Yeah, he could picture that for sure. The problem was the damn image was turning him on, especially because that’s not what happened last night. After he made her sing his praises to the heavens—“oh my god Reeve, that feels so good, no one has ever made me feel this good before, this feels so abso-fucking-lutely amazing”—in a chorus she repeated many times, she’d curled her up with her dog, said thanks, and then sent him on his way.
“You ready to go get some pancakes?” Jill said to Reeve since they were planning on grabbing a late breakfast at a nearby cheap diner.
“Yup.”
Then, there was a flurry of activity in the hall. Both Jill and Reeve glanced in the direction of the sound. Jill’s roommate Kat had just rushed out of her room, and was jamming her arms into a coat. She had on jeans and boots and a frazzled look on her face. Her long brown hair was loose.
“Hey. I have to go see my professor now.”
“You going to go sweet talk him into giving you an A?” Jill said in a teasing voice.
But Kat looked deadly serious. She shook her head. “No,” she said heavily. “I’m going to tell him that I’m totally madly in love with my mentor for the class.”
“Whoa.”
Then, Kat noticed Reeve. “Oh, hey. How’s it going?”
“Good. And good luck with that chat with your professor.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” Jill asked Kat.
Kat nodded. “I have to. I can’t keep playing games and sneaking around. After what happened in Paris…” Kat let her voice trail off and Reeve noticed something pass between the girls. A secret. Something about what had happened in Paris between Kat and, presumably, the mentor dude she was in love with.
Jill nodded, her blond ponytail bouncing once as if in agreement. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. We’re rooting for you.”
Kat grabbed Jill in a hug, then rushed off.
Jill turned to Reeve as she shut and locked the door. “Love is in the air, I suppose. I wonder if I’ll get my turn.”
“You’re too in love with Broadway. I can’t imagine there’d be any room for a dude.”
“If that dude was Patrick Carlson, maybe,” Jill mused as they walked down the stairs. “My audition with him for Crash the Moon is in four days and counting.”
“Not that you’re ticking off every minute.”
“No. Not at all.”
“You should just go right up to him and tell him you’ve only been madly in love with him since you were in high school.”
“Speaking of madly in love, how’s it going as man-for-hire?” Jill asked as they reached the sidewalk and headed to the diner.
Reeve shrugged, then gave Jill the latest update. “Maybe she’s the player. Maybe she’s just playing me for sex.”
“And that bothers you because?”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Reeve said, but his voice trailed off.
Jill’s eyes went wide and she stopped, putting her hands on her hips. “You have fallen for Sutton Brenner.”
He scoffed. “Hardly. Now, c’mon. Let’s go,” he said, feeling pretty proud of himself for pulling off that convincing performance.
Then he remembered what Kat did for a living. She was a jewelry designer. “Hey, Jill. Think your roommate can do me a favor?”
Sutton sent a car to pick up Reeve. She knew if she saw his apartment, she’d start to feel more for him, and she couldn’t allow that. The week was nearly up and they could soon return to passing acquaintances. Fine, he was an acquaintance who hit notes on her body that had never been played before. He’d gone down on her the night before and delivered two out-of-this-world orgasms that made her feel as if the sun and moon and solar system were rotating around her, that the sheer wattage of pleasure he’d given her with his mouth and tongue and lips could power the universe.
Still, she’d simply have to tuck him into the faraway corner of her brain after tonight. But his prowess with her body wasn’t the most unjust part of this whole week. The real rub was this—he was sweet, and he was good, and he could keep up with her. He was his own man, with his own opinions, and he wasn’t afraid of a thing. There were times when he seemed to genuinely care for her, and there were times when he touched her in a way that went beyond the intense charge between them. The way he’d kissed her on the library steps with a kind of reverence, as if he’d missed her. And the way he’d laid her down on her bed and spread her legs as if he were hungry for her, not just her body, but her.
She waved her hand in front of her face, as if she could rid herself of these ludicrous notions, then she appraised herself one last time in the mirror. She had on a pretty dove gray dress with long sleeves and a hemline that hit just above the knees. Then her black leather boots, and a single silver bracelet on her right wrist. She’d pinned her hair up as usual, and she wore her glasses, her twin efforts to look twenty-eight, rather than the twenty-one she was often mistaken for. She looked sophisticated and sharp, and when the town car arrived with Reeve already in the back seat, so handsome in his charcoal slacks, green button down, and a tie, she felt a surge of happiness at seeing her boyfriend.
Then she remembered he was only her pretend boyfriend, so she tamped it down. “You look very nice,” she said to him.
“As do you. And look,” he said tipping his forehead to a plate on the seat next to him, full of chocolate chip cookies covered in saran wrap. “Remember I told her in your office I made great chocolate chip cookies?”
Sutton beamed. “You are the perfect boyfriend.”
“And I have something for you,” he added.
She raised an eyebrow curiously, as he removed from his pocket a small velvet pouch, then reached inside. Something sparkled in his hand, and it looked almost like a diamond. Her eyes widened, and she let that joyful feeling return. She did love shiny objects.
“It’s just a little something. It’s not a real diamond, and I’m not trying to claim it’s real, but I thought we could pretend it’s a placeholder ring while you get yours resized.” He held the ring in his palm and with his other hand, he reached for her.
Her heart skipped a beat as he slid the ring onto her finger. “Oh, Reeve. I love it. How did you get it? It fits perfectly.”
He shrugged sheepishly. “I’m actually pretty good with sizes. It’s this strange hidden talent of mine. And my friend Jill’s roommate is a jewelry designer, so she knocked this out for us.”