The Love Square (12 page)

Chapter 10

Clare

Clare woke around midnight, startled and disoriented. Her head pounded and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Lucas sighed and stretched next to her, shirtless, asleep on his back.

Oh yeah
, she thought.
I’m in Cliffville. Happy hour. Lucas.
Clare resisted the urge to push his dark hair over his ears. She tried to reconstruct the ride home, but her brain hurt and the memory part of it wasn’t yet working properly.

Thankful she was fully clothed, she stumbled in the dark to Lucas’s bathroom. She splashed water on her face and scooped some into her dry mouth.
How much did I drink?
She opened his medicine cabinet, found the ibuprofen and popped three, then crawled back into bed.

Lucas looked peaceful sleeping under the quilt her mother made him years ago for his twenty-first birthday. She admired his chest as it rose and fell with his breaths and stopped herself from reaching for him.
I have to talk to him in the morning. I can’t touch him now.

Memories of Lucas flooded her mind, all their firsts, all the times they’d said forever. She wasn’t sure she had the gumption to break his heart. With Lucas, she settled. His mere presence calmed her, and she sank into his comfortableness like sinking into the quilt her mother had made.

But Dylan? With Dylan she fought butterflies.

This is all so confusing.
Way too confusing to deal with in the middle of the night.

Lucas opened his eyes and caught her looking. “Are you really here?” he asked groggily. He reached out and touched her cheek. “You look like a dream.”

Clare grinned. “Sleep, Luke. I’ll be here in the morning.”

He fell back asleep as they faced each other, and she flirted with the idea of calling Dylan. She drifted off instead.
It’s Saturday already
, she thought as her eyes closed
. I’ll see Dylan tomorrow night.

***

Jenna

Jenna woke tangled in sheets, forgetting herself until she saw Dylan next to her. Sunlight filtered through the edges of the windows, but the room remained dim. She looked at the clock—9:15—the latest Jenna had slept in years. She couldn’t remember the last time she had woken feeling as satisfied or content.

She couldn’t resist touching Dylan. She inched her face closer to his body, near his shoulder, until she felt the heat from his skin warm her cheek. He didn’t respond.

She moved even closer and let her nose touch his shoulder.
Nothing.

She puckered her lips and kissed his arm gently. Again, he didn’t move. “Heavy sleeper,” she whispered and then left him alone, content to lie next to him and bask.
For now.

The foggy details of the night before crept into her mind. She’d recognized Dylan immediately from Alex’s photos and Google-stalking. In person, though, he gave off an irresistibly charming vibe, and Jenna fell under his trance immediately. When he’d kissed her, she shivered from her head to her toes, having forgotten how amazingly awesome the opposite sex could be. And now those beautiful lips were inches away from her.

Jenna wiggled around to attempt to wake him up, but Dylan didn’t budge.
Maybe he’s not a morning person.

Giving up, she sat on the edge of the bed and stretched, then walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, setting the showerhead to massage. She stepped in, letting the pressure of the hot water relax her muscles. She closed her eyes and soaked her hair, thinking of how perfect Dylan’s touch had felt on her body just hours ago.

Jenna hoped he wouldn’t feel weird when he woke up from their whirlwind night. She wasn’t exactly in her comfort zone, either. Alex had told her time and again that Dylan wasn’t the kind of guy who did exactly what he’d done last night, and she certainly wasn’t that kind of girl. According to Alex, Dylan was the good guy in the group—not the guy who had random hookups. In fact, Alex made Dylan sound like a candidate for her open prince position.
I guess we shall see.

Alex.
Jenna tried to feel guilty but didn’t. Alex had been her first choice, and he didn’t want her. He’d even encouraged Dylan to approach her. Obviously, he didn’t care what happened between her and Dylan, and she was tired of being rejected.

Jenna rubbed the hotel shampoo into her hair and took her time rinsing it out. She smiled when she heard the bathroom door click open.

Dylan opened the shower door and joined her under the water, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing his chest against her back.

She flipped around and caught him smiling sleepily at her. “Good morning, beautiful,” he said. Jenna felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders at his pleasant, sexy greeting.

“Hi, yourself,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Whatcha doing?” He bent to kiss her arm, and his hair flopped over his forehead.

“Conditioning. Wanna help?”

Jenna unwrapped her arms from his neck to hand him the conditioner. As he squeezed it into his hand and started gently rubbing it into her hair, she embraced him again. She leaned back to rinse it out without letting go and sighed as he ran his hands through her hair to help.

“Do me?” he asked as he reached behind her for the shampoo.

“I did.”

He grinned, and she almost passed out right there in the shower. “I mean my hair.”

“Oh, so you joined me in here to actually get clean, not dirty.” Jenna let go of him and bent her head under the water to rinse more thoroughly.

“Maybe we can do both.”

She watched as he shampooed his hair, admiring the way his triceps flexed and his back muscles popped out under his armpits.
Really
? This
is standing naked in front of me? Talk about ending a drought.
She wanted to run her hands down his sides, feel every inch of him. She lathered her hands with soap and did just that.

He rinsed his hair in the sloppy way men do and opened his eyes just as she reached around his back. She pressed her chest against his, sharing his bubbles, pleased with his body’s reaction.

Eagerly, he lifted her chin and kissed her mouth, then trailed his lips down her neck. “Jenna,” he murmured as she lifted her leg around his waist. “Let’s go back to bed.”

Jenna’s brain moved in slow motion, but her body followed him out of the bathroom and back toward the giant, messy bed. They stood next to it, wet and naked, as he slowly kissed her, tangling his hands in her wet hair. She let her head drop back to entice him lower, and he trailed his tongue down her jawbone, down the side of her neck to her shoulders.

