He leaned down and kissed me again, soft yet passionate. I reached up to touch his chiseled abs, but he was still wearing his shirt. My fingers fumbled with the buttons until they met his happy trail. I ran my hands along the contours of his six pack as he slowly thrust in and out of me.

  I waited for him to move faster as he continued to kiss me, but he kept his slow pace. I loved when he was rough with me. I didn't think there could possibly be something better than him fucking me, pushing me to my limits. But this was better. He was being slow and gentle and intimate. He's making love to me. Oh my God, he's making love to me!

  I grabbed both sides of his face and deepened our kiss. When he said he wasn't going to fuck me, I hadn't realized what he meant. He loved me back. And it was the best feeling in the whole world. I wanted all of him. I ran my hands down the back of his suit jacket and grabbed his ass. I needed more.

  He groaned into my mouth as he thrust himself deep inside of me.

  "Yes!"

  His hand slid up the side of my thigh and stopped on my hip. "God you're sexy." He leaned back and looked down at me as he began moving his hips faster. "One night of you would never have been enough."

  I could feel myself clenching around him. If possible, his words affected me just as much as him inside of me. He tilted his hips, hitting me in that spot that only he could.

  Oh God. I turned my head as the sensation of him completely consumed me.

  But he grabbed my chin and tilted my face so that I was staring directly into his eyes. "Come for me, Keira."

  "Rory!" I moaned as his words pushed me over the edge.

  He stared into my eyes as he found his own release.

  My heart was racing as I stared up at him. This boy loved me. And I had never felt this way before. Everything was different with Rory. Somehow with him, everything seemed so much more real. I reached up and ran my palm along the scruff on his jaw line. And so perfect.

  He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against my lips.

  "I like more."

  "Mmm." He slowly pulled out of me.

  I didn't like the empty feeling. The smell of lemon scented cleaning supplies suddenly came back to me. We must have spilled a bottle because it smelled even stronger than before. "Every time I mop the floor now I'm going to want you to do that to me."

  "I think I can arrange that." He grabbed my hands and pulled me to a seated position. He kept my hands in his as he looked down at me. "I don't like fighting with you."

  "I don't like fighting with you either."

  "I'm..." his voice trailed off. He ran his thumbs along my palms. "I'm not good at this."

  "I'm not good at relationships either. It's one of the many things we have in common."

  Rory laughed and then was silent for a moment. "The last thing I want to do is hurt you. I don't like seeing you upset."

  "Then don't hurt me."

  He leaned forward and ran the tip of his nose down mine. "You really shouldn't be with me."

  "I want to be with you." I unwound my fingers from his and grabbed the sides of his face. "Rory, I've wanted to be with you ever since you first stepped into my apartment. Please don't give up on this before we've even started."

  "I'm not. I'm just...worried that you want what's out there." He pointed to the door. "I'm not there yet. I'm not even sure if I'll ever want those things."

  How had we gone from being un-exclusive to talking about marriage? How did he know that I felt like I was falling behind my friends? What he didn't seem to understand, though, was that I didn't care about any of that when I was with him. I didn't feel the clock ticking when I looked into his eyes. Getting married in one year or ten years didn't matter if he was going to be beside me. I just wanted to be with him.

  "Rory, you're exactly what I want." I ran my fingers between his naked torso and his silky tie.

  "Okay."

  "Okay?"

  He turned away from me and looked around for the light switch. When he found it, the sight of him took my breath away. His hair was mussed up in that way that it could only be after sex. He had already zippered up his suit pants and hinged his belt back in place, but his shirt was still unbuttoned. His tie hung loosely around his neck and was pressed against his naked torso. I couldn't help but wonder why men ever wore shirts. Just a tie seemed to work fine.

  He smiled at me. "Okay, let's give this thing a shot."

  I wanted to clap my hands and yell and dance around the closet. Instead, I slid off the table, walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Does that mean if people ask if you're my boyfriend you won't freak out? Maybe I could even say yes?"

