Because she wasn’t watching what was happening, she had no idea that we were approaching the bottom. When I had one foot on the ground, I decided to play a little trick on her. I flicked my eyes to her rope and gasped. “Shit, your rope looks a little frayed!” I hissed.

She squealed and threw herself at me so quickly that I barely even saw the movement, just felt her body crash into mine. Her legs wrapped around my waist and her arms flew around my neck. I burst out laughing, quickly gaining my balance as she buried her face into the side of my neck and squeezed the life out of me.

“Oh God, Nate, get us down!” she practically screamed against my neck.

I chuckled, sliding my hands down her back to her ass.

“We are down,” I choked out around my laughs. She didn’t move. Her hand gripped the back of my T-shirt tightly. “Rose, we’re down now, you can open your eyes.”

Slowly, she pulled away from my neck and looked around. A little frown tugged at her forehead before her jaw tightened and she pulled back. “You freaking asshole! That wasn’t funny. Damn it, that was just cruel!” she cried, but she was laughing with relief at the same time. “Stop laughing, you jerk!”

As her legs unclamped from my waist, she scowled at me angrily before turning to stomp off. What she hadn’t accounted for though was the fact that she was still attached to the harness. Before she got more than four steps away, the ropes tugged her to a stop.

I chuckled at her angry face. She looked adorable when she was mad. Smiling, I walked over to her side, watching as she tried to detach herself from the ropes so she could make the dramatic exit that she was obviously going for last time.

“Here, let me help you,” I suggested, pushing her hands away from the ropes gently and stepping in front of her more. I gripped her h*ps and pulled her closer to me, pretending to be working on the clips but in actual fact, just running my hand over her h*ps and stomach lightly. I bent my head down to her level and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry. That was mean and insensitive. Forgive me?” I asked, giving her my puppy dog face.

She scowled at me and shook her head. “That scared me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” I whispered, leaning forward further and kissing her cheek gently as I traced my hand across her lower back. “I won’t do that again.” I kissed across to her ear, nipping her earlobe lightly. “Say you’ll forgive me, please?”

Her tight muscles seemed to relax fractionally. She gasped quietly as I sucked on the little sensitive spot just under her ear. I groaned at the taste of her. I’d never wanted any girl as much as I wanted her, she was literally driving me wild.

“You’re not funny, you know,” she whispered, gripping my T-shirt as I continued to trail little kisses down her neck.

“I know. I’m an ass,” I confirmed, smiling against her neck, thinking about her throwing herself at me and screaming for me to get us down. Her body seemed to fit mine perfectly, and having her wrapped around me entirely like that was incredible. I pulled back and put my forehead to hers, looking into her eyes to see if I was forgiven for my little stunt. A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, so I assumed I wasn’t in the doghouse.

“So, you want to go again?” I joked, nodding back at the climbing wall.

“Oh yeah, I so want to do that again!” she retorted sarcastically.

I smiled wickedly and pushed my hand into my pocket, seeking out my cell phone. If this was the only time I was ever going to get her to come here, I needed photographic evidence. As I slid it out of my pocket, I stepped back a couple of steps, quickly finding the camera attachment and taking a photo of her pert little behind in that harness.

She giggled and quickly turned away, blushing. “And what do you think you’re doing?” she questioned, still chuckling.

I shrugged unashamedly. “It’s for later, when I’m in bed thinking about you.”

She immediately tried to snatch the phone from my hands. “That’s gross, Nate, delete it!” She laughed as I held my phone out of reach, wrapping one arm around her waist as she jumped trying to grab it from me.

“You’d rather me beat off while thinking about someone else?” I teased.

She squealed, and the blush deepened on her cheeks. “You’re such a pervert!”

“Oh don’t pretend you aren’t going to be thinking about me next time you get hot and lonely. Want to take a picture of my ass?” I rebutted confidently. Girls had to take care of themselves from time to time too, surely.

