Abbi Glines - Misbehaving

He stepped back and opened the door for me. I walked through, keeping my head down. Should I say something? Or was he going to stay inside without a word?

The door closed behind me. I spun around to see Jason outside. He nodded toward the parking lot. “Can we talk?”

All I could do was nod. Even if I should be leaving here and protecting myself.

We walked over to his Hummer. This time there was no limo, no driver. Just him. He opened the door for me, and I climbed in, realizing that this was something Krit had never done. Opened my car door. I had missed it.

I thanked him, and he just smiled before closing the door and walking over to the driver’s side. The Hummer smelled like him. I breathed in deeply and enjoyed it before he opened the door and climbed in.

“Were you leaving?” he asked.

I turned to look at him, and seeing his face only made my heart speed up. His gaze was focused on me, and just being this close to him made everything seem better.

“Yeah,” I replied, not sure how much I should tell him.

He glanced out the window, then back at me. “Is he going to come looking for you?”

I shook my head. “No. We ended that . . . whatever it was.”

His eyes widened and his shoulders visibly relaxed. “Why?”

Did he want me to tell him it was because of him? Not that I would. I shrugged. “We don’t fit, I guess,” I replied.

Jason nodded like he agreed. I bit back a smile.

“Where were you headed?”

“Home,” I replied honestly, even if it made me sound pathetic.

“Could I convince you to come back to my place?”

God, how I wanted to say yes. He could convince me of anything if he tried hard enough. But the regret that would come when he left and didn’t call . . . The pain was something too fresh. I wasn’t ready for that again. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Jason leaned toward me and kept his intense gaze focused on me. “Why?”

“Because you’ll make me miss you.” I said it before I could stop myself.

He reached over and touched my hand. “That’s why I want to talk. The way we left things . . . I don’t like it.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to misunderstand him.

“I miss you, Jess,” he said in a husky whisper. That was my undoing.

“Okay.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Okay . . . you’ll go back to my place?”

I nodded and he let out a sigh. “Good. I was trying to weigh my options and abduction seemed risky.” The grin on his face brought the first real smile to mine in a week.

JASON

I had never been more relieved to get out of a car in my life. If Jess crossed her legs one more time in that ridiculous excuse for a skirt, I was going to lose my mind. Damn, why did she have to be so fucking sexy?

I tried not to look at her as we climbed the steps to the house. The outfit she was wearing was more adventurous than anything I’d ever seen her wear. How the hell she’d walked out of the club alone was beyond me.

I opened the door and she walked inside. The staff was gone for the night since Jax wasn’t in residence. I liked it better alone. Especially now that I had Jess here.

“You wanted to talk,” Jess said, not walking any farther into the house. She seemed nervous now. I wasn’t sure what had changed from the car to here. She had been fine in the Hummer.

“Yeah, uh, not here. We could go outside.” I stopped when she started shaking her head.

“No, let’s not,” she said softly.

The last time we’d been outside was memorable for both of us. She was right. That was a bad idea. I needed to focus. “Uh, yeah. Let’s go . . .” Where the hell to take her? “Downstairs. It’s more comfortable down there. Less formal,” I finally said.

Jess nodded, and I started toward the stairs. Hearing the click of her heels on the marble floor made it difficult not to turn around and look at her legs. Not that I didn’t have a very clear mental image of them.

I started down the stairs and Jess stopped. Glancing back at her, I noticed she was gripping the railing tightly and having some internal battle with herself.

“Jess?”

She looked at me and shook her head. “I can’t. I shouldn’t have come here.”

What the hell? I walked back up to the step underneath her. “Why?”

She took a deep breath. “Because—we will—we will—do stuff, and you’ll leave for Boston and I’ll be here and I’ll be sad and I’ll be alone and I can’t do that again,” she said in one long, rushed sentence, then turned to leave. I reached out and grabbed her before she could get away.

“Don’t leave. That’s why I want to talk. Yeah, I’m gonna have to leave, but I want to come back. Like I’m doing now. Like I did two weeks ago. I want to come see you. And I sure as hell don’t want you to be sad.”

She got very still and stopped trying to move away from me. “What do you mean, you want to come back?”

