Boarded by Love
Page 27

And maybe his last.
“So what are your plans for the rest of the day?”
Leaning against Jude, we walk toward my building after a nice lunch on the quad. “I have to go study for the quiz I have next in marketing – that’s in two hours – then I have to go to the rink to see if I made the dance team. If I did, I have practice tonight.”
“Cool, I’m sure you made it.”
I shrug. “We will see.”
“Yeah, so do you work?”
“I do. I work at the dance studio for Reese on Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but once I get the dance schedule, if I make it, then no telling when I’ll work,” I say, knowing that I left my other job out. “You?”
“Nope, I play hockey and study and get ready for the draft.”
“Oh, so you’re going in for sure? I assumed, but wasn’t a 100%.”
He nods, a proud grin on his face. “Yup, next year as long as everything goes well.”
I smack his arm playfully, puckering out my lip and say, “You jerk, you’re gonna start something with me and then leave?”
He stops, wrapping his arms around me, holding me so close that thinking isn’t an option. I’m completely intoxicated by his woodsy smell, his bedroom eyes, him, all of him. “By then you’ll be so in love with me that you’ll go anywhere with me.”
I laugh, trying to get away, but Jude’s biceps have biceps and they hold me close to him. “Whatever. I’m not going to follow you. I am an independent woman with a plan!”
He grins, pressing his lips to mine, and I melt in his arms, all past struggling disappears as I get lost in his kiss. Parting, he looks in my eyes as he smiles, but I can see that he is serious as a heart attack. “And I like that about you, but when the time comes, we’ll discuss it and decide what’s best for us.”
I scoff. “Jeez, Jude, I was kidding. We might not even be together then.”
“Oh, we will be, and you’ll be right beside me at the draft and then at everything after that. You got me now, Claire, there is no getting rid of me.”
Oh, heart be still and stay in the box!
I can say that all I want, but I’m pretty sure that my heart and my brain both know that there is no way my heart is gonna stay locked up when a guy like Jude Sinclair is after it.
“Ooowee, trouble you are, I knew it,” I say with a shake of my head, moving my hands up his shoulders and then into his hair. “And I can’t help but like it.”
His grin is killer as he moves his hands in and down the back of my sweats. I giggle as he cups my ass and then his eyes go wide. “Dirty girl, are you wearing no panties?”
“A thong and I’m pretty sure this is not allowed.”
His brows come together in such a perplexed way that I’m giggling even harder. “Whoa, we said no sex. Maybe we need to define that ’cause when I want to get me a handful of your sexy ass I’m going to, and if I want to bury my face deep between your legs, I’m going to do that, too.”
Heat floods between my legs as my knees buckle. “Jesus H. Christ, you can’t say shit like that during our two-week dating mode! That will lead to sex!”
“Sorry.” He chuckles and I know he isn’t sorry one bit. “Why don’t we start this tomorrow and go up to your room now, and I’ll do what I just suggested.”
I shake my head, trying to take a step back, but his grip on my ass is ironclad. “No, sir, not only is my roommate up there, but I don’t want this to be about sex. We both know we’re sexually attracted to each other, like intensely, so let’s make sure there’s more to it ’cause I don’t want to fall for you while you’re busy just fucking me.”
He eyes me, and then nods. “I get that, but I can fall for you and rock your world at the same time.”
I laugh. “After the two weeks. Come on.”
“Okay,” he says slowly. “But please don’t tell me I have to remove my hands.”
I think it over and then nod. “Fine, hands are fine but no other places, and watch what you say before I forget this mess and hump your face.”
“Yes, please do that,” he says and then we both start laughing. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I grin up at him as I take in his beautiful face. He has a little scar along his jaw and then one on his lip. I point to them and ask, “What happened?”
“I busted my lip last year in a fight after a drunken night out, and then I fell when I was a kid off my four-wheeler and a branch went through my face.”
I make a face. “Shit, that had to hurt.”
“Like hell, but my mom says it brings character to my face.”
“It does, makes you hotter in a rugged, mean way.”
His face breaks into a huge grin before wrapping me up tighter in his arms and dropping his mouth to mine. We kiss for what seems like hours, but I know it’s only seconds. His kisses are so damn intoxicating, and I feel like an addict needing another hit of his mouth. And as I watch him walk away with a promise that he’ll see me later, all I can think is that I don’t know when that will be, but I can’t freaking wait.
After my last class, I meet up with Skylar and we head to the rink. We’re both carrying our dance bags with the hopes we made it. I’m sure we did – we’re both fantastic and Skylar did get some tens from the guys – but still, I’m a little nervous I won’t. I would be so embarrassed if I didn’t. Not only would telling Reese and Phillip that I didn’t make it suck ass, but telling Jude would too. Oh my heart, anytime I think of him, it goes crazy in my chest, and my stomach does some weird flip thing that makes me breathless. I’m falling for him, even though I told myself I wouldn’t, which is bad, very damn bad.
“Heard you and Jude were making out in the quad.”
I smile as I glance over at Skylar, shrugging my shoulders. “Making out is a little overdramatic, we kissed and touched some but talked mostly.”
“About?”
“About taking two weeks without sex to see if there is something there.”
She stops mid-step and gives me a look. “And he agreed?”
“Yeah,” I say with a grin. “And I trust him.”
“Wow, I’m completely floored. Jude? A one-woman man? I’ve known him for the last two years and this has never happened.”