Rosie put her hands over her ears, shaking her head. “You’re burning my innocent ears!”

I smiled and slipped off my harness, throwing it on the table before unbuckling hers and letting it drop to the floor as I pulled her into my arms. “Aww, poor baby. Is the big bad player offending your delicate disposition?” I teased, kissing the tip of her nose. Deciding that I liked it way too much when she was in my arms, I gripped her h*ps and hoisted her, throwing her over my shoulder gently.

She squealed, quickly wrapping her arms around my waist as her face pressed into the small of my back. “Put me down!”

Without answering, I stalked towards the exit, chuckling as she whined and protested and tried to wriggle free.

“Nate, put me down!” she laughed, pinching my ass lightly.

“Oh, keep doing that, I like it,” I joked making her laugh harder. I ignored the looks from the people in the building as she laughed like a mad girl on crack. When we got out of the door, I pulled her down into my arms, carrying her bridal style across the parking lot.

Her face was bright red. “That was so embarrassing!” she hissed as she buried her face against my neck, still giggling quietly.

“Oh, you loved it really.”

When we reached the car, I set her carefully down onto her feet. As she stood, I noticed that her jeans had ridden down slightly where she’d been jostled around. Peeking above the top of her jeans, I could see the top of a pair of pink and white stripy panties.

My breath caught. I would actually kill someone with my bare hands to see her in just those stripy panties. I chuckled wickedly as I thought of the perfect nickname for her.

Setting my hands on her hips, I pulled her closer to me, fingering the thin waistband of her underwear. “Like the panties. I think I’m going to call you stripes from now on,” I teased, waggling my eyebrows at her.

Rosie immediately gasped and her hands shot down to her jeans, yanking them up roughly as she pressed her face into my chest, trying to hide. “No! Oh my God, that’s embarrassing. Nate, don’t!” she cried, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around my waist tightly.

I smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Okay, Stripes, whatever you want.”

Lunch was in the form of takeout pizza, which we ate at her place. By the time we got back to her apartment with it, it was almost two in the afternoon. As we ate, we talked easily, then after, we made out on the couch for a bit. As I lay in a tangled mess with her on her uncomfortable couch, I decided that it was probably time for me to leave. I was getting so worked up by kissing her that I was pretty close to dropping to my knees and begging her for sex – and I didn’t want to ruin the good thing we had going on by pushing her too far, too fast.

“So, when can I take you out again?” I asked, hovering half over her.

“You think I want to see you again after you making me climb a damn wall and then that little stunt with the frayed rope?”

I chuckled, remembering her throwing herself at me. “Yeah, I do,” I replied confidently. She was all over me; her body woven intimately around mine, her fingers playing with the back of my hair. There was no way that she didn’t want to see me again.

She sighed deeply and traced her finger around the collar of my T-shirt, which caused my already hard dick to get even harder. She was such a freaking turn-on this girl; it really wasn’t fair.

“I guess I could squeeze you in next weekend.” She shrugged, trying to look cool and aloof.

The weekend? A whole week of not seeing her? Man, that sucks! “Really? What about tomorrow?” I asked hopefully.

Rosie looked at me apologetically. “I can’t tomorrow,” she answered. “And weekdays aren’t good for me because of work and stuff…” she trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

I tried not to show her how disappointed I was that I couldn’t see her before the weekend. I didn’t want to scare her away from me or anything by coming on too strong and showing her how much I liked her.

“What about after work?” I asked, trying to go for casual.

She frowned and shook her head. “Sorry, I can’t. I should be alright for Friday though, if you want,” she offered. The hopeful tone to her voice wasn’t hard to miss. I smiled, wondering if she actually thought I was going to turn her down. Little did she know that there was not a chance in hell of me turning her down, ever.

“Friday’s good for me.” I swallowed my disappointment that I would have to wait six days to kiss her again. “Okay, so I’d better get going. I’m out with the boys tonight seeing as you cancelled on me.”

