Page 284 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 9
He laughed. “Well, here’s to not disappointing you anymore.” He tapped his slice of pizza against mine.
I smiled.
“Here, you gotta see this view.” He used his hand that wasn’t holding a slice of pizza to guide me to the edge of the roof.
“This view is amazing. I wish we could stay here forever.” But I didn’t really mean at the beach. I glanced at J.J. out of the corner of my eye. I meant with him.
Time felt like it was frozen still as he turned to look at me. “Me too.”
Why did it already feel like goodbye when our summer together had only just started? I cleared my throat. “What do you want to do this weekend?” Even though the weekend was still far away, it was just far enough away that he might not already have plans like this with his friends. I was hoping we could do something just us.
He wrapped his arm more securely around me as we stared down at the crashing waves. “How about something just the two of us?”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. It was like he could read my mind. “That sounds perfect. Oh.” I looked up at him. “How about we go to Salt Air? I won that gift card. It can be my treat.”
“Are you that sick of pizza?” he said with a laugh.
“No, but I think a night out would be fun. We can eat and drink and dance.”
“You won’t turn me down like you did yesterday when I asked you to dance?”
I laughed. “I wanted you to ask me because you really wanted to…not because you were beingprotective.”
“You say protective like it’s a bad thing.”
“Is it so wrong that I wanted you to be jealous? Just a little bit?”
“People are jealous when they want something that isn’t theirs. I was protective because you already possessed me. I was already yours. And you were already mine.”
I turned to look up at him, the view of his blue eyes so much better than the sea itself. “You wanted to protect what’s yours?” The wind from the ocean blew my hair into my face.
He pushed it back, drawing my lips up to his. But his lips stopped a fraction of an inch from mine. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you ever since I first saw you on the beach. Even before I knew your name was Jellyfish Girl.” He closed the distance between us. A slow kiss that took my breath away.
I’m his. And he’s mine.God, his answer was simply amazing. I had been worried about asking him what he meant by protective instead of jealous. But listening to his answer made my knees weak. Everything he said was so romantic. He pulled away far too soon.
“You’re a great kisser,” I mumbled. I thought it was incoherent, but J.J. smiled.
“Oh, really? I could have sworn after our first kiss you said, ‘It wasn’t even a good kiss.’ Which really shattered my confidence.”
I lightly hit his arm. “I was upset. But…it wasn’t technically a lie…”
He raised both his eyebrows. “Ouch. Are you trying to wound me?”
I laughed and stood up on my tiptoes. “I wasn’t lying because it was a great kiss, not a good one.” I wrapped my arms behind his neck and kissed him again. His hands slid to my ass, not a care in the world that his friends were nearby. Yup, my assessment was right. J.J. was agreatkisser.
Those Summer Nights - Chapter 21
Saturday
“I can spend the night at Reggie’s again if you want to bring J.J. back here,” Kristen said as we ran along the beach. She’d been spending most nights this week with him. Like I’d been spending most nights with J.J.
“That sounds great.”
She laughed. I wasn’t sure how she could laugh after running so many miles. I could barely even breathe.
“I like it,” she said. “You don’t hesitate anymore. You know what you want and you just go for it. I think I’m wearing off on you.”
I tried to smile, but I’m sure it came out as more of a grimace because of my cramp. “Well, in that case…I’d love to turn around. The couch has my name on it. I want to make a stack of pancakes so high that the syrup drips down the sides in that picture-perfect way. And while I’m stuffing my face with sugary goodness, we can look for Swatch on Project Runway.”
