel those dark eyes watching me.

I’m not sure how, in the last two years of us working together, I’ve never noticed the pulse that radiates from his body. Because it’s all I feel now with him this close. If I shifted back mere inches, I would touch him and lose all self-control.

“This is nice,” he says in a gravelly whisper that tickles my skin.

I keep my eyes locked on the bay, afraid one look into his eyes will either wrap me around his sweaty body or make my heart fall out of my chest.

“What is?” I ask.

“You,” he says, and I swear it’s not my imagination that he moves closer, because the room once again gets warmer. “In my apartment when I got home. I could get used to it.”

I stifle a laugh. “Why would you say that?”

“It’s the truth.” His body shifts closer again, and I feel the fabric of his shirt brush against my back. The heat spills out between us. I could spin and rip that shirt off his body. Lick a trail of sweat down that rock-hard chest until I was kneeling before him. I’ve never wanted to submit to a man, but something about how he takes control of every thought in my head makes me want to lie down and let him unleash his dirtiest fantasies on me.

“But you hate me,” I say to him.

Jesse reaches up, brushes my hair off my shoulder, and runs a finger over my bare neck. The trail pulls on that elastic band that tugs from my chest to the ache between my legs. He grazes a path across my collarbone and down my shoulder until his hand falls away, leaving me surprisingly empty.

“I never hated you. Not for one minute,” he says, stepping back, leaving me standing at the window to process the weight of his confession. “Let me know if you need any help getting unpacked.”

I nod, but I can’t bring myself to respond. Because, even if he was the one to say it, he’s not the only one who’s realizing that whatever we used to call hate was a mask for something I’m not prepared to define right now. And it’s terrifying.

14

Jesse

SeeingLucelaughingonthe couch when I came home knocked something loose in my chest, and now I can’t seem to get it to stop rattling around.

My apartment is my own piece of quiet in this city. It’s a place I rarely bring dates back to. But, instead of feeling like I’m being invaded, having Luce here feels right. Like she fits. Like she belongs.

And I’m not sure what to do with that.

Caging her against the windows forced every subconscious fantasy I’ve had about her to the front of my mind. Imagining what it would be like to strip her naked and unravel her against the glass. Her silky skin sliding against my body. Those perfect pink buds of her nipples between my teeth.

The simple thought of making a woman who doesn’t bow to anyone beg and scream my name nearly tore my insides in two. A primal need planted its roots in my chest. Deep. And I feel it growing branches.

When I climbed into the shower, the image of Luce’s pouty lips was playing on a loop in my head. Her on her knees, painting a pretty red circle around the base of my dick. My hand made work of the tension, but it didn’t untie the knot at the base of my spine, the one that pulses every time I catch sight of her perfect heart-shaped ass.

As if that wasn’t enough, I heard her get in the shower herself, and knowing water was beading over her gorgeous curves brought my dick once again to attention.

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