To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise

sent shivers down my spine.
    Please, how could I have not closed my eyes
to live that shiver to the fullest? And so what if I did arch into his touch just
a little bit? Maybe barely held back a moan? Who could blame me? I was just a
human, after all.
    When he suddenly pulled away his right hand
from my stomach as if touching me had burned his skin off, my legs shook and I
reached for the first thing I could grab on to.
    His hand.
    The one that was still covering my boob.
    And fine, if you really need me to admit it,
at some point I might have kind of squeezed his hand and that might have
inadvertently forced him to squeeze my boob. Or maybe I had groped myself with
his hand? Who the hell knows, and more importantly, who the hell cares? Hands
touch boobs all the time, all over the world. I bet, at that exact moment, a
lot of boobs were being touched.
    “Little one.” He growled and his chest— oh,
dear god, his chest —hit my back, holding me firmer against him.
    One deep breath.
    Two deep breaths .
    His hand was still on my boob, and my hand was—not
so surprisingly—still over his when I said, “I’m so sorry. Just…just give me a
second to get my balance back.”
    His arm wrapped around my middle again and he
hoisted me up.
    When I was no longer parallel to the beautiful
hardwood floor and felt like I could master standing straight all by myself
again, I reluctantly let go of his hand, which was resting comfortably on my
breast.
    As soon as he made sure I was okay, he
lifted both his hands off me and slowly took a few steps back.
    Not knowing what to say, I looked down and
saw the damn chopsticks sitting in the open third drawer.
    I cleared my throat, a few times actually.
“I found them.”
    “Great,” he said a few seconds later, his
voice all rumbly.
    Jesus! Talk
about dreams coming true.
    Not having the courage to look at him, I
snatched up two sets of chopsticks, pushed the freaking drawer closed, and
walked back to the glass panels.
    Even though my face was probably as red as
a frigging tomato, I was grinning like crazy. When I noticed there was no way I
could figure out how to open the panels, I decided it would be wiser to wait
for Jason before I brought the house down on us.
    Two takeout boxes in his hand, he came to
stand beside me with a small remote control.
    When all the glass panels surrounding the
living room and the kitchen area opened up, I took my first step out to heaven
and took a deep breath of the crisp air.
    “It smells amazing,” I said in a low voice,
not quite having the courage to look at his face yet.
    “It smells…like grass,” he said.
    “I know. I love it.” I took a few more
steps. “Can we sit by the pool?”
    “We have a table.” He pointed toward a big
table on the patio.
    “I saw that, but I want to dip my toes in.”
    His hand touched my back and he guided me
toward the pool.
    Pushing the chopsticks into my pocket, I
took off my shoes, bent down, and rolled up my jeans. When I was happy with the
length, I straightened up and stood at the very edge of the pool.
    “It’s amazing up here, Jason.” When he
didn’t answer, I glanced back and saw him taking off his shoes and socks. I bit
down on my bottom lip to keep myself from smiling and turned back to face the
amazing view.
    Taking the chopsticks out of my pocket so
they wouldn’t break when I sat down, I lowered myself to the ground and dipped
my legs into the pool.
    I closed my eyes and turned my face up
toward the sky with a small smile on my face. There was a quiet splash of water,
and I knew Jason was sitting down too.
    “Thank you for inviting me up here,” I said
finally, opening my eyes to glance at him.
    His eyes were already on me. Smiling back,
he shook his head and handed me my dinner, grabbing his chopsticks before I
could hand them to him myself.
    “You are different from what I’m used to,
little one. Different from the little kid I remember,” he said as we started eating
our dinner in a