Page 43 of Bad Reputation

He is thoughtful. “Well… you’re probably going to cringe, but I really only started paying attention to you around the time that Cure opened. You weren’t really around me a lot before then, not day to day anyway.”

“What? I like, lived for the times when I knew I was going to see you.”

He shrugs. “I’m sorry. I was just wrapped up in my own stuff. If you didn’t know, I had a lot going on then.”

“Oh, you mean making sure that all your brothers got into college on scholarships wasn’t a mindless activity for you?” I tease.

“Hah! No. Especially Gunnar. I swear, I thought he was going to be my personal downfall.”

“Hmmm,” I say. “You still didn’t answer my original question, though. When was the first time that you saw me and thought that I was even vaguely attractive?”

He heaves a sigh. “Probably when you were seventeen.”

My eyes go wide. “Seventeen?”

“Yep. I remember that you used to wear those cutoff denim overalls with a tube top… that will stick in my memory forever, even though I will probably burn in hell for it.”

I grin. “I knew it! I definitely wore those teeny little shorts for your benefit, for your information.”

Jameson grins. “Is that a fact?”

“Yeah, definitely. I was just waiting for you to like… notice me and sweep me off my feet. I had a very rich fantasy life when I was a teenager, I will tell you that much.”

He leans down and kisses me on the lips, ever so slowly. “I definitely am glad that I didn’t know any of that back then. You were jailbait, for sure.”

I smile. “Are you saying that you wouldn’t have gone to jail for me?”

“No, just the opposite. I would have, without hesitation.” He noses my face to the side, tickling my neck with his facial hair.

“You would have made a pretty sexy jail bird though,” I say with a giggle. He pulls me close and overpowers me, which I find thrilling.

He kisses his way down my neck to my collarbone. “Maybe you should tell me some of your teenage fantasies. You know, that way I can make sure that you are really, really happy with me.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask, my pulse starting to race.

There is a wicked glint in his eyes. “Definitely. I want to make sure you’re as content with me as possible. You know what they say. Happy girl, happy world.”

He kisses his way down to my breasts, finding my nipples already standing at attention. He covers one soft pink areola with his mouth, sealing his lips over it and sucking hard.

White hot lightning shimmers through my whole body. I gasp, my back bowing. “You are wicked,” I whisper.

He releases my breast and gives me a huge grin. “I try my best.”

Then Jameson starts kissing his way downward, and we are lost in each other once again for hours and hours.

16

Jameson

After we spend a whole twenty four hours exhausting each other, hardly leaving Emma’s bedroom, I’m still starved for her. For her touch, yes. And her body.

But also for her laugh, for her way of excitedly telling stories. Her honesty. Her acceptance of me, flaws and all.

So I do what I’ve never done in my entire adult life… I actually call in sick to work. I call Forest and say that I’m not coming into Cure for the next two days. I don’t say that I’m sick, just that I’m not coming in.

I think he is a little startled by my announcement, but Forest just says okay. When I hang up the phone, I look at Emma and think,we need to go somewhere. Not somewhere far. And not for too long.

I just feel the need to be somewhere else with Emma. Somewhere that’s as wild and beautiful as she is, somewhere way outside the city.

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