“Exactly what I said. I want to see you. I miss you.”

She didn’t look at me. “But why? You’re dating Star. Why do you want to come here?”

Those stupid fucking pictures. I shouldn’t have let them take those. I had witnessed firsthand how pictures like those had almost ended Jax and Sadie’s relationship. “She’s a friend.”

“Oh” was all she said.

“Please come downstairs and talk to me,” I pleaded, sliding a hand around her waist.

She tensed at first, then seemed to melt back into me.

“Okay,” she finally said after a moment.

I didn’t take my hand off her this time for fear she’d decide to run again. We made it downstairs and I directed her to the closest sofa to get her comfortable.

She looked around the place. “It’s nice down here,” she said.

It was where Jax and I had hung out when we were younger. He had been limited to our small portion of the beach when we visited, so we had spent a lot of time down here playing video games and pool.

“I haven’t been down here in a while,” I admitted.

She glanced down at her hands, then finally up at me. “So, you want to visit me,” she said slowly, as if trying to understand what I had been saying.

“Yeah, I do. A relationship would be impossible, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still date. I can come visit. I can bring you to visit me if you want to. I just . . . This thing with us not talking sucks. I miss you.”

JESS

A relationship would be impossible. That’s all I heard. Everything else he said didn’t make sense. What was it he wanted? A booty call?

“So you just want to hook up when you’re available and do what? Have sex?” I asked bitterly.

His eyes went wide and he shook his head. “No! God, no. That’s not what I mean. I meant just . . . date. The sex, well, yeah, it’s amazing, but that isn’t what I came here for. I wanted to see you.”

Just not in a relationship. He wanted to be free to go on dates with Star and whatever A-lister came his way and also come see me. Yes, this pissed me off, but it shouldn’t have. He never promised me anything. Just because I wanted more didn’t mean he had to. He liked me. He wanted to date me. I was used to the possessive-type guys who wouldn’t share, so casually dating wasn’t something I had done much of.

Seeing him with other women would hurt. But was it worth it to have him, even if only for a little while? Could I do that? Maybe I needed to. Maybe it was time I learned how to date different people, to leave my options open. It wasn’t like I was looking for marriage and babies.

“Okay,” I finally said. This would probably come back to haunt me, but I wasn’t willing to let him go.

A slow smile spread across his entirely too handsome face. He’d gotten what he wanted: me and whoever else. I guess he had something to smile about.

“Okay. You’re open to seeing me when we can? And we can talk on the phone,” he added.

I was going to the long-distance-nonrelationship-while-in-college place. That made me sound weak. For giving in to something like this. It was as if I had settled for less. But I wasn’t ready to let him go. Not yet. Maybe soon I would be, but I wanted Jason Stone. Damn him.

His gaze dropped to my feet. “You’re wearing the boots I bought you,” he said with a pleased grin.

I nodded and swung the leg out that I had crossed. “Yep.”

His eyes trailed up my legs and stopped to spend extra time on the tops of my thighs. I was dressed like a hooker. I knew it. I had done it out of stupidity. Of course he was looking.

“I’ll wear more clothes the next time,” I told him, trying to make a joke out of it.

His gaze jerked back to meet mine. “Sorry. I was, uh . . .”

“You were checking out my short skirt. I know. I was in a mood tonight.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “And that mood would be to see how insane you can drive every male you come in contact with?”

I shrugged and leaned back on the sofa. “Pretty much,” I replied honestly.

Jason laughed. “You succeeded.”

“Thanks. I think,” I replied.

He leaned closer to me and picked up a strand of hair from my shoulder, then began playing with it. “I love your hair,” he said as he let it fall through his fingers.

I tried to say thanks, but I couldn’t manage to form the words.

“I want to kiss you. But I don’t want you to think that’s why you’re here,” Jason said.

My heart was speeding up, and I wanted to sigh from the way it felt to have him run his fingers through my hair. “I wouldn’t think you brought me here just for a kiss,” I assured him.

He leaned forward and nuzzled my neck, inhaling me. “If I kiss you, I’m gonna want more. We’ll do a lot more than just kissing,” he whispered.