  "Hmm." His hands slid to the small of my back. "Maybe you should say it a few times so I can get used to it."

  "So like...no we're not just roommates, this is my boyfriend, Rory." My boyfriend, Rory. I wanted to say it a million times.

  "It sounds pretty good actually."

  "It does." I smiled up at him.

  "We should probably get dressed so we don't spend our first night as boyfriend and girlfriend in jail."

  "That would just make a great story."

  "Yeah, but I think we could make better use of our first night back home in bed, don't you?" He let go of the small of my back and lightly slapped my ass.

  I laughed and turned around to search for my bra. I quickly grabbed it off the table, put it back on, and zipped my dress back in place. I looked around the small closet in search of my thong, but I couldn't seem to find it anywhere.

  "Are you looking for this?" Rory pulled my thong out of his pocket and let it dangle from his index finger.

  "Thanks." I reached for it, but he pulled his hand away.

  "I thought I told you not to wear underwear."

  "I didn't realize you meant never again. I thought you meant just that one night."

  "I like having easy access to you. So I'm keeping these." He put them back in his pocket.

  "Rory, it's part of a lingerie set."

  "Maybe you can convince me to give it back to you later." He raised his eyebrow at me. "You're pretty good at convincing me to do things I wouldn't normally do."

  I laughed and straightened his tie. "You mean like breaking our roommate pact?"

  "That roommate pact was doomed from the start. Especially since neither one of us really wanted it."

  "I thought you did want it?"

  "I wanted the pact solely because I thought it would make you more comfortable with our living situation. But I always intended to sleep with you." He gave me one of his panty dropping smiles.

  "Rory," I said and pushed on his chest.

  He grabbed my hands. "And when you kept flirting with me, I knew you wanted me too. It was only a matter of time before you begged me."

  "You're the worst!" I said playfully. I already knew he had been stringing me along. That's what he did. He was a player. I had known that from the start. I just never realized how much he wanted me too.

  He scratched the back of his neck. "But I never expected to like you this much."

  "Thanks, I guess?"

  He laughed. "You know what I mean. I'm not used to girls being so down to earth. I like that you can hang out with my friends and talk about sports and play poker. I find that very sexy."

  The way he was talking made it seem like he wanted me again. "Well, I find everything you do sexy."

  "Then maybe we should go home and do more sexy things to each other. I have a few things in mind." He grabbed my hand and led me out of the closet.

  Chapter 32

  Making love in his bed was even better than making love in a closet. I had thought that my ex-boyfriends had loved me, but now I was certain that they hadn't. Because none of them had made me feel like this before. And if I hadn't written an article about playing Rory, then I'd be the happiest I had ever been.

  Instead, I was starring at his beautiful face after he had fallen asleep, worrying about telling him the truth. My last article was coming out in the morning. It was the last step, "Make Him Jealous," which involved going on a fake date. And about how it worked. How Rory said he wanted more. How we had become friends with benefits. I had written it the way my editor wanted me to. But it wasn't true. My original goal of the piece had worked, though. I had gotten a player to stop playing. I had gotten him to break his norms of one night stands and settle down with me. I had tricked him into falling in love with me.

  I sat up in his bed. That was the problem. I tricked him into liking me. Maybe he would find the whole thing funny. God. How would anyone find that funny? I needed to know more about his ex. I needed to know what went wrong. If it was just betraying his trust then I was completely screwed.

  I pulled on one of Rory's t-shirts and tiptoed out of his room. My purse was sitting on the kitchen counter. I grabbed my phone out of it, scrolled through my contact list, and found Connor's name. It wasn't even 8 a.m. I wasn't sure what Connor's normal weekend schedule was like, but I hoped I wouldn't be disturbing his sleep too much. I pressed the call button and drummed my fingers against the counter as it rang.

  "Hello?" Connor sounded awake. But he also definitely didn't realize it was me calling.

  "Hey, Connor. It's Keira."

  "Is everything okay?" He sounded concerned. Like he thought that last night had most likely gone horribly, horribly wrong.