She smiled teasingly. “Yeah? Strip club?”

“Actually yeah, does that bother you?” I asked, playing along.

She smiled and gripped her hand in the back of my hair, rubbing her nose against mine.

“No, player, you go have some fun. In fact, have a lap dance for me. I have some ones if you need some,” she joked.

I laughed and rolled on top of her, trapping her body under mine. “Stripes, the only panties I want to be pushing money into are yours,” I replied honestly. Weirdly, I actually felt a little disappointed that she wasn’t getting jealous; clearly I liked her a lot more than she liked me. I bent my head and kissed her lightly before pressing my forehead to hers and ignoring the ache that was settling in my balls because I’d been excited for way too long with no satisfaction.

“I’d better go then. I’ll call you in the week.”

She smiled and nodded as I pushed myself off her, getting to my feet and ensuing that my T-shirt covered my inappropriate arousal from view.

“Okay. Well, thanks for today. I did actually have fun,” she confirmed as we walked to the door.

“Really? So you want to go again next week?” I joked.

She laughed her sexy little laugh. “No, I didn’t have that much fun,” she clarified.

I pulled the front door open, kissing her again softly before turning to leave.

“Hey, Nate, wait!” she called, as I stepped into the hallway. As I turned back to her, she grabbed her cell phone from the side and took a photo of my ass. “For later.” She smirked at me, shrugging.

I burst out laughing and she winked at me, shutting the door in my face. I could hear her chuckling inside too. I made my way out of her building still grinning like an idiot. The girl had taken everything that was cool and collected about me and turned it on its head. I had no chance of fighting it; I was falling for her hook, line and sinker, and pretty soon I would be crazy about her, I could feel it building.

Chapter Nine

Every day of the following week I spoke to her on the phone for at least an hour. It was like I couldn’t get enough of hearing her talk. I was still seeing my friends and going out just as much as I usually would, but I just didn’t seem to notice the girls around me anymore. When Seth pointed one out, I would compare her to Rosie, and there really was no comparison at all. No one stood a chance.

All of my friends found it highly amusing that I was now pining over a girl. Even Russell from work was laughing at me because I’d finally started to ‘grow up’ as he put it. He found it hilarious that Rosie was making me wait for sex. He said that this was Karma coming back to bite me firmly in the ass.

I was finally starting to understand some of what we put Ashton through when he fell for Anna and we’d all ripped the shit out of him for it. But the thing was, I just didn’t care how much they teased me, I just smiled and shrugged and looked forward to talking to her before I fell asleep.

I was so excited to see her on Friday that I barely slept the night before. I was like a child waiting for Santa to arrive. When I arrived outside her apartment, I felt my muscles relaxing. After plucking the flowers and CD that I’d bought for her from the passenger side of the seat, I climbed out of the car, taking a few deep breaths so that I’d stop behaving like a lovesick puppy.

When she opened the door she smiled her beautiful smile at me, and I laughed at the happiness I felt inside. She looked stunning, and I raked my eyes down her body slowly, taking in every curve and line of it, trying not to moan in appreciation.

“Hey, Stripes,” I greeted, dragging my eyes back to her face.

“Still not dropped that one? I don’t have them on today.”

I grinned and wrapped my free arm around her, pulling her flush against me. “Oh really? So what am I calling you tonight? Lacy? Spots?” I joked, raising one eyebrow at her.

She narrowed her eyes at me playfully. “Maybe I’m not wearing any.”

Fuck! I groaned internally as my imagination ran wild, thinking of her na**d little behind. I already knew my mind would be in the gutter for the remainder of the date. “Oh right. So, commando it is then. Not a very sexy nickname, but it’ll do for tonight.” I shrugged, hating the lust that I could hear in my voice.

She giggled and gripped the collar of my shirt, pulling slightly and making me step impossibly closer to her. I smiled and pressed my lips against hers, kissing her softly, savouring the feel of her mouth against mine. I’d missed this more than I realised.