Playing For Keeps (16 page)

It might seem old fashioned, but she
only planned on sleeping with one man in her life, the man she
would spend the rest of her life with. She dated over the years and
handled her "needs" in other ways but never took the chance on any
man she'd dated. Since she never fell in love with them it had been
easy, but with Jason it was going to be difficult.

She knew without a doubt that she was
in love with him and that he at least cared for her deeply, as
deeply as a man like him could. Haley had no delusions about what
kind of man Jason had been in the past. He'd never had a serious
relationship and never cared for any woman he'd been with. Although
he had changed a great deal and even matured over the past couple
of months she wasn't one of those delusional women who thought she
could change a man.

Jason could very well be the person to
get her to break the rule of only one man for life, because she
knew without a doubt he would never marry her. He might be able to
handle an exclusive relationship with her, but for how long? She
knew sooner or later he'd get bored and moved onto the next girl.
It would hurt like hell, but she knew it was coming.

So, that left her with a very
important decision to make. Did she take a chance and give herself
to him, hoping her heart wouldn't completely shatter when he moved
on, or keep it at the physical level that she was comfortable
with?

The only thing stopping her was the
regret she knew she would feel a year from now when yet another
woman came screaming and banging on her door in the middle of the
night.

She watched as Jason finished
dressing. The entire time he scowled at her or looked longingly
towards the stack of waffles, toast, eggs, bacon and sausage. Of
course she cooked this for him, and he knew it on some level, but
it was Jason and he took his food seriously. Too seriously, but
that was a job for Dr. Phil to work through, not her.

When he finished dressing he threw his
bag over his shoulder, grabbed the bottle of syrup and soaked the
waffles. He grabbed a fork and the plate and headed for the door,
leaving her to roll her eyes and follow him.

While she drove they ate. For every
two bites he took he gave her one, which worked for her since it
didn't take much to fill her up. Secretly she loved it when they
did things like this, especially when he took care of her. It was
so sweet. He made sure she was given the best piece of bacon or
bite of sausage and always made sure to double dip her bite of
waffle into the syrup, knowing how much she liked it.

By the time they pulled into the staff
parking lot they had finished and the plate was on the backseat
sitting on the large beach towel she put back there for times like
this.

They sat there for a moment and
watched as buses and cars drove up in front of the building. It
occurred to her that she was suddenly nervous. After last night she
thought it would be awkward first thing this morning, another
reason she left the bed early. Instead they jumped right into their
normal relaxed routine. Now that the food was gone and they were
sitting here she was really nervous.

Did he regret what they did? Was she
about to get the speech that he didn't want anything serious? Would
he get pissed when he found out she wouldn't sleep with him like
several men before him had? Damn it! What earth shattering thing
would he say?

"You've got syrup on your
lip."

Okay, not exactly life
altering.

She licked her lip. "Is it
gone?"

"No."

She wiped her mouth with her fingers.
"How about now?"

He sighed. "I see I'm going to have to
handle this." He leaned in quickly and brushed his lips against
hers. She sucked in a breath as he ran his tongue over her bottom
lip.

"So sweet, my little grasshopper," he
whispered against her lips. He brushed his lips against hers again.
"I know why you left the bed early this morning and why you made
sure I had very little time to do anything else but get ready for
work."

He pressed another kiss to her lips as
he took her hand into his. "I'm sorry for being a jerk last night
and almost making the biggest mistake of my life. I was afraid of
hurting you. I know what I am and I also know you deserve a guy
that can spoil you rotten and take you to all the nice places that
you deserve. I-"

"Jason, I don't care about those
things," she said softly.

He shook his head stubbornly. "It
doesn't mean that you don't deserve them, but if you give me a
chance to make up for my past stupidity, and I'm not just talking
about with you, I promise that I will do my best to make you
happy."

"Jason-"
"I want to try this. You and me, I mean. I know I'll most likely
fuck up along the way and you'll want to ring my neck, but I want
to try. I'll do my best not to hurt you."

Haley smiled, knowing that was the
best she could hope for from him. She appreciated his honesty and
knew that if they were going to try to make this work then she had
to be honest with him, at least about the extent of their
relationship. He might not like being with a woman where sex, well,
intercourse wasn't involved.

She gave his hand a small squeeze.
"Jason, if we're going to try this then I'd like to take things
slow." He frowned. "What I mean is nothing beyond the level we were
at last night." She worried her lip between her teeth. "What I mean
is no actual sex."

He narrowed his eyes on her. "But,
you'll still sleep with me naked and let me do a hundred other
naughty things to you?" he asked in a serious tone.

"Yes."

He brushed his lips against hers again
and moved back a few inches to look into her eyes. "And you'll
still cook for me and call me Master?"

Her lips twitched. "Yes to the cooking
and not a chance in hell for the other."

He sighed wearily. "Fine, how about
Lord and Master?"

"Uh...no."

"God?"

"Nope."

"My liege?"

"Wait.....no."

He gave her one of his lopsided
smiles. "I'll wear you down eventually."

She wasn't so sure he would stick
around long enough to make good on that promise, but for the chance
to be with him even for a short time she was willing to risk
it.

Chapter 15

"I hate this. Why did we have to come
here?" she said in a snooty tone as she looked around the large
carnival with clear distaste. "If I had known we were coming here I
would have stayed home. God, have you ever heard of a restaurant?
That's where I should be eating, not something on a stick like some
slob." She flipped her long hair over her shoulder.

