Page 117 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

Tuesday

“Even better than my dreams,” he whispered before placing a kiss on the top of my head. Normally I'd laugh at a comment like that. Or think it was just some line. But he sounded so sincere. Besides, I had dreamed about him too. Too many times to count. And it was better than I’d ever imagined.

I let my head rise and fall with his breath, listening to his rapid heartbeat.

His bed was so much more comfortable than mine.

Or maybe it was just the fact that he was in it with me.

All the questions about what we were doing were still rolling around in my head, threatening to spill out.

I swallowed them back down. I was not going to be the one to ruin this perfect post-sex bliss.

I tried to focus on his heart racing again.

“What are you thinking?” he asked as he trailed his fingers lazily up and down my back.

That we’re running out of time and I need to make the most of every second. “Nothing.” I lifted my head off his chest so I could stare at him. “What are you thinking?” His answer was way more important to me.

“That we should have done this sooner.” He smiled, but the brightness didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Because we’re running out of time. Delaware was less long distance than California.

But I didn’t want to tell him that I might be transferring until I at least talked to my dad about it.

I’d call him soon. As soon as I got up the courage to hear his voice and not let whatever he said bother me.

Fat chance. But I had to do it. I was thinking I could wait until I heard back from the University of New Castle, but it was taking longer than I expected.

And I didn’t want my dad to send the money to SMU by accident.

I was glad J.J. popped the bubble instead of me. I was even happier that he was as content as me. I smiled down at him, hoping that it looked more sincere than his. “Better late than never. Aren’t your friends waiting for us at the pool?”

“Unless you’d rather stay in bed?”

I laughed and sat up. “Oh, I’d definitely rather stay here with you all night.

But you promised me we’d win a chicken fight and that’s what I intend to do.

” I slid off the bed. I really did love winning.

Besides, I was a little curious about how he’d act around all those hot girls he usually hung out with now that we were dating.

Or…fucking. Or…I didn’t know what we were.

But it felt big and important to me. The kind of important that meant I would 100 percent not be flirting with any other guys.

This would at least let me know that he felt the same way.

And maybe give me the extra boost of confidence I needed in order to call my dad later.

By the time we reached the pool, the chicken fighting had already begun.

“We’ll join the next round,” J.J. said as he pulled me toward the pool.

The wonderful feeling of his hand in mine wasn’t enough to distract me from looking for the blonde girl that J.J.

had been dancing with yesterday. Jenn, I think he said her name was.

That was a lie…I definitely knew her name.

It was seared into my brain just like the way he danced with her was.

It wasn’t hard to spot her. She was one of the last two people who hadn’t been knocked into the water this round. And she was battling…Kristen?

“Kristen?” I called.

Kristen turned her head. The distraction was enough for Jenn to knock her backward off Reggie’s shoulders.

She resurfaced in a fit of laughter. “So unfair! I demand a rematch. Mila distracted me. Are you coming in?” she asked me.

“Mhm.” I was happy she was here. Just surprised that neither she nor J.J. had mentioned it. I kicked off my flip flops. “You didn’t tell me Kristen was here,” I said to J.J.

“I didn’t know.” But he wasn’t focused on me or Kristen when he said it.

I felt my stomach turn as I started to follow his gaze.

I breathed a sigh of relief when he wasn’t ogling Jenn.

He was staring daggers at Reggie instead.

I should have come clean right then and there about how Reggie had helped me out last night.

But diving into the pool seemed a lot easier.

So I chose that route instead, letting his hand slide out of mine.

J.J. splashed water all over me when I resurfaced to his cannonball.

I laughed as he pulled me into his arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist, not caring that we were surrounded by people. Apparently he didn’t care that we were around other people either.

“I told you that Reggie was a dick,” he said.

I sighed. I needed to tell him. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too mad. I was about to open my mouth when Kristen swam over to us.

“Sorry I didn’t text you last night,” she said. “I stayed at the party really late and ended up crashing at Reggie’s.”

Crashing definitely meant banging. I wondered if she did the Thanksgiving turkey thing. Luckily that hadn’t come up with J.J. yet. “That’s okay.” I’d lecture her later about murderers and rapists and the importance of texting your besties. Kids these days.

“I see the plan worked,” Reggie said as he joined Kristen at her side.

Oh crap.

“What plan?” J.J. asked.

Before I could figure out the best way to word it, Reggie filled in the blanks.

“The getting J.J. to stop being an idiot and notice Mila plan. I pretended to flirt with Kristen and Mila all night to make you jealous. Although, my flirtations with Kristen ended up being very much real.” He kissed her cheek.

I wanted to focus on how adorable they were, but I was a little preoccupied by J.J.’s face, waiting for his reaction. I was surprised when he started laughing. The breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding finally escaped.

Everyone around us seemed to vanish when J.J. turned back to me, his hands drifted farther down my back. “I guess I was being an idiot, huh?”

“Just a little dense.”

He smiled. “All your scheming worked then.”

Technically, J.J. had claimed he wasn’t jealous last night. Just protective of me. But the getting us together part? That had absolutely worked. I nodded.

