Standby (Open Skies Book 4) by Becca Jameson (popular e readers .TXT) 📕

“Am I rushing you, Shayla?”

She shook her head. “No. Don’t forget I’m the nympho who has been trying to get you to sleep with me all week. You’re the chivalrous one.”

“Yeah, but that’s sex. I hope you didn’t spend the whole week thinking all I wanted you for was sex?” He swallowed. “Or, more importantly, I hope sex wasn’t all you wanted from me.” When did he get all sensitive and caring? Oh right, last Saturday when he realized Shayla wasn’t just a pretty woman. She was someone he wanted to build something with. That was why he hadn’t slept with her in the first place.

“Of course not. I’m just…a little off-balance is all.”

Jake’s head was spinning. The air in the room had gone from playful to thick. Had she seriously thought he was just a player who intended to fuck her a few times and then move on?

Jesus, he really liked her. He’d intentionally forced himself to keep his hands off her this entire week so that she would know he was serious. So that their relationship wouldn’t be based on sex or start from sex. What he’d learned was that he liked her more than he’d expected. And he’d already expected that he wouldn’t want to let her go.

And now she was pulling back. Because she didn’t feel the same way about him? Or because, as she implied, she had no experience with men giving a fuck about her?

That last idea was sad. He could also fix that.

“So, you’ve never had a boyfriend?”

She picked up her fork and pushed her pasta around. “Not a serious one.”

“May I ask why?” He was starting to worry she didn’t want one.

She sighed. “Never met anyone worthy of the title.”

“No pressure or anything,” he teased, hoping to lighten the mood.

At least she smiled.

“Listen, I didn’t realize you were confused about my intentions. I was serious last week when I said I wanted us to get to know each other this week before we jumped into bed. Not because I didn’t want to sleep with you but because I did. If that makes any sense.”

She nodded slightly. “I know you said that, but I guess I thought you were trying to be nice because I had so much on my plate and I was still dealing with Hawke. Who wants to date a woman with that kind of baggage?”

“Me?”

She smiled again. “Okay.”

“We’ve basically been on like seven dates. Every night since last Saturday. I think seven dates is a record for not sleeping with a woman. I sort of thought I was proving to you that this is important to me. I didn’t realize you took it differently.”

“Honestly, it’s not that I took it differently exactly. It’s just that I stuffed your words in the back of my brain because they didn’t make much sense to me.”

Jake stared at her. He felt bad for her in a way. She really had dated some assholes, though he wasn’t about to point that out again. Either that or she had commitment issues.

Chapter 14

As far as Shayla was concerned, this evening wasn’t going well. How had things veered so far off-course? Maybe because you acted like an idiot and insulted the man sitting across from you?

She had heard what he’d said last Saturday. Every word. Somehow she hadn’t taken him quite as seriously as he’d intended. He wanted a commitment from her, and he was willing to commit himself. And, damn, she wasn’t opposed to that at all. It sounded nice. She was simply startled and therefore botching it miserably.

If she thought about it, the reason she’d ignored his chivalrous decision to not have sex for a week was more out of self-preservation than anything else. She refused to think things could progress to something permanent with him.

Jake was the entire package. If she had a checklist of attributes she wanted in a man, he would hit all of them and then some. Hell, the man cooked, and he’d spent the first week of their odd relationship helping her get rid of the last guy. Who did that?

“Shayla?”

He looked so nervous, like she’d stabbed his puppy or was threatening to. She needed to find some words. “I’ve never been as interested in anyone in my life as I am in you, Jake. It just scares me, so I think I’ve been pretending it wasn’t real, or at least wasn’t real for you, so that I wouldn’t be disappointed when it all fell apart.”

He sucked in a breath, blinking at her. His hands dropped to his jeans and he rubbed them on his thighs. In a moment he narrowed his gaze and then smiled slowly. “You…are not…playing fair.”

She frowned. “How’s that?”

“Because now I want to grab you around the waist and slam you up against the wall.”

She cringed. “The last guy who slammed me against a wall has now been stalking me for three months.”

He winced. “Bad choice of words, but believe me, after I slam you against a wall, you’ll beg me to do it again.”

She shuddered and then crossed her legs and squeezed them together. “Challenge accepted.” She gave him her most coy smile.

He groaned and then took a deep breath and leveled her with his gaze. “Sweetheart, I’m not playing around here. I didn’t ask you out so I could get in your pants and then walk away. I’m interested in more. A lot more. Can you handle that?”

“Yes.” She could. Absolutely. She just needed to trust that her heart wouldn’t end up trampled on in doing so because, just like he expressed, she really liked him too. A fuck of a lot. If he fucked her and walked away, it was going to hurt.

He pointed at her food. “Eat your dinner and then go to your room.”

She tipped her head to one side and gave him what felt like a very odd smile. “Pardon?”

He grinned. “If you hang around in the same room with me tonight, I’ll never make it