Jason glanced at Mitch whose jaw was
clenched. The man did not look happy and Jason didn't blame him one
bit. If he knew she was going to react this way to going to a
carnival he never would have suggested it or at the very least not
brought her.

Personally, he loved carnivals and
theme parks. He couldn't pass one by without stopping in for a
fried treat and a few rides. Mitch was the same way, which was why
they were here. They came to have a good time. Instead they were
stuck listening to this woman bitch and whine. She started as soon
as she heard the plans for the evening.

As soon as she found out she put her
foot down and demanded a nice restaurant and drinks. She'd been
outvoted and offered a ride home. She refused. Jason had no doubt
she decided to come along to make their lives a living hell for not
jumping to meet her demands.

"We can go on the bumper cars or the
Ferris wheel," Mitch started to suggest.

She folded her arms over her chest and
glared, just glared at the man. Mitch cursed under his breath. She
turned her cold glare on him and he didn't bother hiding his eye
roll. This was ridiculous. No way was he letting her wreck his good
time.

"Jason!"

He turned around and his frown was
instantly gone, replaced by a huge pleased smile. He watched as his
little grasshopper walked quickly towards him, grinning from ear to
ear. She had a stuffed animal, a snake from the looks of it, around
her neck, a large soda in one hand and her other arm wrapped around
a fake sword, a teddy bear and she held the largest piece of fried
dough he'd ever seen in the other that was generously covered in
powdered sugar.

"Look what I won!" she said,
practically beaming with excitement. It was hard to believe someone
loved these places more than him and Mitch, but apparently Haley
was that person.

When he told her where they were going
today she squealed excitedly and threw herself into his arms. He
laughed so hard that he almost dropped her. This was their first
date since they came together a week ago and thankfully he'd chosen
well. He would have liked to been able to take her out sooner, but
they'd both been swamped with giving final exams, correcting them,
and going over grades. School was over and now they had a whole
summer together.

"This is so much fun!" Haley said,
seeming oblivious or she simply didn't give a damn about Mitch's
date's attitude, he suspected the latter. His little grasshopper
didn't let things bother her.

"Where did you get all of this?" he
asked as he leaned in for a kiss and a bite of that
dough.

"Oh, um," she gestured with her drink
towards the direction in which she came from, "after I hit the
bumper cars I couldn't resist the basketball game or the darts and
then I smelled the fried dough and," she shrugged. "I guess I got
distracted."

"I thought you were just going to find
the bathroom. We've been standing here waiting for you for over a
half an hour!" Mitch's date, Sue or Jude or whatever the hell her
name was, pointed out.

Judging by Haley's expression she'd
forgotten all about the bathroom and just remembered that she had
to go. That was confirmed a few seconds later when she shoved her
drink, food, and winnings in his and Mitch's arms and took off
running.

Jason took a huge bite out of the
dough and sighed happily. No doubt he was going to have to hunt his
little grasshopper down in a few minutes near some game or ride and
carry her to the bathroom.

Mitch looked down at his arms, frowned
and looked at the things Jason was now holding. "How come you got
the sword? I want the sword." He reached out to snag the sword.
Jason bitch slapped his hand away with the dough.

"My sword!"

"Jerk," Mitch mumbled as he eyed the
sword.

Jason looked at his sword too and took
another bite. "We could always go win another one and have a sword
fight."

"Sweet!" Mitch said. Yeah, they were
big kids when it came to carnivals, but who cared?

"I'm not going anywhere," Mitch's date
said, intent on wrecking their good time.

Mitch shrugged. "Well, then have a
good night."

***************

Haley increased her pout.

Jason chuckled. "I don't care. You're
not getting it back."

"That's not fair! You're just mad
because I kicked ass!"

Mitch rubbed his shoulder while he
glared at Haley. She bit her lip and took a step back and ducked
beneath Jason's arm. He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her
head.

"Fine, keep the sword. I don't care,"
she said in a sulky voice. Mitch muttered something and sighed
heavily.

"You want to go on the bumper cars
again?" Mitch asked with an easy smile. He'd never seen his friend
forgive anyone so fast before, but of course Haley had that affect
on everyone. It was just so damn hard to stay mad at her. She was
too damn cute for her own good.

"I suppose we could do that," she
said, already tugging Jason towards the bumper cards. "If you
insist that is."

Jason looked back in time to catch
Mitch leering at Haley's ass.

************

"That was so much fun," Haley said
dreamily as she pulled her shoes off.

"It was okay," Jason
mumbled.

For the past four hours Jason had been
uncharacteristically quiet. He didn't seem to do much more than
glare at Mitch. A few times there she thought he was going to kill
the man. She wasn't sure what she missed or if she should even get
involved.

A few minutes later they were naked
and crawling beneath Jason's sheets. That's when he really
frightened her. He didn't initiate any kissing or touching. In fact
he didn't even glance at her breasts and Jason always looked.
Always. They were like magnets for his eyes.

Now he was lying on his back with his
arms behind his head. He made no moves to get closer to her or to
pull her against him. He was truly starting to scare her now. She
rolled over onto her stomach and watched him for a
moment.

"Are you okay?" she finally
asked.

He shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be
okay?"

"You're quiet."

"I just don't feel like
talking."

"Do you want me to go
home?"