  "Yeah, everything's great." I sat down on a stool. I knew what I was about to do was awkward, but I needed to know. "I was actually just calling to ask you a favor."

  "What do you need?"

  "I was wondering if you could tell me what happened between Rory and his ex?"

  Connor was silent for a second. "Shouldn't you just ask him about that?"

  "He doesn't seem to want to talk about it." I stopped tapping my fingers against the counter. "Please, Connor, it's important."

  "I'll be right over."

  "Oh, no, you don't need to come over. We can just talk on the phone."

  "I'm already on my way." Connor clicked off.

  "Wait, Connor?"

  The line was dead. I looked down at my phone. Weird. I walked over to my bedroom so I could get changed, but there was a knock on the front door. What the hell? I walked over to the door and peered through the peephole. Jackson was standing there.

  Shit. I was only wearing one of Rory's t-shirts. Did that matter? Rory had already told him that we were sleeping together. But the t-shirt was kind of see-through.

  Jackson knocked on the door again.

  Crap. I opened up the door a crack.

  Jackson's eyes immediately fell on my legs. "I'm guessing things are going well with Rory?" He smiled at me.

  "Mhm. What are you doing here?"

  Jackson pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked in. He was holding a fruit tray. "Is Rory still asleep?" he asked, ignoring my question.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. "Yeah. It's a little early, Jackson. What are you doing here?" I repeated.

  "It's Sunday Brunch Day." He held up the fruit tray. "I brought the fruit."

  Of course you did. "I feel like you guys are just making stuff up so you can hang out here as much as possible."

  "You two do have the nicest place. But we actually do this every second Sunday of the month. And Rory has to host because he's the chef." Jackson sat down on one of the kitchen stools. "He's super annoying in other people's kitchens. He's always complaining about dull knives and crap like that."

  "Okay, but brunch is supposed to be closer to lunch time, isn't it? It's 8 a.m., Jackson."

  Jackson shrugged. "We usually make it an all day thing. I mean, we used to all just crash at Rory's the night before. But he was a little busy last night, wasn't he?" Jackson winked at me.

  I could feel my face turning red. "Well, I'll be right back. I need to change."

  "Don't do it on my behalf. You're fine."

  I rolled my eyes at him and began to retreat to my bedroom when there was a second knock on the door. "Do you mind getting that, Jackson?"

  "Stranger danger," he said and popped off the lid of the fruit tray.

  "I'm sure it's just Connor."

  "You never know. Besides, if it is Connor, I'd love to see his reaction to your outfit."

  Why was he torturing me on purpose? I sighed. It didn't really matter. Connor had already seen me in just one of Rory's t-shirts before. I walked over to the door and opened it.

  "Hey...Keira." His eyes landed on my breasts for a second, but then immediately snapped back to my face. "I brought coffee." He held up the tray of coffee and smiled. "Is Rory up yet?"

  "No, he's still sleeping."

  Connor peered over my shoulder at Jackson. "Hey, Jackson."

  "Hey, Connor."

  Connor looked back at me. "Sorry, I rushed over," he whispered. "I thought I could beat Jackson here. Are you sure everything is okay?"

  "Yeah, everything's fine. I just..." my voice trailed off when I saw the newspaper tucked under Connor's arm. Shit, is that The Post? I couldn't tell from the angle. I looked back up at Connor. "Thanks for bringing coffee. Can I help you with that?"

  "Oh, yeah. I didn't know how you liked it. Cream and sugar okay?"

  "Yeah, that's perfect."

  "Here." Connor picked a cup out of the tray and handed it to me.

  "Thanks." Crap. I had been hoping he'd hand over everything to me.

  Connor walked past me, placed the tray of coffee on the counter, and tossed the newspaper down next to it.

  It was The Post. I took a deep breath. It's not like any of them read my articles, though. They had never said anything about them. And they definitely didn't sit around the kitchen reading the newspaper out loud. That would be so weird. But they were weird. Oh God. It was probably a brunch reading session.

