A Gentleman's Guide to Hooking Up

b o n u s r u l e

She pulled over. "What now?"

Jake leaned over and smiled until his lips were almost touching hers. He pressed his forehead against hers. "I didn't kiss you this morning. No wonder I'm feeling uncomfortable all over."

Jessica rolled her eyes and hit him lightly against his chest. "You're the corniest guy ever. I'm surprised you're able to attract girls with lines like that."

He didn't answer and pressed the most swoonsome kiss against her mouth, delivering it all the way to her heart. He tasted like summer. His kisses were warm and pleasant and made her happy.

Jake pulled away and grinned at her in that cocky but not obnoxious way only he could pull off. "Are you still surprised I'm able to attract girls now?"

"I think I need more convincing."

He picked up her chin and kissed her again, then he moved his lips to the nape of her neck. He knew where she liked it. Jessica closed her eyes and told herself to stop worrying and live in the moment.

"Jess, do you know why I want to teach you how to drive?"

"You like showing off your car?"

He smiled. "No. I know you have a chauffeur and you only go to places with valet parking, but...I'm pretty sure we don't have valet parking at UConn. I need you to drive there once in a while. I'll drive to Brown most of the time, but if I have a game to go to, I want you to come see me."

For a while she couldn't speak.

"I mean...if you still want to see me." She saw him swallow and suddenly he looked nervous. "I want to keep seeing you."

She blinked. "Jake."

"I'm not sure what this is because we haven't really gone over the terms and conditions," he said, gesturing at the air between them. "Like is this a summer thing or...do you want to make it long term? I know I do. I want to keep doing this even though I won't see you quite so often, but we're only about 50 miles apart."

"It's 49.4 miles if you take US-44E."

"You looked it up too?"

Jessica nodded.

"Well. This seems a bit redundant then." Jake climbed over the passenger seat and reached around towards the back. He got hold of his duffel bag and while he was pulling the zipper open, his shirt rode up. Jessica saw his tanned back and the waistband of his underwear.

Hot.

He handed her a stick of rolled up paper. Jessica unrolled it and saw it was a huge map, with the route between Brown and the University of Connecticut highlighted. At one end, there was a photo of Jake Lancaster himself, standing shirtless on the beach with a pair of sunglasses on.

What an adorable narcissist.

Two arrows was pointing at him, one aimed at his abs and said 11% of body fat, the other pointed at his heart and said, property of Jessica Jiang.

"You've really outdone yourself this time." Jessica shook her head, trying to keep the smile off her face. "I have to keep you. It's up to me to save all the girls out there from possible cheesiness overload."

His aquamarine eyes crinkled up with a smile. "So do we have a deal, Miss River?" He held out his hand, and his eyes softened. "We don't have to...say goodbye when summer ends?"

She took his hand. "Mr. Lancaster, deal. It's a pleasure doing business with you."

He laughed. "Jeez, I was really scared you were going to reject me. As you know, I'm a relationship virgin and I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to things like this. I don't even know if people talk about this—"

At this point his phone rang, and Jessica motioned for him to pick it up.

"Dill, hi....yeah...no, I can't right now...I'm hanging out with..." He glanced at her briefly, as if asking her for permission. "With my girlfriend."

Jessica couldn't contain her smile anymore. Bliss bubbled up inside her and exploded into sparks, lighting up her entire being.

He frowned. "No, I don't mean my left hand, you pervert. I mean Jessica."

She gave him the thumbs up sign. When Jake hung up, he said, "That was my friend Dylan. He wants me to go to his place later."

"Go ahead. You should see your friends as much as you can before summer is over."

"Do you want to meet them? You've already met Sean. Dylan is dirty, horny, kind of arrogant and really immature...I think you're gonna love him."

"Oh, he sounds like just my type of person."

They both chuckled. The sun disappeared behind the clouds for a few seconds and came out again, lighting up Jake's face and the thin pale hair on his arms. The gold burned her eyes, imprinting this fine day in her memory.

Their hot, sweet, wonderful time together was just beginning.

......

Thank you so much for reading! This is officially the end and I thought it'd be nice to complete this book on Valentine's day as a small gift. I hope you liked it xx