The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) (10 page)

Heat creeps up my neck, but I don’t move and she rushes on, barely pausing for breath.

“And believe me when I say if you were anyone else we wouldn’t be having this conversation. My bandmates would bust something laughing if they heard
me
proposing something like friends with benefits, but when I’m around you…”

When she realizes I’m not responding, she trails off, tilting her head and peering up at me, but it feels like too much to look in her eyes right now, so I stare fiercely at the doorframe that I still irrationally want to punch.

She takes my arm by the elbow, my bicep jumping twitchily under her palm, and she shakes me playfully. “Most guys would take that as a compliment, you know,” she teases, still trying to catch my eyes. “Hey, Jer, come on.” She shakes me a little more. “Don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m just comfortable around you.” She rolls her eyes. “Apparently
too
comfortable considering I’m proposing things that I probably shouldn’t have.”

When she says that, something twinges in my chest and I inhale quickly through my nose.

“Hey,” she murmurs when our eyes finally meet, hers creased at the edges with worry. “My bad,” she insists, moving her hand from my arm to flatten it on my chest. And it’s probably nothing but an accident that it is right over my heart. “Not yours, okay?”

I’m being a jerk. It’s not even that big of a deal, probably, though it sure as hell feels like one. I make myself nod in response, though all I want is a minute to myself and maybe something cheap that I can break. Loudly.

She tilts her head, smiling a little sheepish smile at me. “Sore spot, huh?”

My breath comes out all at once in something that sounds like a laugh, and I shove a hand back through my hair, squeezing water out of it with restless fingers. “Yeah, guess so.”

“Look, it’s not that I wouldn’t go after you,” she says, shifting to lean a shoulder against the door, her fingers slipping away from me while a smile flirts with her eyes. “At fifty miles an hour with the grabby hands, probably.” She raises her hands in mockingly grasping claws, and I crack a smile in spite of myself. “You know, if the timing were different,” she adds, pressing her lips together in a way that she has that always makes her look tired.

It makes me want to put my arms around her, but I don’t.

“It’s not you…” she tells me, her eyes apologetic.

“It’s me.” I laugh harshly as I finish her cliché. “Yeah. Well.” I roll my shoulders in a tense shrug. “I don’t do that anymore. I don’t do casual.”

As soon as I say it, I know it’s the truth, though I’ve never thought about it like that before. And somehow, once the words are off my tongue, I feel lighter. Stronger.

“Fair enough,” Cali says, and there’s warmth to her eyes even though the angle of them is a little sad. “I should have guessed that about you,” she says, tapping a teasing finger against my bare chest.

“Maybe,” I say, to be polite, though I only just figured it out myself.

She bites her lip and peeks up at me through her eyelashes. “So, Roomie…you gonna kick me out for trying to sexually assault you?”

I burst out laughing, and it feels good.

“Nah.”

“Good.” She sidles by me so I have to turn to keep her in sight, her eyes darting to the bathtub as a tinge of pink touches her cheeks. “In that case, I think I’m going to take an, erm…shower. If you don’t mind.”

I shout with laughter, my stomach shaking so hard that I have to catch my towel as it works itself loose. I tuck it back into place, subsiding into a grin. Cali’s smiling sheepishly, her cheeks still a little flushed, and for some reason that makes me think about what it’s going to be like for me. Being on the other side of that thin door, knowing what she’s doing…

I swallow, my smile fading.

“You can borrow my ear buds,” she says pointedly, shooing me playfully toward the door. But suddenly I don’t want to go.

I reach out and wind an arm around her small waist, hauling her closer on a reckless impulse. Right now, I’d do just about anything to keep her from closing that door.

“Just because I’m off-limits doesn’t mean you have to be,” I whisper in her ear.

Her breath flutters against my neck, her hands tightening where they’re caught between us.

“Um...” she says, and my pulse jumps with a spike of hope.

“Besides, we’re out of hot water,” I tell her. “Remember? You took your shower before mine.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t stick,” she mutters, and my eyebrows leap.

“Wait, you were already…” I swallow. Jesus, that’s hot.

She shoves me, mortified. “Shut
up
.”

“Come on…” I hold her tight with one arm, letting the other hand drift daringly down to the curve of her bottom. “Let me help. I promise if you do, it’ll stick this time.”

She laughs, a little shakily. “What do you have that can combat home court advantage?”

“Attention span,” I murmur, and her hands jerk against me in response. I slip my fingers daringly under the hem of her tank top. “What do you say,
Roomie
?”

“God, yes,” she says emphatically and I grin and sweep her shirt up over her head.

Once I see her skin, I can’t slow myself down, even though I have a vague notion that this is a terrible idea. I tighten my arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground and she wraps her legs around me without hesitation, tipping her chin back to find my mouth. I duck my head without really thinking about it and touch my lips to her neck instead, not realizing until after I've done it that it was my kiss that made her realize I wanted something more than sex.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem right to do it again. Not yet.

