Page 45 of Unrealistic Expectations

“It would have killed me if I felt this way about every woman I’ve had sex with. You’re an addiction, Jessica Gallagher. It’s a good thing you never gave me the time of day in college.”

“Why’s that?” She’d pushed his jacket over his shoulders and was working on the buttons of his shirt now. Once she got his pants off, he would be incapable of explaining why he was glad she’d looked right through him when they were younger.

“I would have wanted to do nothing but eat your sweet pussy, all day, every day. I never would have finished grad school.”

“Neither would I.”

“I would have been gone for you.”

—

Shirtless Galvin Baker never would have been in love with her in college. She never would have allowed that, and she knew that his sweet words were part of his whole appeal. But they were so sweet that she couldn’t believe they were real. A big part of her wanted to believe that what they had between them was more than just transcendent sexual chemistry. He’d certainly seemed upset when she’d let it slip that she planned to break things off tonight.

And she hadn’t planned to be quite so severe about it. She’d been trying to give him the option. She knew they would end eventually—rebound relationships that started out as fake dating didn’t have staying power outside of fairy tales and romance novels. But she didn’t want him to look back and feel resentful of her for keeping him on the hook for too long.

But he’d said he didn’t care about his reputation, and there was no PR value to him getting a hotel room for the two of them that night. Maybe he just wanted to have a few drinks at the awards dinner—with his parents, it would be warranted—without worrying about driving, but he didn’t need to get a penthouse for that. And if he didn’t want to spend any more time with her, he certainly could have put her in a cab.

Why was she having such a problem taking him at his word? He’d never lied to her, and there was no reason to believe that he would start now. But she’d taken Luke at his word for a decade and a half, and he’d disappeared on her. She’d trusted him with the most precious parts of herself, and it hadn’t mattered in the end. All the trust and love she’d poured into that relationship didn’t matter in the end. He’d thrown it away like it was worthless. Like she was worthless.

And now she couldn’t believe Galvin when he said he cared about her more than what she’d promised to do for him.

“Unless you’re not that into me—”

She’d been silent for so long that he was doubting that she wanted to be here with him. And that wasn’t the truth. She wanted to be here with him, but part of her was still living in the past. And she couldn’t tell him why she was reticent to believe him. He’d never liked Luke, and she’d noticed him wincing whenever she mentioned him. She didn’t want to bring her ex into this room, even though he was lurking in the general vicinity.

Instead of dragging Luke into the room, she said, “I’m into you, but I don’t know if I’m good for you.”

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, making it stick out in all sorts of directions. She wanted to walk over to him and smooth it for him, but she wasn’t sure she could without falling into that bed with him. It would be better if she left now instead of deepening their connection with more sex. The more she allowed herself to touch him, the harder it would be to stop.

“You’re the best thing for me. The human equivalent of milk.” He walked toward her. “You do a body good.”

She couldn’t help herself. That made her smile. He made her smile without even trying. She could really fall in love with him. And wouldn’t that be a total disaster?

“We should take a minute to think about this.” There was zero passion or belief behind those words. She wanted nothing more than to fall into him and forget that anything else existed outside of this room.

“Every time I give you time to think about this, you try to run away from me. You keep trying to minimize what we have together.” He rubbed a hand across his face. When he met her gaze again, he actually looked pissed at her. “I don’t think you understand how rare it is to have what we have. I’ve never felt like this with anyone else. The possibility of negative PR is not a good enough reason to give this up. I’m not giving you up.”

Him saying that broke something inside her. She would worry about what everyone thought of her and them tomorrow. Right now, she walked back across the room, lifted up on her toes, and covered his mouth with hers. His lips still held the faint taste of her and lit her up as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He grabbed her hips and pulled her close to his groin. She squirmed against him, and he growled into her mouth.

Before she’d gotten to know him, she never would have expected him to be such an intense lover. When it was just the two of them, the witty and urbane mask he showed to the rest of the world completely fell away, and he was almost a different person. He was growly and feral at the same time he was sensual and slow. Maybe it was only this way between the two of them and he’d kept the mask on with past lovers, but she couldn’t imagine giving him notes on the way he made her feel and the things he did to her body—much less making a video disparaging him in public.

Even though he hadn’t come yet, he didn’t rush her. He kept kissing her while he danced his fingers down her lower back to her zipper. He lowered it slowly, stroking her skin as he revealed each hint of skin.

“You’re so soft, but you have this spine of steel,” he said. “You don’t have to hold the weight of the world. I know you want to protect me but losing you would be worse than anything.”

She placed a kiss on his bare throat and moved her fingers to his belt. “I wanted to protect you the way you protected me from my terrible mother.”

He moved away from her enough so she could get his pants and boxer briefs off and then sat down to get his shoes off. He looked up at her to find her staring at his cock. Her skin flushed even more. “Dress off.”

He couldn’t ever know how she reacted to him taking charge in the bedroom. She never would have asked that from another lover. The first few guys she’d slept with had been in college—they’d been boys really. And Luke didn’t want to take charge of anything in the realm of their relationship. Something that had made him attractive to her—the ability to steer her life and his—had made her respect him less in the end. He hadn’t felt like a partner, even when it came to sex. And she wouldn’t have thought that she liked being ordered around.

But when it came to Galvin, she liked it a whole lot. She shimmied out of her dress. It didn’t allow for a bra, so she was totally naked.

He surprised her by pulling her close and kissing her belly and the underside of her breasts. “Are you sure we shouldn’t get down to business?” She pointed at his dick. “That must be painful.”

He chuckled against her skin, and it sent a shiver through her whole body. “It’s a sweet kind of pain.”

“Still, I think we should—”

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