Mine Would Be You (74)

“You could make me anything and I’d love it, but I do love those. With the extra chocolate chips?” He grins, and my heart flutters in my chest as I nod.

Jackson turns around, moving towards his fridge, and pulls out a bottle of the sweet Moscato that I like and two glasses. “I got your favorite. Two to be exact.”

“Trying to get me drunk?”

He pours two very large glasses. “I might be. You’re very touchy when you’re drunk. You know I like that.”

I raise a brow. “I touch you all the time.”

Jackson comes over and places my glass in front of me. “I’m feeling needy.”

Instead of answering, I wrap my arms around him, sliding my hands under his T-shirt until I feel the warmth of his skin on my palms. “Better?”

He looks down at me, wetness pooling in his eyes and I can see how badly he wants to go home. It’s obvious he’s afraid of what he might find when he does. Mostly because he tries to hide the clouds and the storms. Always tries to find the sun. But sometimes we can’t push away the rain, no matter how hard we try. Not even Jackson.

But he just nods, resting his chin on the top of my head, and my heart beats deeply and slowly in my chest. Jackson surrounds me not only physically but emotionally as well. He’s the brightest light I’ve ever known, and I wish I could take way the pain that’s dimming that. Not just for me but for him.

But I can’t do that. All I can do is hold him.

So, that’s what I do.

• • •

“New York State of Mind” comes through the speakers as the track changes. The speaker system in his house allows us to hear the record player even from the bedroom, and he hits a remote, turning the volume up.

I’m sitting cross-legged next to him as he leans against the headboard, swaying his shoulders playfully to the song. “I love this song,” he mutters, blinking his eyes open.

I take a sip of my wine. “Never would’ve guessed. Not like you’re obsessed with Billy Joel or anything.”

Jackson blinks, his blue eyes sparkling. “Smarty-pants tonight, my god.”

My tongue swipes out, clearing the stray wine, and his eyes quickly flicker down, focusing on my lips and causing a burst of heat in my stomach and all the way to my toes, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake.

He reaches over and squeezes right above my knee, pulling a small squeal out of my lips. “Hey now, that hurt.” I pout.

“No, it didn’t. You’re just ticklish and don’t want to be tickled, so you say ouch. Like always.”

I open my mouth to argue, but I can’t because he’s right.

“And for that, you should feed me a bite of my cupcake, please.” Jackson grins, and my heart beats quicker for a moment, but I lift the plate in my lap, which previously held four full cupcakes and now only has one and a half left.

I pick up the fork, which I’m only using to avoid getting crumbs in his bed, and hold it out to him, and he makes a slow, dramatic show of taking it off the fork. I raise a brow, because if he was trying to be seductive, which is something he doesn’t need to try at, he failed and only succeeded in getting frosting on his nose.

Jackson ignores it and just leans in for another bite, swaying his shoulders again to the song. He takes the piece of cupcake, singing the song lyrics in between his bites, and his last words are mumbled, “New York state of mind.” He licks his lips to get the stray crumbs of cupcake and a rush of heat takes over my body.

I roll my eyes as he does, ignoring my body’s response.

He takes the plate out of my hand and places it on his nightstand, and before I have time to prepare, he’s sitting up and pulling me onto his lap so that I’m straddling him. Blood rushes past my ears as my adrenaline spikes when his hands slide under my sweatshirt and rest on my waist as he holds us flush to one another.

“You have a little something on your nose,” I mutter, but my voice is breathless, and he moves his thumb in slow circles, and I swear my heart skips a few beats.

The smirk pulling at his lips and the dimples fighting to show tell me he knows that.

He cocks his head slightly. “Do I? Interesting.” I nod, and he quickly leans forward wiping the frosting on my cheek. I squeal, trying to pull away, but his hands keep me locked in place.

A smile grows on my lips, even though there’s frosting on my cheek and still some on his nose. His hand squeezes my waist, and I squirm slightly.

“Hey, you got something on your cheek, did you know that?” He smirks.

“No, I never would’ve guessed. I wonder who did that?”

Jackson shrugs. “I don’t know, but I’ll clean it up for you.”

He leans forward and kisses the bottom of my cheek and slowly flicks his tongue out to clear the beginning of the frosting trail off my face. I swallow hard, my breath catching in my throat as he moves up my cheek, and with each separate press of his lips, he slowly licks the rest of the frosting off my cheek. My entire body is humming, and an instant, hot heat unfurls in my stomach, scattering across the rest of my skin.

My heart is beating so loudly I’m sure he can hear it as he pulls back to smile at me, both dimples on display again.

“You’re a little red. Everything okay?”

I attempt to push away from him, the heat still blooming in my cheeks, but his tight grip keeps me exactly where I am on his lap. And I can feel his entire body harden beneath me, lighting me up all at once.