Always Remember

smart.” I skip over to him and kiss him lightly. He grabs me, his hands resting on my lower back, and mine press to his chest. He sucks my bottom lip, massaging it gently, and I feel it in the tugs in my lower stomach. Last night flashes back to me, the needy way he held me, the way he moved…
    “Okay,” I breathe, feeling the temperature of the room rise about one hundred degrees. “I need food.” Hot eyes look down at me, and I nod once, moving away. “Yep. I need food. A lot of food.”

BING

    I laugh at the way she mutters to herself as she walks off. I know exactly what she was thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Last night.
    My body tenses as every drop of blood in my body rushes downwards, and my dick rushes upwards. I clench my fists, my eyes trawling her body. She ’s wearing those damn yoga pants again. The ones that hug her hips and cup her ass the same way my hands do. How did I not notice this before?
    Fuck me.
    She looks back at me, her blue eyes shining. Her pink lips curve upwards slightly, and she raises an eyebrow.
    “What?” she asks.
    “I need my food,” I grumble. I grab it from the side, ignoring the way her eyes flick down to the bulge in my pants. She sucks the corner of her top lip into her mouth, and I turn away from her.
    Focus on the food, Bing. Focus. On. The. Food.
    No.
    The painting? Okay.
    Stuffing some chips into my mouth, I lean back on the sofa, my eyes trained on the painting. I wasn’t lying when I said it was amazing. I have no idea how she can pick up a brush and create something like that. I have no idea how the full of life, bubbly Jen I know can sit still for so long, so at peace.
    That was why I didn ’t interrupt her. I could see the peace in her face. It was the way her lips curled up in a soft, calm smile. The way her eyes flit to the window and back, the way she blinked, her lashes fanning her cheeks, and it was the smooth movements of the brush across the canvas as she painted.
    You can see how much she needs it. It calms the fire inside her, letting her just be. I know what that is to her, because the way she feels with the brush in her hand is the way I feel with her in my arms.
    She calms the playboy inside me. She challenges the challenger in me. She softens the hardness inside me.
    She could be everything I’ve always needed.

Chapter Ten

BING

    Lexy throws the dart at the board in my room. “So you haven’t spoken to Heidi?”
    “Why would I have spoken to her?” I scoff. “She might have text me, but it doesn ’t mean I’ve replied.”
    “ Mmm,” she responds, shooting the dart again.
    “ ‘Mmm’? What does ‘mmm’ mean?” I sit up straight just as her dart falls to the floor.
    She sighs. “I just… I don ’t know. It’s Heidi. She was the first girl you ever, well, had sex with more than twice.”
    “And? It was just sex with her.”
    “So you say, Bing, but none of us really know that for sure.” She sighs again, dropping her poised arm. “And you did cheat on her.”
    “Isn ’t that enough to show it was never more than sex?”
    “I don ’t know.” She turns, shrugging. “I know you like Jen, all right? I can see it in how you act around her. Hell, you’ve been like a kettle just before boiling point since she moved here last year. Any time her name was mentioned you went off worse than me with PMS.”
    “I wasn ’t that bloody bad!” I protest. Was I?
    “Uh, yeah, you were.” She raises her eyebrows, smiling a little. “It ’s obvious, Bing, but what is it with her? Really? Is it because you finally attained the unattainable? You finally got the girl? How long will it last, Bing? Huh? Can you tell me that? Because I don’t know.”
    My jaw clenches. “You don ’t need to give me the 411, sis.”
    “No, no, I do. You gave it to Alec-”
    “I’m your brother. I’m supposed to kick guy’s asses for touching you, for fuck sake.”
    “ – And Jen is my best friend, and she doesn’t have anyone to do it for her.” Her brown eyes, a shade darker than mine, are focused on me intently, and I can see her resolve. She isn’t gonna let this go.
    “Fine. You want to know?”
    “Obviously. That’s why I asked, dipshit.”
    I flip her off. “It ’s not just because I finally have her, Lex. It’s more than that. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m falling for her, but I do know she’s nothing like the others. I don’t look at her and see…” I trail off, unable to find the words.
    “Big