“Well, if you’re sure.”
“If I get five more minutes with you, it’s worth it.”
“Who turned you into Romeo?” I give in, taking quick steps toward the car. I grin to make sure he knows I’m kidding, and then accept the proffered coffee.
He kisses me on the cheek as I take the cup from him, the sweet scent of espresso and frothed milk rising to meet my nose.
It’s a familiar scent, and I raise my brows at him. “This is from your favorite little coffee shop.”
“Tell me it’s not your favorite now, too.” He opens the door for me, assists me inside like I’m some fragile doll, and then presses a kiss to my forehead before he closes the door. “Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle for this wild ride.”
I think he’s kidding, but he slides into the driver’s side and the wild part starts. He pulls away from the curb, and I realize he definitely wasn’t kidding. He drives like a maniac, but this is not a bad thing. In fact, he not only gets me to class on time, but he drops me off at the door seven minutes early.
I feel like my hair is a little windblown as I turn to him in shock. “Quite the ride.”
“I’ve been training,” he says with a smirk. “I heard the traffic out here was horrible.”
I laugh. He’s funny, kind, and smart. I remember my dad’s words from last night, and I turn to face him. “Hey,” I say more softly, my voice taking on a slightly serious tone. “I have to talk to you about something.”
“Of course.” He tries to hide it, but his face sinks in disappointment. “I expected you to change your mind, Andi, don’t worry. Minnesota is a long way away. I just met you, and if you don’t want to come, I totally understand. It was…”
I rest a hand on his arm, squeezing tighter and tighter until he stops talking. “It’s not that at all.” I set my coffee in the cup holder, and then I do the thing that feels most natural in the world. I slip my hand around his head and pull him in for a kiss—a deep, lingering kiss that makes my chest heave something more than lust. When I pull back, I wait for him to open his eyes. “That’s all I wanted.”
He blinks, surprised. “That is significantly better than what I hoped you were going to say.”
“There’s one more thing, but it’s not bad,” I add quickly, before he gets that crumbly, disappointed face again. I hate that face on him—it ruins the sparkling, beautiful one I’ve come to adore. “I think we should have sex.”
“What?”
“Sex.”
“I understand the word,” he says, running a hand over his forehead. “Do you mean…right now?”
I look at the students flooding around our car in the drop-off lane, and I blush. “No, of course not! I’m talking about our agreement.”
“Agreement?” He seems a little lost, and I can’t say that I entirely blame him.
“You asked me to come to Minnesota as a friend, to get out of your mom’s date choices.”
“Yes,” he says.
“And I want to add an amendment to that agreement.”
“An amendment?”
“Let’s be friends who have sex. I don’t want to go as your friend, I want to go as your…well, friend with benefits.”
He raises his eyebrows. “I have to say this a surprising development.”
My face flames red. “Unless you don’t want to! I didn’t mean that we have to, I just thought after last night, maybe—”
He leans so close to me that I stop talking. “After last night, how could you think I would have any objection to this arrangement? I want nothing more than to take you to bed…” He trails off, his hand landing on my thigh and inching higher and higher. “I want nothing more than to kiss you, taste you, take my time with you.”
My core is about to spontaneously combust, and if I don’t get out of the car soon, I’m going to be dry humping him again, and that just wouldn’t be classy—not in the parking lot drop-off lane. “So that’s a yes?”
A flash of something in his eyes makes me nervous. “Andi, you’re gorgeous. You know I want you.” He slips his hand underneath my shirt, his fingers brushing against my stomach. “But I like you too much to not be honest.”
“I’m not asking for anything more,” I say, feeling the sting of rejection before it hits. I try to ward it off. “I’m just volunteering my opinion that we should have sex. If you don’t want to, just say no. It’s not a big deal, honestly.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to get traded or not. Jocelyn hasn’t even decided if she wants to take me on as a client, so everything’s up in the air. I just can’t get into a serious relationship right now.”
“I understand that. I don’t want one either.”
“I know you say that, but—”
“Look,” I interrupt. “I have to get to class, but I’m an adult woman. I make my own money, follow my own passions, and sleep with whomever I want. If you don’t want to get involved with me, that’s fine. I was just offering because based on what happened last night, I thought we might have a good time, but if you’re not interested, just say so. I’m a big girl.”
“I am interested—”
“Hold on, please,” I interrupt. “I know you don’t want a girlfriend, and if I say I don’t want to date you, I mean it too. This is a two-way street, got it?”
“Understood.” He nods. “To be clear, whether or not I end up in Los Angeles, we are not agreeing to do anything more than hang out and have some fun together.”
“Exactly,” I say. “We’ll have some fun until the wedding, and then I’ll come back to LA and focus on school and comedy while you focus on hockey. No pressure for anything.”
“No pressure.”
I extend a hand, and eventually, he extends his own with a smile. As we clasp hands, he hesitates. “What is it this time?” I ask. “Don’t tell me you’re backing out now.”
“I completely forgot one of the reasons I showed up this morning.”
“It wasn’t to bring me coffee?”
“It was, but…I came to tell you that my flight home is tomorrow. Yes, I realize this is horrible timing, but when I saw you, I forgot everything I’d come to say. I have to head back to the Cities for preseason training.”
“Oh.”
“I want to see you again,” he says. “Are you sure you can’t come out to the party tonight?”
“I’ll call you after my show,” I tell him again. “That’s the best I can do, sorry.”
He shakes his head. “I understand, I just…” He looks down at his lap, where there’s a distinct outline of his magical staff, and it is raring to go. “Do you see what you do to me? I need to see you tonight—or better yet, skip this class. We only have twenty-four hours left together until I leave. After today, I probably won’t see you until the wedding.”
“Crap!” I glance at the clock. “I’m late again!”
I fling open the door, wave, and hightail it toward the building. My brain isn’t thinking. I realize once I near the doors that it might’ve been rude to leave him like that, all ready to go after driving all the way over to see me. I run the few steps back to the car, knock on the window, and gesture for him to roll it down.
He does, and I stick my head in there. “Sorry to run,” I say. Then I point to the outline in his pant leg. “Hold that thought, okay? We’ll find time. I promise.”
“We’d better,” he says. “Or I’m taking you with me tomorrow.”
“That’s kidnapping.”
“Get to class before I kidnap you right now,” he says with a wink.
I laugh then wave as I make my way to the front doors.
I walk into the room five minutes late and receive a death stare from my professor.
Worth it.
CHAPTER 24
Ryan
That girl catches me off guard more than anyone in the country. On the planet. In the whole damn universe.
Last night after Andi left, I went upstairs to take a shower—a cold one. It didn’t work, even after I took care of myself twice.
This morning, it happened again. Another cold shower, a frustrated breakfast in which both Lilia and Lawrence told me to pull the stick out of my ass and stop acting like a jerk, and I knew I had to see her. I didn’t care if I had to drive across town; the only cure for my mood was the sight of her smile, the curve of her lips, those lights blinking on in her eyes when she caught sight of me standing at the car.