Page 35 of Bad Behavior

10

Emma

As I walk up the steps to my house, arm in arm with Jameson, I can’t help but grin. I wouldn’t dare say it out loud to him, but anyone who saw us right now would definitely thing that we were going back to my house to screw. Or even more than that, a bystander might assume that we’re dating.

I giggle a little at that. The idea of big, bad Jameson showing up to take me on a date is ridiculous.

…isn’t it?

“Isn’t what, Emma?” he says. I didn’t realize I was speaking aloud, and I flush. “Have you got your keys?”

“Don’t need them.” I fling the front door open. I step inside, grinning like a maniac. “Ta-da!”

He instantly scowls. “Jesus, Em. You two leave your front door unlocked all the time?”

“Yep. Evie lost her key last week. Don’t tell any big, scary men, though.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him as he closes the door behind himself.

“That’s going to have to change,” he says. “Not tonight, though. Can we go to your living room?”

“No no no,” I say, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward my bedroom. “Come in here. There’s an album that I really, really need to listen to right now.”

“Can’t you listen to it in the living room?” he asks.

I turn a corner and stop dead, making him run into me. “Ohhhh, no. There’s no sound system in there.”

He rolls his eyes. “Okay.”

I continue to pull on his arm, dragging him into my bedroom. Like the rest of the house, my bedroom is tiny. It just fits the bed and a chest of drawers, with an itty bitty closet to match. Jameson has seen my bedroom before obviously, but when we enter the room, he eyes it uncertainly.

“Sit,” I command him, pointing at the bed. “I have the album somewhere.”

He sits on the side of the bed, looking rigid and uncomfortable. I giggle as I reach for my ipod on the desk, which is hooked up to a bluetooth speaker.

“What’s so funny?” he asks.

“Mmm? Oh. I’m just laughing at how you’re sitting on my bed like you haven’t been naked as the day you were born before in here.” I queue up my favorite m83 album, which is appropriate music for the moment, I think.

“Hmm,” is his only comment. When I turn around, he is looking at me suspiciously. “I love this album.”

“Really? I do too!” I grin, walking around to the other side of the bed. “It’s so like… dreamy and atmospheric and intense, all at the same time.”

I sit down, peeling my kitten heels off. I sit back on my bed, stretching out and sighing. “This is sooooo nice.”

And it’s true. I feel great, like thousands of little lightning bugs are just beneath my skin, but in a good way. Stretching feels good. Laying still feels good. Everything just feels good.

I bite my lower lip. I want to ask Jameson to give me a mini massage, but I don’t want him to freak out. Actually, I want to jump his bones, but then he would for sure call Asher to come take care of me.

I would way rather have Jameson as a babysitter than my big brother.

Jameson turns his head to look at me. “Doing okay over there?”

I smile wanly, feeling insanely relaxed. “Sure, I’m okay. I was just wondering how to ask you to rub my shoulders without being weird, that’s all.”

That makes him chuckle. “Let me grab you a glass of water first. Then we’ll talk about shoulder rubs some more.”

“Oooookay,” I reply in a singsong voice. I hear him get up and leave the room.

I close my eyes, flinging my arms out wide. I feel the bed beneath me, the cotton comforter and sheets super soft, the pillow just firm enough. It’s pleasant. The whole world seems so nice right now, capable of sending nothing but good things my way. One of my hands drifts to the short hem on my leg, feeling the difference between the linen of my dress and the smooth skin underneath.

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