“You have the most gorgeous neck I have ever seen,” he murmured into her ear.

She’d heard that before, from Alex.
“It’s like a giraffe,”
he’d said. She’d thrown something at him and he’d quickly added,
“Like a gorgeous giraffe! Your neck is gorgeous.”

Chills shot up her spine when Dylan brushed his lips against her throat, bringing her back to now.
Fairy tale or not, I’ll take this reality
, she thought.

“I could kiss your neck all day,” he said.

“Please do. Hmm, you are so good at that.” She dipped her head under his cheek to kiss his lips again and pressed her body against his, pushing him down onto the bed. Straddling him, she sat back and looked at him underneath her, stretched out on his back.

He put his hands behind his head, and she leaned forward to hold his biceps. “What are you thinking about?” he teased, smiling up at her.

I’m thinking you look like a prince.
“I’m thinking about what I want to do with you.”

He reached up for her and gently pulled her to him, and Jenna kissed him in a way that showed playtime was over. Her body tingled in anticipation for what was to follow, and she gladly let him roll her over on her back and settle between her thighs.

“Jenna,” he murmured as he reached for the condoms.

“Hmm,” she managed.

“Did I tell you last night that you are fucking awesome?” He ripped the package open with his teeth and spit out the piece of wrapper.

“I don’t remember.” She smiled and feigned confusion. He had told her. More than once.

“I never want to leave this room.”

“Then let’s not.”

Afterward, Jenna rested her head on Dylan’s chest while he played with her hair. Her scalp tickled as he gently tugged the messy strands.

They dozed in and out of consciousness for minutes or hours, until Jenna bolted upright.

“Dylan! What time is it?” She looked for her phone and tried to navigate through the mess of sheets. “Aren’t you supposed to be on a red carpet?”

Dylan pulled her back down. “I don’t want to go.” He tried to spoon her, but she wiggled away, sitting up again and covering her chest with a pillow.

“Shit! It’s noon, and I vaguely remember something about lunch. Or was it brunch? Aren’t we supposed to meet everyone?” Jenna rubbed her scalp as she searched her fuzzy memories, clouded by the haze of alcohol and sex.

“Darn it. I guess we missed that. We should probably check our phones,” Dylan said flatly, not moving. He ran his hand up her thigh.

Jenna swatted it away. “Dylan. Come on.” He used his thumb to draw circles on her upper thigh. “Stop! Seriously,” she said, giggling, but she leaned down to kiss him.

An hour and a condom later, Jenna insisted they check their messages. “I’ll only check if you do something for me,” Dylan said.

“What else could you possibly want me to do for you?” Jenna teased as she sat up and tried to remember what she had done with her phone.

“Come to the premiere with me tonight?”

She found his phone on the floor next to the bed and handed it to him. “You really want me to?”

He nodded. “Please.”

“But I don’t have any clothes,” she said, lying back down.

“No worries. Look.” He held up his phone, showing a missed call from Gretchen.

“Who’s Gretchen?”

“My stylist. She’s somewhere in the hotel. Studio sends her with me since they think I can’t dress myself. She’ll check you out and find you something nice to wear. She’s really good at her job.”

“Are you sure? You aren’t going to get in trouble?” Jenna couldn’t believe a stylist was going to dress her to go to a movie premiere with Dylan Barnes.
Am I awake or dreaming? Maybe this is a fairy tale.

“She’ll be thrilled I have a date for tonight, trust me.” Dylan tapped his phone. “And she won’t let you dress yourself, anyway. We have to complement each other. It’s all Hollywood crap.”

“Well. Okay. No complaints from me.”

“You’ll come with me?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been doing all night?” she teased.

Dylan leaned up onto his elbow, and that bicep made another appearance. “Will you come
to the premiere
with me, Jenna in the Blue Dress?”

“Oh, that. Hmm. Doesn’t sound terrible.”

He smirked. “Great. Thank you. Now check the room service menu and tell me what you want to eat. Then we’ll call Steve and Alex, beg their forgiveness for missing brunch or lunch or whatever we’re supposed to be at, then we’ll eat and get back to the real business of the day.”

“Which business is that?”

“Our two-night stand. Did you have plans tonight, because besides this premiere, I’d really enjoy being naked with you until my flight tomorrow, if you’re up for it.” He flashed his gold eyes and perfect smile, waiting for her response as if there was a woman alive who could resist the offer of spending the next twenty-four hours naked with Dylan.

Jenna smiled. “This is the best day ever. I’m in.”

“Awesome,” he said, grinning.

The food made it to the room before Gretchen, so Jenna and Dylan put on hotel bathrobes and ate as if they had never eaten before. Then Jenna went into the bathroom to try to make herself presentable for the stylist. She brushed her hair and teeth with Dylan’s supplies as he searched for their clothes, which were scattered around the floor.

An impatient knock on the door interrupted them, and Dylan opened it to Gretchen, who looked as if she’d walked right out of
Glamour
. Gretchen gushed to Jenna about how happy she was that Dylan found a date and murmured about “all she could do with her” as she took Jenna’s measurements and asked her about her “style.”

Jenna apologized for her messed-up hair and lack of clothing, but Gretchen only smirked and winked. “Lucky girl,” she whispered. “No need to apologize.” Then loud enough for Dylan to hear, she said, “I’ll be back with hair and makeup by five. Five. Got it? Both of you? I want you showered and ready to be primped.” Then she rushed out on her mission to make them beautiful.