I scrunched up my nose. “That’s an attractive mental image.”
“Focus on that image for a few seconds.” Backing up, he slammed the door shut.
There wasn’t enough time to truly debate the whole running and him chasing me option. He was in the car and it was moving before my brain caught up with what was happening.
“That cupcake wasn’t for her.”
I didn’t believe him.
“It was for you. Shit, I can’t believe you were going to walk home,” he said, shaking his head as he thrust his fingers through his hair. “Why? Because of me?”
“No. Absolutely not. I just wanted to go home.”
“Yeah. You’re a terrible liar.”
“You have terrible perception,” I snapped, folding my arms. The beer sloshed in my stomach. “And why are you even here? Don’t you have a half-naked chick waiting for you in your bedroom?”
“And that didn’t have anything to do with why you left?”
I opened my mouth, but closed it. Crap. I stared out the window, pressing my lips together. “I was obviously interrupting.”
“Actually, I was glad you interrupted.”
I barked out a laugh. “Sure you were.”
There was a beat of silence as he hooked a right. “That wasn’t what you thought. What was going on in there? Nothing was going to happen.”
“I’m not stupid, Jase. And, honestly, do you even owe me an explanation? No. We’re friends, remember? You can talk to or screw whoever. And I can talk to and screw whoever. After all, I just want to get—”
“I do owe you an explanation, damnit.” He gripped the steering wheel. “And wait—screwing whoever? Who the fuck do you—”
My breath caught in a god-awful way, burning my eyes. “I don’t want to talk.”
“We need to talk,” he interrupted, voice hard. “We needed to talk since yesterday.”
“And I have a phone.” I whipped toward him in the seat, planting my hand on the dashboard. “You haven’t called or anything.”
He sent me a side look. “I figured I’d let you calm down. I would’ve talked to you tonight if Cam wasn’t around.”
“Oh, but I guess you were too busy, huh?” God, I knew I sounded snide and snotty. I needed to shut up.
Jase took a deep breath. “I didn’t invite her up there, Tess. She came up on her own.”
“And I guess she just took her shirt off? Does that happen to you a lot without any warning?” I laughed harshly. “What an interesting life you must lead. Falling on girls’ mouths and having them whipping their shirts off.”
That half grin appeared. “Well, I do live a charmed life . . .”
“Shut up.”
He sighed. “Tess, I’m not lying to you. Okay? Her name is Steph. We’ve messed around a few times, but not recently. I didn’t even know she was going to be here tonight. She came up and she took her shirt off.”
I snorted.
A muscle throbbed along his jaw. “She wanted to do more. I’m not going to lie, I briefly considered it because I’m a guy, but I didn’t, because she’s not who I want. And nothing happened. Her shirt came off a minute before you walked in.”
I stared at him for a moment and then looked away. Believing him was equivalent to walking in front of a car. And damn, I wanted to believe him. The thumping in my chest was begging me to believe him.
“Shit, Tess, I even picked up that cupcake for you.” There was a pause. “Do you really think I would’ve been screwing a girl knowing you were at the party?”
“You didn’t know I was there.”
“I did,” he shot back.
Okay. Whatever. I shrugged.
“Damnit, Tess, you really think that?” He swore again. “You think that?”
“You’ve kissed me and regretted it. You’ve said things you didn’t remember when you were drunk, so—”
Jase hit the brakes and we stopped in the middle of the dark street. My eyes widened as I twisted toward him. “What are you—”
“Nothing has happened between Steph and me for months, Tess. Nothing. And you know what? I’ve never kissed her.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Never. And it’s been years since I’ve actually kissed a girl, so don’t sit there and think you know what happened. You don’t.”
There was a good chance someone was going to come speeding down this road and plow into us. “But you’ve kissed me.”
“I did. Shit, I did kiss you and . . .”
“How can I believe that?” Better yet, why should I believe that? Didn’t matter. Not really.
Jase cursed again, and then his hand was wrapping around the back of my head. When he tugged me forward, my heart jumped. He kissed me. There was nothing slow about it. The kiss was fierce and hard. He kissed me like he was staking a claim or like he hadn’t done so in a very long time. Blood turned to lava in my veins. He broke the kiss, and all I could do was stare at him, my heart pounding crazy fast.
I believed him.