He watched her go, thoughts of a naked Rand only a few rooms away made him want to bang his head against the wall.

Rand went back to the bathroom after her pizza and brushed her teeth, figuring she’d probably fall asleep during the third movie. By then she’d be out of it and forget, and she hated going to bed without brushing.

She came back into the living room, flopped onto the couch and curled her legs under her chin. “So what should we watch first?”

Jake’s lips twisted into a grimace. “You pick. They’re all painful for me.”

She jumped up with Young Guns, and slipped it into the DVD player. She loved Young Guns, especially because of the very young and cute Charlie Sheen. She came back to the couch and tapped the remote against her thigh impatiently as it loaded.

Sitting next to him on the couch, she could feel the warmth radiating off his body and the smell of his cologne was giving her those tingly feelings again.

“So, have you picked out any other dates,” Jake asked.

She shook her head. “I think I’m going to take your advice and ask Red for help. Or one of his sisters.”

“Wow, I thought you wanted nothing to do with them,” Jake said, frowning.

“I just thought if you’re right and Jay is really going to ask me out I should probably be a little more…feminine I guess,” she said, nervously playing with the knee of her jeans. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said.

“When you go out with a girl, how many dates do you wait before you kiss her,” she asked in a rush.

Jake cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Well, there’s no set date. I can usually tell when a girl is into me by the way she acts and she’ll usually give me signs that she wants me to kiss her.”

Had she given Jake some kind of signal? Her face flushed at the thought.

“Like, what kind of sign,” she asked, holding her knees tighter.

For a minute there, she thought he wasn’t going to answer her. After a long, thoughtful look though, he slid closer to her and pulled her arms from off her knees. “Usually, if she wants me to kiss her, she doesn’t cross her arms. Crossed arms make a guy think you don’t want him touching you.”

She dropped her arms and prodded, “What else?”

“She’ll usually touch me a lot. Run her hand over my arm, touch my hair, or brush off some lint,” he said, demonstrating with a soft caress on her own arm.

His fingers on her bare skin made little goose bumps pop up everywhere and the tingles were traveling from his touch to her toes. She reached out a hand and brushed his bronzed hair off his forehead. “Like that?”

He nodded, his eyes capturing hers. “And she usually licks her lips or applies gloss. I’m not a big fan of the sticky shit, but for girls it’s like a neon sign that says, ‘Kiss me.’”

She ran her tongue over her lips. “Like that?”

“Just like that,” he said, scooting closer and cupping the side of her face. His thumb brushed across her lips and unconsciously she kissed its tip.

He stared at her mouth intently, but made no move to kiss her. Boldly, she kneeled up and moved until she straddled his lap, her arms wrapping around his neck.

“What are you doing,” he asked, his hands going around her waist like he was about to lift her back off.

She squeezed him between her thighs and bent down. “You weren’t taking the hint.”

And without giving him a chance to say no, she dropped her mouth that last inch and molded it to his.

You have to stop this.

Instead of listening to his voice of reason, Jake deepened the kiss, running his hands over her back. Reaching the tight bun of hair, he tried to take it down so he could tangle his hands in it, but she jerked away and cried, “Ouch.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, you just startled me. You want it down,” she asked.