Forcing Gravity (24 page)

He took a few minutes getting his disguise in place before he looked over at me. “How ridiculous do I look?”

He looked like he was trying to hide, and that was a problem. He’d stick out like a sore thumb, especially since it was night time, and he was donning sunglasses.

Without responding, I reached into my console and grabbed another pair of sunglasses tha
t I’d stashed in there
and slid them on. Then I reached back and lifted my own hood over my head.

“There,” I said. “Now we both look ridiculous.”

Jase grinned. “Thank you,” he said, as he leaned over and kissed me, which immediately sent sparks shooting from my stomach to other parts of my body that only he seemed to be able to ignite.

When he pulled back, he stayed relatively close to me, and I could see the open wound under his eye. I reached out and touched underneath it with my thumb, rubbing softly the skin that hadn’t been marred by Ethan’s fist.

“We should get this cleaned,” I suggested.

“Will you do it for me?”
he asked softly.

I swallowed hard, my heart pounding faster in my chest as I nodded once. Jase turned to look back at the entrance to the dorm.

“Now or never,” he said, as he opened the door.

I met him at the hood of the car where his arm went around me, pulling me close. Keeping his head down, we walked
across the parking lot and
up the stairs
to the entrance to my dorm.

“Hey Logan,” one of the girls I knew from my floor called to me. “What’s with the sunglasses?”

I smiled at her. “Fraternity social,” I answered, and she just nodded. “My date’s a little drunk, so we’re just going to head upstairs.”

The girl, whose name escaped me, just nodded in agreement, as if ac
cepting my answer at face-value, but I heard her whisper something to her friend.

“You’d better get him upstairs before anyone sees him,” another girl said, and my heart skipped a beat. How the hell had they recognized Jase? Next to me I felt him stiffen.

Knowing my face was flushed, I turned to face the pretty brunette who was watching me carefully. I recognized her as the other girl’s roommate and wished I was better with names.

“Why is that?” I asked crisply.

“Because it’s after hours.
No boys allowed,” she
said sincerely, and I let out the
breath I’d been holding. “Make sure Riley doesn’t catch you.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the tip.”

Fortunately, w
e didn’t pass many other people on the way to my room, but Jase still kept his head down and shuffled along beside me. He didn’t say a word until we got to my room.
Then he took off the
sunglasses and hat and proceeded to walk the room, looking at the little details that made up my life.

I removed my own sunglasses and dropped my hood before going over to my desk to retrieve the small first-aid kit my dad had insisted I pack.

Jase
had stopped at the foot of my bed. H
e looked back at me in awe.

“That’s an amazing board,” he said, putting one knee
on my bed so he could reach my vintage
surfb
oard
in the corner of the room
. He ran his hand along the side of it.

“It was my dad’s,” I said, going to stand beside him. I looked up to see that his hair was mussed by the hat he’d worn and reached up to smooth it down. “It’s the board he competed with when he was in high school.”

“Really?”
Jase marveled
, still admi
ring the contours of the
board.

I nodded. “Yeah,
he was really good. H
e won some
regional
events while he was in college and probably would have continued on to do more, but . . .”

I drifted off, not sure how to tell him that my dad had quit riding competitively because I was born
,
and my mother was busy chasing her dreams
,
so he’d let his die. It wasn’t a fun story to tell.

“But what?”
Jase asked, looking down at me.

I shook my head.
“
It’s nothing.
” I unintentionally punctuated my statement with a huge yawn.

“You’re tired,” Jase surmised, and I nodded.

I felt bad for inviting him back to my room when all I really wanted to do was go to bed.

“Then let’s sleep,” he said.

I started for a moment. “You – you want to stay the night?”

Jase gave me his trademark sm
ile and took a step closer
. “Is that okay?”

My heart started pounding in my chest as I looked from
Jase’s
intense gaze to my small twin bed and back to him. “Sure,” I said, not even convincingly
,
to myself.

I’d never slept
in bed
with a boy before, well, besides Ethan and Garrett, but they didn’t count. I wasn’t attracted to them, so I wasn’t hyperaware of them being so close. And close was what Jase and I would be if he slept in my bed. I considered offering to sleep in Henley’s bed,
but in reality, the idea of waking up in
Jase’s
arms seemed sort of appealing – that is if I could sneak
in
to the bathroom and brush my teeth before he woke up.

“Are you really sure?” he asked. “Because I can ask Freddie to swing by and get me if you’re not.”

The idea of Freddie and his gaggle of half-naked females taking Jase away from me suddenly w
iped out any fears I had of him
staying the night.

I forced a smile on my face.
“No, stay.
I’d like that. But before we go to sleep, can you le
t me clean your cut and get
some ice
for your jaw?
”

“My jaw’s fine,” he said, and I knew he was just trying to be
macho.

“But your eye is swelling,” I said, nodding toward the area above his cut that I was sure would be black and blue the next day.

“It is?” He rushed to the full-length mirror on Henley’s side of the room. “Shit.”

“It’s not that bad,” I insisted, moving to stand next to him.

“It will be,” he said, shaking his head. “
Lelani
is going to kill me.”

“
Lelani
?”

Who the hell was that?

