Page 56 of Fluke
“It won’t.”
It can’t.
He looks at me curiously. “How are you so sure? How do you know with certainty that you won’t come back from Silver Springs and want to keep things going? I can be very persuasive.”
“Not persuasive enough, or we would’ve fucked before now.”
His gaze nearly burns a hole through me.This isn’t helping.
“Look, Jess, I’ve told you before that you’ll be a great husband and father someday. That’s not my future.I don’t want that. And what I don’t want even more is to get to a spot together where we’re having conversations that I can already resolve now. I would rather not do anything at all with you than have to do that.”
“But you’re willing to give me a week?”
I nod.
“What happens if you fall in love with me in a week?” he asks.
“I won’t.”
“What if you do?”
“You overestimate yourself, buddy.”
He leans down, his breath hot on my lips. I expect him to pull away—to tease me like he’s been doing. I start to speak when his tongue swipes lazily across my bottom lip.
Gah! The heat, the wetness, all the things he says without saying them with this one single move have me panting. I want more. I need more.I need more now.
I lean toward him to deepen the exchange, but he backs away.
“What was that?” I ask, panting.
He makes a wide circle around me and heads to his mom’s house. “That was me double-checking my math.”
“Your math for what?”
He doesn’t answer me until we’re at the base of the steps to the porch. By the time we get there, I’m hot, bothered, irritated—and so turned on that my thighs are sticky beneath my dress.
I don’t know if I find him more sexy or more frustrating—if I want to tell him to fuck off or to fuck me.
Maybe both.
“I’m not overestimating shit,” he says. The humor drifts away from his face and, in its place, is a seriousness that makes my stomach drop. “But I want to be clear. I will be doing my best to make you fall head-over-fucking-heels in love with me. If you’re sure you can walk away when we get home from the trip, then I’m going to get every last moment that I can with you.I’ve waited almost my whole life for this. If you can still walk away after that, then fine.”
But what if I can’t?
Unfortunately, there’s no time to answer because Damaris opens the door.
“There you are,” she says. “I was just going to take a look and see if you were on your way yet.”
Jess’s gaze slides across mine. “We’re here. Is everyone else?”
“Yes. We’re about ready to eat.”
Jess and I climb the stairs, and I enter the house behind Damaris. He doesn’t say anything else to me, nor does he touch me or give me some sort of idea what’s going through his head.
“I will be doing my best to make you fall head-over-fucking-heels in love with me.”
My stomach twists.
