I grinned at her wickedly. “I have a headache right now, it’s probably a little different to yours though,” I teased suggestively.

She laughed and pressed herself against me tighter, her hip pressing against the hardness of my crotch. I’d never, ever been turned on by glasses before – Rosie had talent on another level for how quickly she could get a rise from me.

“Hmm, you seem to get that a lot. Maybe you should see someone about it,” she suggested.

“I am seeing someone about it. I’m seeing you.” I kissed her. She made a little purring sound in the back of her throat, and I almost passed out with excitement, all the blood seemed to flow right out of my head and straight down south at the sound of it.

She pulled out of the kiss and I put my forehead to hers, looking into her big brown eyes that I had gotten used to so quickly. Taking the glasses from her hand, I eased them carefully back onto her face and smiled. She looked like a sexy secretary from every guy’s fantasy. I sucked in a breath through my teeth as I looked her over. She really was so beautiful and sexy all rolled into one.

“I missed you today,” I admitted.

She smiled and nodded. “I knew I’d have you begging for me,” she replied.

“No doubt, but you’ll go first.” I tried to look confident when, in reality, I would happily beg her right now if I thought it was something that wouldn’t ruin my chances.

She grinned and kissed me again before pulling back and out of my arms, taking the glasses back off and setting them down on the side. “So, did you bring a DVD?” she asked, looking at me expectantly.

I nodded, holding it so she couldn’t see it properly. “You said we could watch my favourite movie, right?”

She shrugged. “Sure, whatever you want.”

“I can’t believe you really don’t mind watching p**n with me. You’re gonna be the best girlfriend, I can sense it,” I joked.

The corner of her mouth twitched with a smile. “As long as it’s not homemade. I don’t want to watch you and another girl,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively.

She obviously knew I was joking… unless she didn’t actually mind if it was porn. Part of me was wishing I had brought some just in case she wasn’t joking, that would be seriously freaking hot watching that with a girl.

I laughed as she took the DVD out of my hands. “Beetlejuice? This is your favourite movie?” She raised a sceptical eyebrow.

I nodded and slipped my arm around her shoulder. “Yep. I like old movies.”

She smiled. “I do too actually. You can’t beat a good eighties movie.”

“Oh yeah? I love eighties stuff too. What’s your favourite then, Stripes?”

She pursed her lips and thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Well, apart from retro porn, obviously…” she joked.

“Obviously…”

“I like The Goonies, Indiana Jones, The Godfather, anything like that,” she replied, taking my hand and pulling me towards the lounge.

I grinned. Those were all my favourites too. This girl seemed to get better and better. “What about Stand by Me? You like that one?” I asked, as she put the DVD in the player.

“I love that movie! I had a huge crush on River Phoenix when I was younger. Anything with Corey Feldman in it gets my vote too. I love that vampire movie he was in…” she trailed off, frowning as she came to sit next to me, obviously trying to think of what it was called.

“The Lost Boys?” I offered.

She grinned and pointed at me. “That’s it! I love that. Vampires are hot, and Kiefer Sutherland is just edible in it. That’s what you have to live up to I’m afraid, Nate. A young, bloodsucking Kiefer Sutherland.” She tapped my nose playfully, so I caught her hand, kissing her fingertips.

“Oh, you think vampires are hot?” I teased, pulling her closer to me, my eyes trapped in her excited gaze. “Is it the whole biting thing?” I leant in and pressed my lips to the side of her neck.

Her hands tightened on my shoulders, her fingers digging into me as I gently scraped my teeth across her skin. “Oh yeah, I definitely like the biting,” she muttered breathlessly.

I kissed her neck and pulled away before I took things too far. She wanted to take it slow, so I’d take it slow; I didn’t want her to think I was just using her for her body or anything. In total honesty, the girl just amazed me with her personality, and I wanted her to know that.

“I’ll bite you later,” I joked, nodding back to the screen as the movie started to play.

She jumped up off the sofa. “Pause it for me, I want popcorn,” she called over her shoulder.

I smiled and paused the movie, settling back on the sofa and making myself comfortable. It was a little weird how at home I felt here; usually, if I went to a girl’s place, we went straight to the bedroom, and afterwards I went straight out the way I came in. It was different here though, I felt entirely at ease just sitting there on my own and waiting for her to come back. I smiled to myself. If my mom could see me like this, she’d flip. She’d been badgering me to ‘find a nice girl’ forever, and here I was, sitting in Rosie’s lounge, contented and happy.

She came back a few minutes later, sitting close to my side, munching on a piece of popcorn, snuggling against me. Twisting slightly to the side, I wrapped one arm around her and set my hand on her hip, watching the movie with her.

When the credits rolled up, I knew it was time to go before I completely lost all of my control and begged her to let me make her moan my name. I kissed her softly, loving the feel of her lips against mine. Her hands went to the back of my head, her fingers tangling in the back of my hair. I made a mental note never to cut my hair too short so that she would always be able to do that, because the feel of it was driving me wild.

She made that small purring sound in the back of her throat again, and my body reacted of its own accord, I moved forward making her lie back on the sofa as I kissed her deeply, settling myself on top of her.

She kissed me back fiercely, pulling me closer, making my whole body ache. I broke the kiss just as I was started to get a little lightheaded. Her eyes locked on mine and a little smile graced her lips that I couldn’t help but return. I was suddenly struck by how flawless and radiant she was, her whole face just lit up and her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Fuck, I have it bad already. What a pussy. Flawless and radiant? I’m turning into a girl!

“So, can I see you tomorrow night too?” I asked hopefully.

She bit her lip and nodded excitedly. I secretly hoped that she liked me as much as I was starting to like her, otherwise she was going to crush me. How had I let myself feel like this? How had this happened so quickly? I knew it wasn’t just lust because I was just as happy listening to her talk as I was laying on top of her. I was falling for her completely.