“I admit that I was an idiot…but I always noticed you, Jellyfish Girl.”

My heart felt like it was going to burst.

“I guess I owe you a thank you,” he said to Reggie.

“No problem,” he said. “It ended up working out for both of us.” He pulled Kristen into his side. Her smile was so big it was contagious.

“You guys ready to play?” one of J.J.’s other friends called over to us.

“We’re in!” J.J. called before turning back to Reggie. “And just because I’m thankful, it doesn’t mean you two aren’t going down,” he said with a laugh.

“Oh, it’s on,” Reggie said.

J.J. went under water, maneuvering himself underneath my thighs.

I laughed when he stood back up. He was so tall that in the shallow end I wasn’t anywhere close to touching the water anymore.

I leaned forward to try to keep my balance.

He turned his head and kissed my inner thigh. “You ready?” he asked me.

I wasn’t. I was super distracted by his mouth. And his wet hair that was dripping onto my legs in a way that I never knew would be so erotic. Yeah…this was not going to go well.

***

It turns out that I wasn’t the best at chicken fighting even when I tried really hard to focus on the game instead of J.J.

But I really did have a great night. To my delight, I don’t think J.J.

even looked at Jenn once. He was as smitten as me.

And I wouldn’t be able to get the smile off my face even if I wanted to.

“Ah, it’s freezing!” I yelled when we finally got out of the pool. The breeze from the ocean was always chillier at night.

J.J. grabbed a towel and wrapped it around me. There was something sweet about that, especially because it left him shivering for longer when he had to go get another one.

“Do you want some pizza?” he asked. His friends had ordered Grottos and it had just arrived steaming hot from the boardwalk. It was late, but never too late for cheesy goodness.

“Is all you eat pizza?” I wasn’t complaining, I was just curious. I picked up a slice before he even responded and took a bite. Delicious.

“And ice cream.” He winked at me. “I really do need to learn how to make something other than cereal though.”

I laughed. “I can teach you…if you want. I love cooking. Although the last time I made pizza, it didn’t turn out so well. I still can’t believe rentals don’t have....”

“Rolling pins,” he said, finishing my sentence. “Yeah, you mentioned that before. Was that one of the many nights that I was being dense and you were mad at me?”

“No…just disappointed.”

He laughed. “Well, here’s to not disappointing you anymore.” He tapped his slice of pizza against mine.

I smiled.

“Here, you gotta see this view.” He used his hand that wasn’t holding a slice of pizza to guide me to the edge of the roof.

“This view is amazing. I wish we could stay here forever.” But I didn’t really mean at the beach. I glanced at J.J. out of the corner of my eye. I meant with him.

Time felt like it was frozen still as he turned to look at me. “Me too.”

Why did it already feel like goodbye when our summer together had only just started?

I cleared my throat. “What do you want to do this weekend?” Even though the weekend was still far away, it was just far enough away that he might not already have plans like this with his friends.

I was hoping we could do something just us.

He wrapped his arm more securely around me as we stared down at the crashing waves. “How about something just the two of us?”

I leaned my head against his shoulder. It was like he could read my mind. “That sounds perfect. Oh.” I looked up at him. “How about we go to Salt Air? I won that gift card. It can be my treat.”

“Are you that sick of pizza?” he said with a laugh.

“No, but I think a night out would be fun. We can eat and drink and dance.”

“You won’t turn me down like you did yesterday when I asked you to dance?”

I laughed. “I wanted you to ask me because you really wanted to…not because you were being protective .”

“You say protective like it’s a bad thing.”

“Is it so wrong that I wanted you to be jealous? Just a little bit?”

“People are jealous when they want something that isn’t theirs. I was protective because you already possessed me. I was already yours. And you were already mine.”

I turned to look up at him, the view of his blue eyes so much better than the sea itself. “You wanted to protect what’s yours?” The wind from the ocean blew my hair into my face.

He pushed it back, drawing my lips up to his.

But his lips stopped a fraction of an inch from mine.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you ever since I first saw you on the beach.

Even before I knew your name was Jellyfish Girl.

” He closed the distance between us. A slow kiss that took my breath away.

I’m his. And he’s mine. God, his answer was simply amazing. I had been worried about asking him what he meant by protective instead of jealous. But listening to his answer made my knees weak. Everything he said was so romantic. He pulled away far too soon.

“You’re a great kisser,” I mumbled. I thought it was incoherent, but J.J. smiled.

“Oh, really? I could have sworn after our first kiss you said, ‘It wasn’t even a good kiss.’ Which really shattered my confidence.”

I lightly hit his arm. “I was upset. But…it wasn’t technically a lie…”

He raised both his eyebrows. “Ouch. Are you trying to wound me?”

I laughed and stood up on my tiptoes. “I wasn’t lying because it was a great kiss, not a good one.” I wrapped my arms behind his neck and kissed him again. His hands slid to my ass, not a care in the world that his friends were nearby. Yup, my assessment was right. J.J. was a great kisser.