  "Do you still want to talk about what you wanted to talk about?" Connor asked.

  "That sounds ominous," Jackson said. He lifted one of the coffees out of the tray. "I'll let you two talk." Jackson winked at me again and walked over to the couch.

  "Why does Jackson keep winking at me?"

  Connor sat down on one of the stools. "I may have crashed at his place Friday night and confessed to him that I have a crush on you. Maybe." Connor shrugged.

  "That's a lot of details for maybe. How did you like Julie?" I wanted him to be happy. He was such a nice guy.

  "I actually had a really good time. But I think I probably blew it when I ran after you."

  "I'm sure you didn't blow it."

  "No, I did. I mean, I seriously just ran after you. I didn't even say anything to her."

  "She knows we're friends, Connor. I can explain what happened to her. I can fix it."

  "I should have already apologized. I just felt like such an ass."

  "You're not an ass. That was the sweetest thing a guy has ever done for me."

  Connor looked down at his coffee. "Maybe we should just talk about what you wanted to talk about, Keira. What do you want to know about Rory's ex?" He took a sip of his coffee.

  I hated that I always seemed to be hurting him. I sat down on the stool next to his. "What happened between them? And what was she like? Anything you can tell me, really."

  Connor looked back up at me. "She was like the exact opposite of you. I really don't even know why Rory liked her. Probably cause she was a freaking ten." I must have made a face, because Connor quickly said, "Not that you aren't, Keira. That's not what I meant at all. You know I think you're an eleven." He looked back down at his coffee cup.

  "What do you mean by the complete opposite of me?"

  "Super high maintenance. She was just always a bitch. And she didn't like when Rory hung out with his friends instead of her. She really hated Jackson and me. We didn't see him that much when they dated. And when we did get to hang out, he was always texting her. I'd never seen him like that. He was completely whipped. It was so bizarre."

  I couldn't imagine Rory being whipped. He was always so in control. Especially in the bedroom. I could feel myself blushing. Maybe that was why. Maybe he resented her for being so bossy. Nothing Connor said so far was a concern at all. I loved Rory's friends. He could hang out with them whenever he wanted. And I would never try to control him. I was a complete pushover. I was barely good at making decisions for myself.

  "I think he thought that she was out of his league or something. Like she was the best he could ever do. And he completely lost it when he found out she cheated on him. He crashed at my place for months and then just disappeared. He didn't even tell me he was going to Italy. When he came back, he seemed completely back to his old self. Except for his desire to fuck every girl in the city. It was like he was taking it out on every girl he met."

  I winced.

  "Sorry, Keira."

  "No, it's fine." I ran my thumb along my coffee cup. For some reason that information was unsettling. I thought about how he was always so in control again. Did he like dominating women to somehow get back at his ex? That was really messed up. Was he actually thinking about her when we were having sex?

  "Keira, I wasn't trying to upset you. Rory is a good guy."

  "But he's super fucked up, right? Isn't that what you said?"

  "I shouldn't have said that before."

  "It doesn't make it untrue." I swallowed hard. "Do you think he still loves her?"

  Connor laughed. "No. I don't think he ever loved her. He just liked the idea of her."

  Because she was out of his league? I felt a pit forming in my stomach. "Do you think he's settling for me?"

  "You're not the type of girl someone settles for, Keira. You're a reacher."

  "A reacher?"

  "Yeah. A girl that someone reaches for." He smiled at me.

  I was overthinking this. Rory wanted to be my boyfriend or he wouldn't have asked. And yes, he liked being in control in bed, but I liked that about him. And last night he wasn't being dominant. He had made love to me. Twice. There was definitely a difference there. We were more than whatever it was he and his horrible ex were. And he hated her for more reasons than her just cheating on him and lying to him. He'd forgive me for the article. He had to. Besides, he and his friends definitely weren't going to sit around in a circle reading boring articles all morning. Everything was fine. I still had time to figure out the best way to tell him.

 

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