Page 20 of Scarlett and the Fake Boyfriend (Scarlett #2)

Friday

“I could eat,” I said. “Or...suck. Or... I’m going to stop talking now.” I could never mention bananas or sausages ever again and die happy.

Jacob laughed.

“Stop laughing at me.” I shoved his arm.

He kept laughing. “I can’t get over the fact that you asked me for a nice thick sausage for dinner.”

I knew my face was scarlet.

“You’re cute when you blush.”

I was so tired of everyone calling me cute. Or adorable. I wanted to be sexy and alluring. “Can you please help me be more...you know.”

He raised his eyebrow. “More what?”

“Sexy.”

“You are sexy, Scarlett.”

“You know what I mean. I need all the pointers. I’m a walking disaster.”

Jacob put his hand out for me. “Come with me.”

I slid my hand into his. I was surprised when he guided me into the family room. “Aren’t we going to your room?”

“No one’s home.” He stopped in front of the couch.

“Right. ”

We both just stared at each other.

“So how do we do this?” I asked.

“Let’s take it slow, okay?” He sat down on the couch.

I was about to get on my knees, but he pulled me on top of him.

“I can’t believe I’ve now straddled two men in one day,” I said.

Jacob laughed. “Well, hopefully you don’t do what we’re about to do with Mr. Halifax.”

“Unless he’s my kiss thief.” I shook my head. No, if Mr. Halifax was my kiss thief, I didn’t want to do this with him.

“Scarlett, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You shouldn’t be doing anything with some random guy in a dark closet. You deserve to be loved in public.”

I stared into his brown eyes. “I know. And logistically I’m not even sure if you can steal third base. I could still probably use some lessons in this though. If you want to give them to me.”

He nodded.

“So...what first?” I looked down, but he put his hand on the side of my face and leaned in a kissed me. Oh. That made sense.

Every time we kissed, it felt more normal. Probably because I always let Jacob guide the kisses now. If I followed his lead, it was harder to do something weird with my tongue.

Jacob’s hands fell to my waist and he pulled me tighter against him.

I felt the friction of him against me. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was picturing kissing Olivia instead of me.

But when he groaned into my mouth, I didn’t care. Because he was kissing me . Not someone else. He wouldn’t be doing this with me if he didn’t want to. And for the first time ever while kissing him, I got lost in it.

My body acted on its own accord as I grinded against him.

One of Jacob’s hands skated up the back of my shirt. Goosebumps rose on my skin, tracing the path of his fingers.

He shifted forward and slowly lowered my back against the cushions.

I kept my legs wrapped around his waist as his lips fell to my neck.

My whole body felt alive. It was somehow the same as when the kiss thief kissed me, but also entirely different. I knew Jacob.

His varsity jacket slid down my shoulders as I tried to guide his mouth back to mine.

I felt like I was finally getting good at this kissing thing. And I wanted to keep doing it. I had a feeling I could kiss Jacob all night.

But instead of his lips finding mine again, Jacob moved lower. He kissed down the front of my stomach. He’d shifted my shirt up slightly and when his lips touched the skin of my lower stomach I moaned.

And he kept kissing me lower.

He pressed his lips between my thighs.

Oh my God. The friction of his mouth pressing my thong and leggings against me felt so good. I moaned and buried my fingers in his hair.

He kissed me again in the same spot in response.

And then his fingers hooked in the waistband of my leggings and he started to pull them down .

Wait. I kept one of my hands buried in his hair, and moved my other to the waistband of my pants. “What are you doing?” I asked.

He lifted his face from between my legs. “Nothing yet. But I’m about to please you.”

“What?”

He looked down between my legs and back at me. When I didn’t say anything, he said: “I thought you said you wanted to do third base stuff?”

On me? I hadn’t even thought of it being for me. Was that what the kiss thief meant by stealing third base? Going down on me?

“I can start with my fingers first if you want.”

I just stared at him. He said it so casually. Like he’d done this a million times. And I realized that maybe he had. Jacob had had several girlfriends throughout high school. He knew all this stuff. And I felt...totally out of my depth here.

He lowered his eyebrows. “Was this not what you wanted to do?”

“No,” I said. What was I saying? “Yes. Wait, no. I...” My head and my heart were at war right now. Jacob was my friend. But God my body wanted him to lower his mouth against me again. I’d never felt anything like that before.

The sound of a door opening and a whistling noise made me slide away from Jacob.

I was very distracted by the fact that it was the living room door opening.

And I was still jumpy from the stupid scary movie.

And I somehow misjudged the size of the couch in the chaos and ended up toppling off the side of it.

