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“My girl,” I tell her, doing the same, tracing my finger along the edges of the charm. Funny how something so small can be so symbolic.
She leans over, placing her lips on mine, giving me a short kiss before saying the two most amazing words I could ever want to hear. “Your girl.”
The way the world seems to correct its axis when she says that… Like everything clicks into place. Everything that wasconfusing before now makes sense in that one microsecond, one brush of lips, air moving over vocal cords.
“Spend the night tonight,” I whisper.
“Cade…”
“Please. Tonight. Your place is being renovated anyway, right?”
She looks away.
“You don’t have to be scared, Charley.”
She nods, throat working. “Tonight,” she confirms.
16
Charley
Cade and I stumble into his room. “Hey, remember when the waiter dribbled your drink into your chicken Alfredo?” he laughs, interlocking our fingers.
My full-belly chuckle fills the air. “Remember when your last bite of meatball made a trail of sauce down your shirt, hit the floor, and rolled all the way against my shoe?”
He throws his head back, and I swear, there’s nothing sexier than Cade alive and free. His laugh is a happy musical that tunes my body.
“How are you so goddamned perfect?” he breathes, pulling me to him. “As dates go, it might be considered a disaster.”
“But it’ll make for a good story,” I reassure him.
“Confession?”
“Hmm?”
“I was too busy picturing you naked on my bed to eat my meatballs properly.”
“Your poor balls.”
His grin nearly takes up his whole face, making his eyes crinkle at the corners. “It’s this necklace,” he says, fingering the charm.
“Such a caveman…Me have woman now.”
He kisses my neck, and I inhale sharply.
“You think I marked you.”
“I know you did,” I tease.
“Good thing you fucking like it.”
“I fucking love it.” I unbutton his shirt, starting at the bottom so I can splay my hands over his abs.
He lifts the skirt of my dress, running his hand up my thigh until he cups my ass. “I want you so bad, Sunshine, but I don’t want to pressure you.”
It’s clear what he means, what the whole date, the necklace, is culminating toward. I’ve tried not to think about it all night, but the anticipation settled between my legs like a nagging sensation that needs release.
He kisses me, and I attempt to forget that he wants me to spend the night. The sex I can handle, but the physical act of being away from my house until the morning is something I’m not sure I can pull off, and at this point, all the little white lies are building. I am going home for Thanksgiving, but Cade thinks I don’t live here. He thinks I have a roommate and that my off-campus apartment is being renovated.