Sweet Southern Nights

Perfect.

“I know what you like.” Eva uncurled and padded toward the kitchen to grab her phone and the number for Gumbeaux’s. After ordering Jake’s extra hamburger, extra olives pizza, she slipped off to her room to change into a T-shirt and some shorts she’d made from an old pair of sweatpants. She even took out her contacts, washed her face and put on her glasses.

She returned to the living room and held out her hand.

Jake moved his head around to catch a play.

“Money.”

He looked up. “For...”

“Pizza. No freeloading.”

Jake reached for his wallet, pulling the pocket inside out and leaving it that way. Yeah, Jake wasn’t anything near Jamison French...other than being good-looking as the devil himself. He handed her a couple bills. “That’s too much,” she said, shoving a ten back at him.

“Keep it.”

“No, this isn’t a date. We go halfsies.”

“I’m drinking your beer. Keep it.”

Eva shrugged and tucked the money into her wallet, plopping onto the wing-backed chair far away from Jake. He watched the game until a commercial came on, and then he turned to her. He wrinkled his nose. “Why’d you change?”

“Because it’s just you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I don’t have to stay gussied up.”

“But you did for Jamison?”

He sounded almost jealous. Weird. “Of course. It was a date. Don’t you take a shower, brush your teeth and douse yourself in cologne when you go on a date?”

“I don’t douse myself.”

Eva laughed. “Well, I guess it’s better than smelling like gym socks.”

Jake faked outrage. “I hope you know my gym socks smell like a summer’s day.”

“Exactly. Ripe.”

A short while later the doorbell rang and Eva answered, taking the piping-hot pizzas and inhaling the deliciousness. Seconds later she grabbed paper plates and set the boxes on the coffee table, lifting the lids. Jake dug in, pulling out several pieces, dangling the stringy cheese into his mouth before taking the first bite.

“Ah, now that’s some good pizza,” he said, chewing and making an orgasmic face. Or at least that’s how she envisioned his orgasmic face. Yeah. She’d fantasized, in the small darkness of her room, snug beneath her down comforter, her mind going where she normally wouldn’t let it in the brightness of the day. “Come sit by me, Eva.”

He’d patted the couch next to him, offering her a nonwolfish smile.

“Why?” she asked, pulling out a slice of the classic pepperoni with extra cheese pizza that was her favorite.

“Because it’s stupid for you to sit in that uncomfortable chair over there. Your couch is squishy and comfy, and I won’t bite you...even after the event that shall not be named.”

Eva realized she was being silly. This was Jake. And even though he said he’d forgotten the kiss they’d shared...and even if he’d already brought it up as a shall not be named happening, she couldn’t see the TV all that well from the scratchy chair she’d inherited from her grandmother.

She got up and slumped down on the cushion next to him, chewing her pizza thoughtfully as the Notre Dame quarterback ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. “I don’t want to refer to that thing yesterday as anything. You said you’d forget it.”

For a few seconds Jake chewed. Finally, he said, “What if I don’t want to forget it?”

Eva’s belly flopped and it had nothing to do with the pizza. “Why wouldn’t you?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t expect it, but it was interesting.”

She sat her half-eaten pizza on the plate, rubbing her fingers against the paper towel she’d placed in her lap. “Interesting? No, it was insane. I don’t know why...ugh, you know, this is why I didn’t want to discuss it. Why I wanted to forget about it. Makes everything so weird between us.”

Jake tossed his empty plate on top of the pizza box. “Yes, it does, but still, I have questions that need answering.”

Eva sat up. “It was a dumb kiss. I don’t know why I did it. Just drop it.” Of course she knew why she’d kissed him. She’d dreamed about it for three years, yearning for his body against her, almost desperate to take one little taste of Jake.

But he didn’t have to know that.

“No,” he said, wiping his hands on a napkin.

“No?”

“See, thing is, that was a crappy kiss. How can I let you walk around thinking that subpar kiss was indicative of what I’m capable of? That would be...a travesty.” He reached over and dragged her into his lap, turning her so she tipped à la Scarlett O’Hara into his arms.

“Jake,” she said, struggling against him even as something way deep down inside her screamed “hell, yeah.”

His eyes held devilment, humor and something deeper. Almost tender. He lowered his head, rubbing his soft lips against hers. She immediately stilled at the sweetness, the hand she pushed at his chest turning to knot his T-shirt.

He lifted his head and crooked an eyebrow. “That comparable?”

Eva didn’t have words so she nodded.

“Not good enough,” he said, dipping his head again, settling his lips against hers with gentle but insistent pressure.

Open to me.

His tongue traced the top of her bottom lip as his free hand slid up to her face, thumb tracing her jaw. Eva let go of his T-shirt and moved her hand to wrap around his neck. She opened her mouth and Jake delivered, his tongue sliding against hers.

He tasted like pizza—warm, yeasty and so damn good. Desire unwound in her belly like a hose slipping from the fire engine, spiraling low in her pelvis. That sweet, achy throb pulsed as he shifted her in his arms, his kiss softening before becoming demanding. Finally, after several seconds of kissing the daylights out of her, he used his teeth to nip at her lower lip, tugging it before lifting his head.

Their eyes met, their breaths mingled.

Jake gave her a triumphant smile.

Then he tipped her up, setting her in her original spot. He grabbed his beer and took a swig, throwing an arm over the back of the couch. “There.”

Eva knew her eyes were as wide as the pepperoni pieces on the pizza slice she’d abandoned. “What the hell was that?”