Jacob cursed under his breath. He climbed off the couch and tried to help me to my feet. But I kind of wanted to stay down behind the coffee table when Mr. Nigel started talking.

“Oh,” Mr. Nigel said. “Jacob are you here alone in the house all by yourself?”

Jacob tried to help me to my feet but I swatted his hand away.

Please just let me stay down!

“No one called me to babysit,” Mr. Nigel said.

Jacob laughed. “Mr. Nigel, I’m 18. And why do you have all the team jerseys?”

“I wash them here after the games.”

“Here?” Jacob asked. “All of them? Since when?”

“Since forever. When no one is looking. I don’t have a washing machine and it’s too much to take down to the lake to scrub. And don’t even get me started on trying to hang this many items in a tree to dry.”

What?

“And 18 is very young,” Mr. Nigel said, continuing the previous conversation like he hadn’t just said anything super weird. “Well, old enough for a fine wine, but very very young still. Basically an infant.”

Seriously....what was he talking about?

“Sure,” Jacob said. He looked down at me on the ground.

I put my finger to my lips.

Jacob just shook his head.

“I thought you were attending the after-game festivities?” Mr. Nigel asked.

“I am,” Jacob said. “I stopped by for a quick meal.”

“Well, let me prepare it for you,” Mr. Nigel said.

“No, that’s okay. I can do it. ”

“Wait. What is that smell? Have you already tried and burned something? I told you to be careful around these modern day stoves, Young Jacob.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Mr. Nigel said the strangest stuff.

And a second later Mr. Nigel’s shoes appeared by my face.

“Oh my!” he said. “You have a woman suitress here? Does Master Matthew know? Does your girlfriend know? Wait, is that Scarlett?”

Kill me. “Yup,” I said. “It’s just me. No suitresses here.” What the hell was a suitress anyway? A woman suitor? And why did Mr. Nigel just assume that Jacob was cheating on me?

Mr. Nigel put his laundry basket down and grabbed my hand to help me up. “Did you fall over? Jacob, never leave a damsel in distress on the floor.” Mr. Nigel patted my face. “Are you okay, dear? You look flushed.”

“I’m great,” I said.

“Well, good. I’ll leave you youngsters to it.” He picked up his laundry basket again. “I should go do this laundry before all the grass stains set.”

Jacob cleared his throat. “Mr. Nigel, could you come back in like twenty minutes? We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

“But the grass stains.”

“Mr. Nigel. Please.”

“Well, what were you two in the middle of?”

Jacob glanced at me. “We were in the middle of an important and private conversation.”

Mr. Nigel’s eyes bounced back and forth between us. “No suitress business though, right?”

“Definitely not,” I said. I’d decided he was using the term in place of hooker. And again...why did he think Jacob was okay with that? We were dating. I pressed my lips together. Fake dating. And I knew I was a hypocrite for getting jealous right now.

“Okay,” Mr. Nigel said. It didn’t look like he believed us. “But these stains are going to set.”

“Please,” Jacob said.

“I will give you exactly 20 minutes. I’m setting a timer.”

“Thanks, man,” Jacob said.

Mr. Nigel started walking toward the door that connected his house to Jacob’s.

“Wait,” I said.

He turned around.

“I know Jacob mentioned those backup security tapes from Odegaard to you. Do you think maybe you can locate them right now? Since we’re delaying the wash and everything? Surely it won’t take 20 minutes to get them?”

“I can’t. I have to spot the grass stains now, Scarlett. Since you’re making me wait 19 minutes.”

I guess the timer had already started.

He walked through the door and closed it behind him.

I sighed and sat down on the couch. “Well that was awkward.”

“I’m sorry,” Jacob said as he sat down next to me. “I really thought you wanted me to touch you or I never would have...”

“I wasn’t talking about that,” I said with a laugh. “I meant Mr. Nigel interrupting us.”

“Oh.” Jacob laughed .

We both stared at each other.

I cleared my throat. “Why did he think you’d have a suitress here?”

“I don’t understand Mr. Nigel’s thought process in the slightest.”

I laughed. “So...you’re not hooking up with other people?” I hated that I’d even said it out loud. I sounded so desperate.

“No. My whole family thinks we’re dating. You were here when I told them.”

I stared at him. He was saying he wasn’t seeing anyone else. But it wasn’t because he didn’t want to. He was just stuck fake dating me. “Right,” I said. I exhaled slowly. I didn’t know what else to say. I was pretty sure I’d messed everything up earlier when I told him to stop.

“So...” he said.

I looked up at him. All I wanted to do was climb back on his lap and kiss him again. But after accusing him of dating other people, it didn’t seem like a good move.

“Should we maybe pick up where we left off then?”