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Day by day by day Our love grows
"Jake," Alex complained with a childish whine, crossing her hands over her chest in the show of defiance. "You need to change."
They were supposed to be meeting the others for dinner and were already running late, as was to be expected with Jake, but they'd never make a showing at the restaurant if he didn't knock it off soon.
He threw a suggestive smirk over his shoulder while collecting his wallet from the coffee table and slipping it inside the pocket of his jacket. "What's wrong with this?"
Alex audibly groaned. He knew exactly what he was doing, and images of the last several days holed up in his house flashed before her mind. The day's old bedsheets gathered at the end of the mattress, the clothes they hadn't bothered to don in piles scattered across the floor, the collection of takeout containers littering the coffee table because they couldn't be bothered to leave-loathing the time when their sanctity split under the weight of reality.
She set him with a firm glare that was altogether lacking in its intended strife. "If you insist on wearing that, we're never going to make the reservation. You know you look too good in blue."
Usually, she'd refrain from inflating his already ballooned ego, but things had shifted after their night at the winery. All the previous pretense was lost with the confessions and promises of commitment. It no longer felt like they were walking on eggshells but had submerged themselves in the warm waters of devotion.
And, dammit, the way the cobalt blue blazer accentuated his features and colored his honey brown eyes wasn't helping Alex stay to course at all.
He met her in the kitchen, where she was obstinately pressing her hip against the counter in a false display of irritation. "A little tardy, then?" Jake asked, his voice husky, and she tried not to get lost amidst the gravely sound of it and the mischievous twinkle glint behind his eyes.
"No," she argued even as his wicked, wayward hands landed on her hips, his thumbs bunching up her shirt as he sought out the skin beneath it. "We're already late enough."
The way she leaned into him, pressing their bodies flush together, betrayed the lack of commitment she'd tried to instill with her words. "Come on," he continued, running his fingertips along the strip of flesh he'd exposed above her skirt, relishing the way goosebumps rose in their wake. "We've been more late for less profound reasons."
"The others are expecting us," Alex tried to argue, but the assertion came out as a stuttering sigh. Odds were, Josh, Danny, and Sam wouldn't prove timely either, but she knew if she caved now, they'd be back upstairs and beneath the sheets of his bed in no time-all hopes of making it to dinner fading away in a tide of heady longing.
He nodded like he was considering her warning, but his hands slid around her sides to splay on her back where they worked to tug them roughly together, eliciting a gasp from Alex's already open mouth. "I don't consider that as large of an issue as you seem to," Jake reasoned while peering down at her from beneath his long lashes. "Plus, there are still a few rooms we haven't christened yet."
She nearly shook at the suggestion, and the resolve that was her unamused stare must have crumbled because Jake chuckled knowingly before dropping his hands to her thighs and lifting Alex to sit on the island, wedging himself between her splayed legs. Her hands jumped to his shoulders to stabilize herself with the shift, and they subconsciously carded through the locks that rested there.
He looked too pleased with the new position and the stunned silence it spurned from her, so Alex pulled at the ends of his tangled hair to vie for some of the autonomy he'd just stolen from her. "You think you're cute, don't you?"
Jake let a sharp breath out through his nose as his palms ran up the length of bare skin between her knee and hip. Alex's skirt had risen when he'd abruptly moved her, and it allowed his wandering hands to rove higher than ideal, given she'd been steadfast in the resolve to leave. "I think you think I'm cute," he said teasingly, and when his head dipped to her shoulder, placing featherlight kisses to the juncture of her neck, she had to bite back a sigh.
"Fuck," she meant to just think it, but the simper slipped off her tongue unabated, and she could feel his lips pull into a smile against the sensitive skin of her throat, which he was still peppering with attention. The fists clasping to his problematic blue blazer tightened when he nipped at a spot below her ear, his tongue sliding out to soothe the mark where he'd nicked it.
It was always something these days-a touch, a brush, a graze, a nip. They were two objects that were forever attracted to each other, distance had been the only issue, and that threat was eliminated now. Each time their forms met, it sent a jolt to her heart and a hum through her body-buzzing with adrenaline like she'd had too much caffeine, but the only stimulation she needed now was Jake.
Alex's nimble fingers slid over his shoulders, past the planes of his chest where the lax grey t-shirt lay loose, and down to his belt where she hesitated. They really were going to miss dinner with the band if she allowed them to drop just an inch or two further south.
She was about to say screw it, about to cave under the desperate need his affection had ignited within her like a roaring flame. Her hand would drop to cup him through the well-worn jeans, and they'd tighten-what was once soft and mailable would tighten under her ministrations.
Just a second more, and Alex would allow herself the satisfaction of letting him consume her across the kitchen island for the first time-but Jake suddenly drew away.
He took two measured steps back, leaving the space between her legs suddenly hollow and uncomfortably throbbing. "Maybe later," he smirked devilishly while working his fingers through the hair she'd unsettled around his shoulders. "We do have a dinner to get to."
She wanted to hop down from the counter to smack him for having the audacity to leave her a panting and wanting mess without conclusion, but she'd been reduced to a boneless puddle with just the smallest of actions. So, instead, Alex watched helplessly as Jake walked back to the living room, chuckling proudly to himself as he went.
