“I...well.” She closed her eyes, drew in a breath. “I want Jase.” And now there was no taking the words back. She peeked through her lashes. “I want him for me, not for you. And I think...I think he wants me, too.”
Jessie Kay paused with her fork midway to her mouth. She peered at Brook Lynn with wide blue eyes underscored by dismay. “You...and Jase? My Jase.”
Her stomach twisted, a single word screaming through her head. Mine! She bit her bottom lip, nodded. “Do you love him? Please, please tell me you don’t love him. Because we kissed. He and I. While I was in the hospital, and then again while I was at his house. There might have been some grinding the second time. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I know you want him, too, and know you had him first, but...”
“Wait. He kissed you? As in, mouth to mouth?”
Her brow furrowed with confusion as she said, “Yes...”
Bemusement and sadness warred on her sister’s face. “He slept with me, but he didn’t kiss me. Not on the mouth.”
“No, stop,” Brook Lynn said, slapping a hand over the mouth in question. “I don’t want to hear this.”
Jessie Kay pried her fingers loose. “I thought it was a Pretty Woman thing, that he didn’t think he was good enough to give alms at the door of my temple.” Her shoulders slumped. “Dude. He didn’t think I was good enough for him.”
This. This was what Brook Lynn had hoped to avoid. “He’s clearly a moron.”
“And yet you still want him.”
“I have bad taste.”
Her sister rolled her eyes.
“You are good enough for him. You just aren’t right for him. There’s a difference.”
“True, but somehow I’m never the right one for the guys I sleep with. But that’s my problem, not yours.” Jessie Kay pegged her with a hard stare. “Are you sure Jase is the one for you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I guess you need to know what to expect. Being with him was—”
“No! Don’t say it.”
“—weird,” Jessie Kay finished, and Brook Lynn frowned.
“Weird?” Not pure ecstasy? “What do you mean? You appeared so satisfied afterward.”
“Oh, I was. But anytime I touched him, he stiffened, and not in a good way. He constantly looked over his shoulder, as if he expected someone to sneak up on us. After a while, I just had to lie back and let him do all the work. You know, every girl’s dream.”
He’d stiffened? Looked over his shoulder? She thought back, but couldn’t remember if he’d done either of those things while they were in bed together. She’d been too overwhelmed with pleasure.
“He won’t commit afterward,” Jessie Kay said. “You told me so yourself.”
“I know that,” she said with a sigh.
“But you’re going to sleep with him anyway, aren’t you?” Jessie Kay leaned back and crossed her arms. “Even though you’ve denied every other guy you’ve ever dated.”
“I haven’t denied every one.”
“Your short-lived romance with Conner doesn’t count.”
Conner, the boy who used to live next door. He’d moved away for college, met the love of his life and had never come home. “Why doesn’t it count?”
“He only ever lasted a minute. Two, tops. And yes, I heard you guys. Well, I heard him. You were as quiet as a mouse.” Her head tilted to the side. “I wonder if Jase will be able to make you scream.”
A white-hot burn in her cheeks. She already knew the answer to that.
Conner had been kind and sweet, but Brook Lynn had never reacted to him the way she’d reacted to Jase. All in, nothing held back. Attuned to his every nuance.
“I want Jase no matter what,” she said, realizing it was true. Even if he ended things after one night. With him, she would take what she could get. “Are you mad at me? Please don’t be mad at me.”