“Sure. You could come over after DJ’s sleeping again? We could get takeout or something?”

“Sounds good.” I nodded and kissed her again, moving to kiss down her neck wanting to bite her like I’d promised earlier. She giggled, wriggling underneath me as I sank my teeth into her skin gently. I grinned as she tried to push me off. Oh, she’s ticklish? Game on! Pinning her body with mine, I tickled her sides, listening to her giggle and squeal.

“Stop it! I’m gonna pee myself! Nate, stop!” she squeaked, trying to throw me off her.

I laughed and pulled back to look at her flushed face. She looked incredible and I was pretty sure that this flushed face was the one I would be picturing before I fell asleep tonight, or maybe the sexy secretary glasses one, I wasn’t sure. She really was incredible, and I wanted to know every single part of her; which led me to DJ.

“So, I was thinking we could go to the park at the weekend. Maybe we could take a picnic or something?” I suggested, brushing her hair away from her face. That was the type of thing kids liked, wasn’t it? Parks and picnics?

She frowned and shook her head apologetically. “I can’t this weekend, Nate. I have DJ. Sorry.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Was she not expecting me to invite DJ? “I know that. I meant the three of us. We could take a ball or something.”

She paused and I felt her whole body tense. “Nate, please don’t take this the wrong way. You’re a really nice guy, and I’m having a really great time with you, and I promise I don’t mean to upset you or anything…” she trailed off, biting her lip and looking a little nervous, as if she was choosing her words.

“I sense a but coming here,” I muttered, suddenly starting to feel nervous too.

“Yeah, there’s a but,” she replied. “I can’t let you meet DJ,” she mumbled, looking at me apologetically.

I recoiled. Was she just using me after all? She wanted to have her fun with me, but I wasn’t allowed to be part of her life? Or maybe she thought I wasn’t good enough to be in his life? I pushed myself off her, studying her face, waiting for her to continue. She sighed, and her hand closed over mine. I tried desperately to ignore the way her hand seemed to fit in mine perfectly, like it belonged there.

“Nate, DJ’s the most important thing in my life, and I’d do anything to protect him. I can’t just bring someone into his life like that. What if this doesn’t work out between us? He’ll have lost someone too and that’s not fair on him. He needs stability. I don’t want to have to explain to him what went wrong, or where the guy that played ball with him in the park went. I have enough explaining to do about his father. I can’t have another man come into his life and then him be all disappointed when they leave again,” she said, all in one breath.

I gulped. So this was about her thinking it wouldn’t work and DJ losing someone from his life. I’d never really considered it that way. But why was she being so negative already and assuming we wouldn’t work?

“Rose, you’re basing all this on us not working out. What if it does work out?” I asked.

She sighed and looked down at our hands. “Nate, I’m his mom, I can’t take risks with his happiness. I just want to wait a while, that’s all. Just to make sure. We’ve only really been seeing each other for three weeks; we only became exclusive last night. There are still so many things that we don’t even know about each other. What if one of us finds something they don’t like about the other, or you decide that you’ve had enough waiting for me and want to go sleep with some random girl? I’m willing to take the chance with my own heart, but I’m sorry, I’m not willing to take the risk with my son’s,” she answered.

I digested her words. She still clearly thought I was going to cheat on her like Josh had. The whole ‘sleep with some random girl’ comment was about Minnie. I knew that would come back to haunt me at some point, I knew she wouldn’t be able to let it go. Would she ever be able to trust me not to hurt her and DJ?

“You still think I’m going to go cheat on you.” I was annoyed, but my annoyance wasn’t directed at her. The blame for her not trusting me was firmly at my doorstep. I had done nothing to show her that I wasn’t a cheater, so she had every right to think that of me.

She frowned. “That was just an example. It could be any number of things, but all I’m saying is that three weeks just isn’t long enough for me to take the risk with DJ being upset if this didn’t work out. What if you meet him and he gets attached to you, and then we realise we’re just not compatible and split up. He’ll miss you, and that’s just not fair. Please understand.”

I sighed deeply. I wanted to meet him, I really did, but I knew I couldn’t rush her. She wasn’t saying that she didn’t want me to meet him, ever; she was saying she wanted to wait a little while first.

I decided to look at it from the little kid’s point of view. She was right; he did need stability, they both did, and it was too soon to tell if this was going to work out. I hoped it was, but Rosie was right, hope wasn’t really good enough when you brought a little four-year-old boy into it.

I studied her face, trying to see if there was any other reason behind this. “Stripes, it’s not that you’re just not into me, is it?” The insecurity I felt as I waited for her to answer the question was a little alien to me. I’d never felt insecure before – Rosie was making me feel all kinds of things for the first time.

“No, of course not. I like you, I really do, I just need to be careful with him. It’s just for a little while, please?” she asked, wrapping one arm around my neck.

I pulled her closer to me, feeling myself relax a little. A small part of me was glad I didn’t have to meet him yet, I was nervous as hell about trying to impress a four-year-old boy. A woman, I knew how to handle, but a kid, I had no clue. But another part of me was disappointed I wouldn’t get to be included in such a big part of her life. I’d just have to show her I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Okay, I get it and that’s fine. We’ll wait then until you feel ready for the introductions,” I said, kissing her gently.

She smiled against my lips and I pulled back to look at her, rubbing my nose on hers lightly. “I love that you want to meet my son,” she whispered, looking at me with a cross between wonder and awe.

I smiled. “Of course I do, Rose, he’s the biggest part of your life.”

She sighed, and shook her head slightly as if she was trying to work it all out. “You really are something else, Nate Peters.”

I smirked at her. “So are you, Rosie York, so are you,” I replied, pressing my lips against hers again.