farthest thing from my mind. That we should find a flat surface, get out of these clothes, and make up for all the years I’d lost to being confused about who I was.
But Devin was right. As much as I hated admitting that at twenty-nine goddamned years old, I was nervous as a teenage virgin over this, I was that nervous. I’d been alternately avoiding this closet door, pretending it didn’t exist, and trying to find the courage to open it and walk through it. Tonight, I’d gone crashing through it, splintering it right off the hinges, and…
And I hadn’t even really processed that yet.
“Jase.” He drew the pad of his thumb across my cheekbone. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m…” Fuck, I’d almost started hyperventilating and hadn’t even realized it. Okay, Devin was definitely right—this was as far as I could go tonight without breaking my brain. “Just… It’s all really, really new.” A kiss? God, I sounded so stupid, tripping up this much over kissing someone.
But Devin just smiled and trailed his fingertips down my cheek. “It’s all right. I’d rather take this extra slow and maybe frustrate ourselves a little than go too fast and regret something.”
That settled some of my nerves back down, and I nodded. “Good idea. And I should… I guess I shouldn’t keep you out here all night.”
He glanced at the clock on the dash, and his shoulders drooped a bit. “Damn. Yeah. I should go.” He met my gaze again. “Let me know when you’re back in town.”
“Right. I will. And I’ll, um… See you again soon?”
Devin cupped my cheek and pressed a soft kiss to my lips, sending a flutter of both nerves and excitement right through me. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Oh my God, so am I.
Chapter 8
Devin
I shut the front door of my apartment and leaned against it, mind reeling.
That really… That really happened, right?
I’d just spent the last however many minutes making out in an Aston Martin with Jase Kelly?
Oh yeah. Yeah, I had. I swore I could still feel the cool softness of his hair between my fingers and the heat of his mouth moving with mine. I was still hard, for God’s sake. Probably because my brain couldn’t let go of that very, very hot exchange that had started fogging up the windows of the car. The car that I would never even be able to afford to test drive, and that was owned by…
Oh my God.
Weeks of texting and emailing still hadn’t done anything to keep me from getting starstruck over him at the bar tonight. Making out with him in the parking lot? My dreams didn’t get this wild.
Tony strolled in from the living room, sat down in the doorway, and judged me. He stared up at me, yellow eyes narrow and full of where the hell were you? and why is the bottom of my food dish visible? I laughed quietly—I could spend a few minutes making out with a celebrity in an expensive car, and all it took was a blistering glare from my cat to remind of my place in the world.
Shaking my head, I pushed myself off the door and headed for the kitchen to make sure the little shit had food. And while I was in there, I needed… I don’t know. A beer, maybe. Coffee? Some cold water splashed in my face?
But going into the kitchen meant crossing the living room, and as soon I stepped into the living room, my gaze went straight to the most prominent piece of our Snow Bears collection—the signed poster of Jase. I stopped in my tracks.
Whoa. That was weird. Staring at that image of him frozen in time on the ice, it was like I could see three different people in one set of intense dark eyes:
The fearless, unstoppable hockey god.
The sweet, caring man who’d pulled out all the stops for my kid.
And the confused, closeted guy who’d slammed headlong into his own sexuality when we’d kissed over the center console of his car.
I’d been chatting with him for the last couple of weeks. Making friends with him. Maybe even flirting a little. And tonight…
I pushed out a breath. That particular poster was one of my favorite shots of him because it was so dynamic, catching him in the middle of a sharp turn with ice crystals spraying up from his skates while his attention was laser-focused on something off-camera. It was impressive and hot, and now I actually knew the guy in