“Then I’ll keep doing it. But if you learn you don’t like something, all you have to do is tell me.”
They regarded one another seriously for a moment, Felix’s mind casting back to the evening before, when he’d called her “baby.” It wouldn’t surprise him if Jo were thinking about the same thing.
“I will,” she agreed. “And you should speak up if there’s anything you don’t like too.”
“Of course.” He waited a beat to see if she had more to add. When she didn’t, he shifted his voice to a more playful tone. “Now, you already know how much I like your teasing, but I think we’ve both waited enough. Come here.”
He gripped her ass, her glorious ass, and bent his knees. Jo got the drift and jumped as he hefted her up. Her legs locked around his waist. She was taller than him now, and he had to tilt his head up to kiss her. Jo draped her forearms over his shoulders, twining her fingers through his hair.
“Let me go down on you tonight, Jo,” he said. “I want to know what your pussy tastes like.”
“Only if I can suck your cock in return. Taste your come.”
Fuck. Yes. He fought to keep his voice even, controlled, while inside he was screaming those words again and again. “I think that can be arranged.”
“Thank Christ.” Jo captured his mouth again and squeezed her legs around him hard enough to make him grunt. The wet spot between her legs was hot and damp against his shirt.
Felix was grateful to have grown up around his grandparents’ house. He knew where every wall and piece of furniture was without needing to look. He kept kissing her as he took her into the guest bedroom, stopping only to toss her onto the bed. Jo let out a gleeful squeal as she landed. He switched on a lamp so he could watch her come and covered her body with his.
19
For the second morning in a row, Jo woke up holding Felix. When they were awake, it tended to be the other way around; Jo cuddled up against his broad body, his arm slung protectively around her. But sometime in the night, as they slept, she became the one who protected him. His back curled against her chest, her arm around his waist, her leg covering his hip. The big spoon to his little spoon.
Was it weird that she wanted to stay in this moment forever? That she didn’t want to wake up without Felix beside her ever again? Must be some bizarre intimacy hangover from sharing a hotel room with him for three days. Sure, they’d heard each other pee through the wall and seen each other straight out of the shower, but they hadn’t even gone on a real date, for Christ’s sake. She really shouldn’t be thinking about what it would be like to live with the man. Maybe here, in this house. With its bright green door and its cabinet full of Lita’s old mugs. With the big tree in the front yard and this amazingly comfy bed. With the darling wooden ducks on the mantle and a real basement to stay safe from tornadoes in.
Jesus Christ, Jo. Stop it this instant.
Indi-Con with Felix hadn’t just accelerated their relationship. It had shoved them into a Formula One car and sent them flying around the track at hundreds of miles per hour without helmets. Jo didn’t regret a minute of their whirlwind weekend together, but now that they were back… what next? If they kept going at this breakneck speed, she’d be moving in by the end of the week. No way could that be healthy. Sooner or later, they would crash.
Ashville was meant to be her fresh start. To figure out where her life would go from here. To see what it was like to be herself, by herself. Felix made that complicated. Jo wanted to be with him more than anything else in the world. To use his phrase, she was very (very) into him. But, after Jeremy, how did she know she wasn’t simply grabbing onto the first man who came along who was good and kind? Who made her feel safe, and who claimed to tolerate her love of MnM?
Stay. Please.
Her arm tightened around Felix’s waist, and she rested her forehead between his shoulder blades. Closing her eyes, she let herself feel his deep, even breaths. She didn’t loosen her hold until he finally began to stir.
He rolled over and wrapped his leg around hers, locking their knees and ankles together. His hand splayed over her hip. Jo smiled and pushed his jet-black waves off his forehead.
“Morning,” he mumbled, his eyes still closed.
“Good morning, sleepyhead.”
“What time is it?”
She twisted to look at the clock on the nightstand. “Almost ten.”
Felix grumbled and ran his hand over his eyes. He slowly blinked them open. “I never sleep this late.”
“Cons are exhausting,” Jo said. “And you drove most of the way yesterday.”
“Don’t forget the part where you wore me out last night.”
“Are you complaining about that, old man?” She scratched her nails softly through his stubble, not unlike how she gave Merry chin rubs. Felix practically purred, a hum so deep it rumbled through his chest. He leaned into her touch as goosebumps rose over his neck and shoulders.
“Not at all.”
He scootched his head forward and kissed her.
As soon as they got up, real life would kick in. Felix would go to work and Jo would go home to feed and cuddle Merry. She’d go grocery shopping and soak off her nail polish and put away her MnM stuff. She’d do laundry and go to bed early for her morning shift.
And maybe, just maybe, she’d rein herself in a little bit. Think of Felix more like the new boyfriend he was rather than fantasize about moving in with him. Keep having the best sex of her life, obviously, but make sure she slept in her own bed more than his. She could do that.
Probably.
But not yet. All of that could wait a little longer. She kissed Felix back. She drew him against her body, and she held on tight.
From: Felix Navarro
To: Jo Rainier
Date: Tuesday, May 28, 2024, 4:50 P.M.
Subject: Advertising at ACC on Sunday
Dear Jo,