Instead I carry her to the hotel bed she already claimed as hers, sweeping the covers back with one hand before I lower her onto the sheets. She pulls me down after her, biting playfully at my pectoral muscle, and my breath hisses out. I pause, wondering hazily if that’s too much, if I should stop her. I didn’t really think through the details of how this would all work.

I blink and reach for the button on her jeans. She lifts up helpfully before I even finish unzipping them, wiggling her hips to help me pull them down her legs. I laugh, because the motion is so gleeful, and she pinches me in the shoulder and pouts.

“Shut
up
, I’m finally getting laid. I’m allowed to be happy.”

“Only a little bit laid.” I smirk, and she rolls her eyes.

“Fine, only a little bit.”

I peel her jeans the rest of the way off and my breathing stutters to a standstill at the sight of the tiny blue stone glistening at her naval. The piercing is not big and gaudy like the plastic crap most girls wear, and I end up just staring dumbly at it because for jewelry, it’s sexy as all hell.

Cali shifts and she glances toward the switch for the lamp. “Should we hit the lights?” she asks self-consciously.

I blink at her. “Do we have to?”

Wow, super sensitive, Gilbert. Nice job.

“I mean,” I backpedal. “We can if you want to…”

Her face softens and she catches my arm, pulling me down on top of her. I’m only too happy to go, fully distracted by the sight of her bright purple bra and hipster panties, edged with flirty little polka-dot ribbons, not to mention all the smooth skin they
don’t
cover.

If I stay here for long, her whole body stretched out against mine and her neck warm against my cheek, I think my head is going to explode with the sheer, inconceivable joy of it all. So I drift lower, away from the temptation of her lips, away from the shadows that found her eyes when she said, “I can’t.”

I start with that incredible naval ring, placing a kiss squarely on the jewel before I smooth my lips down the flat plane of her belly, my heart in my throat the whole time because I can’t quite believe she’s not stopping me.

She squirms like it tickles but her hand comes up and cups the back of my neck, nails flirting with my hairline. My pulse leaps happily in response as she tries to tug me back up toward her mouth.

I move to kneel beside her legs instead, daring one look at her face. She’s smiling at me, her fingers trailing over my shoulder and down my bare skin. I catch them, narrowing my eyes at her teasingly.

“Hey!”

She looks appropriately contrite, but her face is bright with mischief and it’s impossible to argue with her when she looks like that so I just kiss the palm of her hand and release her fingers. I shouldn’t let her touch me because it will murder my resolve, but then again, every bit of this is probably a bad idea if I don’t want to end up caring about her even more than I already do.

But I don’t want to stop.

When my fingertips tuck under the waistband of her panties, she sucks in a breath, her stomach hollowing and something flashing across her face that’s different than before. More serious. I slow, brushing my lips across her lower belly to distract her. As I draw her panties down her legs, I close my eyes, because she seemed nervous about me seeing her.

But with my eyes closed, I’m even more aware of every tiny texture of her skin. I flatten my hand on her ribs and draw it slowly down her side, my breath catching when my palm crosses the smooth swell of her hip, bare where the line of her panties used to be. She must have shaved her legs in the shower she took before mine, because her legs are flawless. She shifts them restlessly, pushing into my touch.

I nuzzle my head up until it rests on her ribs, right below the line of her bra, and I keep my eyes closed as her sternum flutters beneath my cheek. She’s obviously turned on, but we haven’t known each other that long and I don’t want her to be all wrapped up inside her own head while we do this. I want her to feel safe with me.

Without opening my eyes, I lift my head and dare a kiss over the center closure of her bra. Her chest jumps under my lips and she threads her fingers through my hair, her breathing ragged. I can’t believe I’m here. I never figured during any of those long nights riding in the backseat of the Camaro that I would really ever get to touch her this way. That she would ever want me to.

“Jeremy…” she growls, and I can’t help but smile at the ferocity of her tone.

She catches my wrist and starts to guide my hand lower. I resist a little, just to mess with her.

“You in a hurry?” I whisper, pulling back a little so I can see her face.

She scowls at me, but her eyes are hazy and urgent and I clench my teeth at the sight. I want to listen to her losing control, to hear her beg me not to stop. It’s the sexiest thing in the world to me, to see a woman melting in pleasure and to know it’s because of what I can do for her.

“If you knew how long it had been, you wouldn’t ask me that…” she singsongs.

I chuckle and drop my head down to touch her collarbone. “Me too,” I tell her hoarsely, trying not to think of Bonnie. “Too long.”

She takes my hand a little further and I forget about everything.

My eyes squeeze closed again and I swallow, my heartbeat rattling down through my body until every pulse aches. I’m so close to forgetting everything I said I wouldn’t do and just shifting my weight over until she’s beneath me.

I know she’d let me.

Cali’s fingers stroke through my hair and she hugs my face tightly into the curve of her shoulder, and that’s what kicks my thoughts back onto the right side of the line. Vickie used to run her hands through my hair like that, her nails scraping sweetly across my scalp, but then she’d push me lower, putting my head exactly where she wanted it.