Straight Up Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #2)(25)

I’ve always wanted to give Ava everything, but for once I’m thinking of offering her what she wants. But on my terms. Would she go for it? Or would she panic and shut me out?

I walk into the room, slide the coffees on the bedside table, and put the donut box next to them. “Good morning, sleepyhead.” I lower myself to sit on the bed.

Her eyes flutter open and she looks at the clock then at me. “Good morning.” Her voice is husky from sleep and tugs at my gut. “What are you doing here?”

I open my mouth to answer, and she stretches—both arms over her head, her back arched, her breasts thrust forward—and I forget her question.

She blinks at me. “Is everything okay?”

Right. Words. Use your words, Jake. “I just wanted to check on you. You never texted me last night, and I wanted to make sure you weren’t tied up in some creep’s basement this morning.”

“Oh, shit.” She pushes herself up in bed and the sheets fall, exposing her thin tank top and the outline of her perfect breasts beneath it.

Her eyes are up there. But I don’t know that I can be trusted to keep my eyes where they should be, so I turn my attention to her coffee, handing her a cup.

“You’re a prince. I’m sorry I didn’t text. Last night was so weird that I just wanted to get home and wash it all off.” She shudders delicately.

“What happened?” My guard goes up immediately. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just . . . my date was my boss.”

“Mr. Mooney?”

“Yeah.”

“Gross.”

“It gets worse,” she says. “He made a move on me.”

“Do I want to know what Mr. Mooney’s idea of a move is?”

“He tried to put his hand up my skirt.”

I jump to standing. “He did what?” I’m already reaching into my pocket for my keys, ready to head out the door.

“Jake, calm down.”

Brayden and Mark Mooney graduated high school together. Mark was the recipient of the one fight I’ve ever heard of Brayden getting into. Brayden was the poster child of a good kid, but he let loose on Mark. I remember sullen-faced Brayden sitting at the kitchen table with a shiner, waiting for Dad to get home and learn of his two-day suspension. Mark had been harassing this girl for weeks, Brayden told Dad, and when the girl told the school counselors how uncomfortable it made her, they told her Mark was a boy with a crush and his attention was harmless. But that day, when Mark grabbed her ass in the hallway, Brayden had been there, and he’d decided someone needed to teach Mark the consequences of touching a woman who doesn’t want to be touched.

“Mooney is slime,” I growl.

Ava shakes her head. “Nothing happened.”

“And nothing’s going to happen. Somebody needs to remind him—”

“Jake.” She grabs my wrist. Like always, the feel of Ava’s skin on mine calms me. She only holds for a beat before releasing me, and like always, I find the contact too brief. “He apologized, and we parted on good terms. Don’t make a bigger deal about this than it is.”

“Fuck.” I drag a hand through my hair and study her face. “Are you sure?”

“He didn’t steal my virtue,” she says around a smile. “Just my Saturday night.”

“He shouldn’t have touched you.”

“Agreed, but when I made it clear I wasn’t interested, he apologized.”

I force my shoulders down and my fists to release. “I never would have imagined Mooney using Straight Up Casual. Don’t they screen their clients or something?”

“Don’t be mean.” She wrinkles her nose. “I mean, objectively he’s a catch. He’s got a good job. He’s good-looking.”

“Mooney? You think Mooney is good-looking?”

She takes a long gulp of her coffee and shrugs. “Intellectually, I can see that he has the characteristics of an attractive man, yes. I’m not saying I’m attracted to him.” She does an up-and-down motion, waving toward my body. “It’s like you. I can look at you and know you’re attractive, but that doesn’t mean I want to jump into bed with you.”

I ignore that kick in the nuts and arch a brow. “Now you’re lumping me in with Mooney?”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re much better looking than him and way more fun to be around. Does that help? Does your fragile male ego feel a little appeased now?”

Not really.

“Whatever, whether he’s a stud or a dud doesn’t matter,” she says. “I don’t understand guys who think they need to push themselves on women. Does that ever work out? Are there women who like that?”

I take a deep breath. “I wouldn’t know, because I’m nothing like Mooney.” I try to deliver my answer casually, but the words feel like they’re being pushed out through two grinding stones.

She sighs and holds her coffee to her chest, right between her breasts. “Anyway, it’s over. Now if we could never speak of it again, I’ll be golden.”

“You need to tell the administration,” I say, and Christ, I still want to hit something. “What he did was inappropriate on so many levels.”

“It’s not his fault that Straight Up Casual set us up. It’s a blind-date service.”