Page 22 of Unrealistic Expectations

She gasped into his mouth when he spun them around and pushed her body against the door. She’d softened against him until she felt molten and boneless, and that fed his craving for more of her.

He didn’t want her to think he was trying to fuck and run, so he whispered, “We’re not going to have sex tonight.”

“We’re not?” she asked on a moan. He brushed the sides of her torso with his hands, trying to memorize the shape of her. Goose bumps appeared on her bare arms, and he kissed the biceps closest to him.

“Tonight, I just wanted to kiss you. And I’m going to want to kiss you more. In public so that people will know that you’re mine, and in private just for you and for me.”

She didn’t respond, and maybe that meant that she needed more convincing. So he crushed her mouth with his. She matched him and they were soon writhing against the door, pressing their bodies into one another like the horny millennial teens from their previous lives, trying desperately not to break an abstinence-only purity pledge they’d signed in health class after someone came in and told them that any sex before marriage caused certain death.

His dick was so hard that he had to grit his teeth every time it came in contact with her belly. “Jessica, you’re killing me.”

“I kind of want to kill you right now.” Her voice was a growl, and he felt the charge of it in the base of his spine. Everything about her affected him. And he liked almost everything about her, even the stuff he teased her about. She was so buttoned up but also held back this feral thing inside of her. “I’ve never been so turned on in my life by a kiss.”

He chuckled. “And the dry humping. Please don’t forget the dry humping.”

“Yeah, but we’re not having sex, and so now you need to leave so I can go in my room and make myself come.”

His knees went weak when she said that. “You expressing your needs is so incredibly hot.”

“What do you need right now?” It was even hot when she asked him what his needs were.

He sighed and pulled back from her slightly, putting his hands on her shoulders. He took a moment to take in her swollen lips and pink cheeks, so he could call it up for his own self-care when he got home. “I really need to leave right now before I break my promise, drop to my knees, and eat your cunt.”

She started at his coarse words, but then smiled at him. “You know, you’re a dirty boy. And I like it.”

In a distinctly not dirty-boy move, he leaned in and kissed her forehead, tasting the sweat on her skin. He wanted to taste her everywhere so badly that it hurt. But he didn’t say that to her. He was going to savor her and take her on every surface of her condo and his home.

They were going to make their fake relationship look real, because it was real. And tonight, he’d proven that his real feelings weren’t entirely one-sided.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Galvin wouldn’t tell her what they were doing for a second date, but he’d sent her an address and text asking whether she had any food allergies. He hadn’t texted her about their kiss and heavy petting session against her door a few days before, which she supposed made sense. They were two consenting adults who were attracted to each other, and they’d made out a little bit. Twice.

That didn’t mean it would happen again, and it wasn’t worth obsessing over. But she couldn’t stop thinking about it. In between client sessions all week, she would drift off and remember the feel of his lips against hers, the urgent touch of his hands on her body through her clothes. Every time those few moments drifted into her mind, a flush of heat suffused her entire body. The lady at the coffee shop she bought her ten a.m. latte at even asked her if she had a fever.

She wasn’t sick, physically, but her mental health was questionable right now. She was too old to be having giddy feelings about a dude—especially one as fickle as Galvin. She hadn’t even had crushes like this in high school. That was because she’d never been able to stay at one high school long enough to form an all-encompassing crush that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard she tried to focus on other things. Her mother’s lifestyle hadn’t allowed for her to get too attached to any place or person.

The day after the kiss, she’d tried to teach herself to knit using a YouTube tutorial. That was a failure because there was a hot guy teaching the tutorial, and his muscular hands made her think of Galvin palming her ass while she dry-humped him.

She also tried going to the gym but got distracted when a guy who looked a little bit like Galvin was doing squats and grunting. She couldn’t help herself, it sounded like sex.

And she wasn’t even going to get started on how often she’d had to relieve herself since the kiss. She hadn’t been lying to Galvin when she told him that she was going to masturbate as soon as he left. By the time she was done, she’d had to charge her vibrator. Some of her recently divorced clients described a similar level of horniness as soon as they separated from their partners, and she’d read some literature. But it was nothing in comparison to feeling wave after wave of lust for someone new after over a decade of trying to keep an ember alive with someone she knew well.

It got her thinking that maybe this experience would make her a better and more empathic professional. She didn’t talk about her own personal experiences in session, but maybe she would be able to hold space for more messiness with more authenticity once she’d navigated this for herself.

That was all she could say to herself by way of comfort as she got pants feelings when her Uber driver hit a pothole on the way to her date.

The address turned out to be another one of the hottest restaurants in town.

Galvin certainly knew how to navigate a hard-to-get reservation.

But when she walked into the restaurant, the dining room was empty. She checked her phone to make sure she was in the right place, but a host appeared and said, “Right this way, Ms. Gallagher.”

Jessica’s curiosity was piqued. If Galvin had rented out an entire Michelin-starred restaurant for their second date in a fake relationship, this was far too much. And it wouldn’t do anything for their plan of dating for the ’gram. All of a sudden, she was more nervous than turned on. As she followed the host through the dining room and toward what she assumed was the kitchen, she put one hand on her chest and tried to breathe deeply.

By the time the host opened the swing doors and motioned her through, she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to pass out. All of this was so unlike her—the lust, the giddiness, the thinking about a stupid hot kiss—and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

But she forgot about all of her misgivings when Galvin was suddenly in front of her, grasping her arms and pulling her in for a kiss. She braced herself for an onslaught, but it was a light kiss. And then he pulled back and looked at her quizzically. “Are you okay?”

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