“My make-up girl,” he said, shaking his head in annoyance at his almost perfect reflection.

“Oh,” I said, remembering he was filming the next day. Now I was even more pissed at Ethan.

“
It’s
fine,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. He headed toward the bathroom we shared with the girls next door. “Bathroom’s in here, right?”

Before I could stop him, he opened the door, and I heard
a
shriek. “Oh, sorry,” he mumbled closing the door in a rush. He turned to face me, wide-eyed. “There was a girl in there.”

“Was she decent?” I asked, suddenly panicked that he’d walked in on Whitney or
Tracy half-naked. They should have locked the door
to our room from the inside
.

Jase shook his head
, still slightly stunned. “She was w
alking in at the same time I was
.”

“Shit.
I’ll be right back.”

I walked out into the hallway to the outer door of Whitney and Tracy’s room and knocked. Whitney flung the door open, and the excitement on her face was palpable. “Get in here!”
she
shriek-whispered.

“Hey Whit, you guys okay?”

She nodded eagerly, her eyes dancing in delight. “We’re great,” she said, looking back at Tracy who was perched on her bed grinning.

“Hey Logan,” she called, grinning at me conspiratorially. “Who’s the guy?”

“Just a friend,” I said, waving them off. “I’m sorry he burst into the bathroom. I forgot to tell him to knock.”

Tracy grinned so big I thought her face would explode. “He doesn’t have to knock. Logan, what the hell is Jason Brady doing in your room?!”

I sighed. So she had recognized him. Dammit.

“What are you talking about?” I asked
, feigning ignorance. “That’s not Jason Brady.”

Whitney and Tracy laughed.

“Okay, whatever you say, Logan,
”
Whitney said as Tracy continued to laugh.

“It’s not,” I insisted.

“Damn, I wish he’d been wearing less. I’d kill to see his abs up close and personal,” Tracy lamented.

Okay, so I ha
d to admit, she had a point.
Jase’s
abs
were
spectacular. But that was so not the point.

“Guys, he’s not who you think he is, okay? He’s just a friend, and his name is Keith.”

“Okay, whatever you say,” Tracy said.

“Tell Jason we said goodnight,” Whitney chimed in, and I just shook my head and let myself out of the
ir
room.

Jase was sitting on my bed when I
returned to my
room.
“Everything okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, they’re fine.
Crazy, but fine.
Come on. Let’s get your cleaned up.” I sat next to him on the bed, the first aid kit open next to me and opened an antiseptic wipe. “This will probably sting, okay?”

Jase nodded, pursed his full lips and squeezed his eyes shut in preparation for the pain I was about to unleash on him. Instead of dabbing the wipe to his cut, I took advantage of his closed eye and leaned
forward to press my lips to his. They were
so inviting and plump
that I couldn’t not kiss them
.

It took a few seconds for Jase to react, but soon he was kissing me back. “That didn’t sting at all,” he said, against my lips.

I smiled. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“I’m so glad,” he said before he pressed his tongue to my lips, seeking entry
into my mouth
.

He pushed the first-aid kid to the floor
, spilling the contents,
and pulled me down next to him so we were lying side by side as he continued to kiss
me
. His hand went to my hip, pulling me flush against his body as his lips continue their measured assault on mine, my concentration growing thinner with each passing moment.

“Your cut,” I protested when his lips moved to my jawline. “I need to clean it.”

“
It’s
fine,” he said, kissing a trail from my jaw to my ear where his lips met my earlobe and sucked gently.

I let my head fall back, so he moved his hand behind my neck to keep me steady.

“You looked so amazing tonight,” he murmured against my throat, and I knew he must be delusional.

“Compared to what?” I asked, my confidence leaving me again.

“Compared to every other girl at the party,” he said. “Had I known you were there, I wouldn’t have talked to anyone else.”

“But I wasn’t wearing anything sexy,” I said, as his hand moved under my shirt to cup my breast.

“You’re sexy no matter what you wear,” he said, pulling back to look in my eyes.

Then h
is hand moved under my bra, his fingers seeking out my nipple where they tugged and pulled and massaged it, driving me insane with sudden need.
I let out a gasp of surprise and delight, and Jase smiled, his
gaze still locked on mine
.

“Jase, I don’t think I’m as experienced as most
of the
girls you’ve been with,” I said then, hoping it did
n’t
ruin the mood, but he needed to know that sex wasn’t in the cards that night.

“That’s okay,” he said, but his hand slid out from under my bra.

“Why did you stop?” I asked, looking up at him.

He looked taken aback. “I thought you wanted me to.”

I shook my head. “No, I just wanted you to know that about me. That’s all. You didn’t have to stop.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Positive. I’ll let you know when to stop.” He didn’t move, so I sat up just enough to remove my shirt and my bra. “Please continue.”

His eyes drifted over my bare chest for a few beats before he sat up, removed his own shirt and tossed it to the floor. I ran my hands up the front of his chest, feeling the hard planes of his abs and
pecs
. Good God the boy was sexy. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him.

Jase gazed at me thoughtfully as my hands ran over his chest, breathing evenly, before he took in one deep breath. I slid my hand around to his shoulder blades and pulled him down so we were touching, skin on skin, and guided his lips to mine.