I smiled weakly, my breathing returning to normal after almost dying. “Bunny, you know you’re the only one I share bodily fluids with,” Josh replied, shrugging.

She scoffed at that. “If that were true then we might never have broken up,” she said, rolling her eyes at him.

“That was because I was young and stupid. We both know I’ve always been your knight in shining armour,” he answered, leaning on the bar heavily.

She snorted at his comment. “Knight in shining armour? More like tosser in tin foil,” she said confidently.

I burst out laughing. Man, that was an awesome come back! “Good one,” I congratulated, holding my hand up for a high five.

She grinned and slapped her hand against mine. “Thought you’d like that one,” she said, winking at me. Rosie laughed and shook her head before turning back to look at him. “You’re so wasted! Go home, Josh,” she said, pushing his arm off hers as he traced his fingers across her wrist.

“Come with me?” he responded, smiling seductively.

She let out a breathy sigh. “I’d love to…”

My body tensed, and my arm tightened on her waist possessively. I seriously needed to kill this guy. There was no way I was letting him take my girl home for the night, no f**king way in hell.

He grinned lopsidedly. “Yeah?”

She nodded, pursing her lips. “Absolutely, but the thing is, you know I don’t react well to antibiotics.”

He frowned angrily. “I don’t have any STIs, Rosie!”

She gasped, looking at him with wide eyes. “You got rid of that sucker? Oh, Josh, I’m so proud of you!” she cried, faking enthusiasm.

His frown deepened. “That was one f**king time, Rosie. How long are you going to throw that in my face?” He shook his head, clearly annoyed about it.

“I was pregnant, Josh! I’ll throw it in your face every time you suggest we sleep together!” she retorted, shoving his hand away as he reached to take hers.

My first reaction was shock. He’d given her an STI while she was pregnant? How f**king irresponsible could this jackass get? The second feeling that registered was anger, clearly she’d been through more than she told me. I really wanted to punch the crap out of him for her. I looked at her hopefully, begging her with my eyes to ask me to kill him.

He sighed, looking her right in the eye, seeming completely oblivious to the fact that Rosie seemed to be trying to make him catch fire with her death glare. “I’m sorry for what I did to you, bunny. I wish you’d forgive me. How many ways can I tell you I’m sorry? You know I love you,” he said sadly as he looked at the floor, doing DJ’s little lost boy face.

I smiled, loving the fact that he looked so defeated. That was a kick in the balls for him, a brush off like that in front of your ex’s new boyfriend couldn’t be too good for the ego.

“You only love me when you’re drunk,” Rosie muttered.

He looked up at her then. “I always love you. You were the one that made me leave, not the other way around,” he retorted, frowning.

She sighed deeply. “I’m not getting into this with you again. Just go home and sober up. It’s always the same thing when you’ve been drinking,” she said it almost angrily, as if they had this conversation a lot.

He looked at her hopefully. “Okay, I’ll go home. Please come with me. Just leave your boy toy and come home with me instead,” he pleaded. “I’ll do that thing you like…” He trailed off, raising one eyebrow suggestively.

Wait, what thing? What was this about? “No thanks. I have a boyfriend that can do that for me.”

Josh laughed, looking way too smug for my liking. “You wouldn’t let him do that. You know I’m the only one that you do that with,” he boasted, looking at her confidently, his eyes sparkling with amusement and lust.

She sighed and nodded. “You’re right, I won’t do that with Nate,” she confirmed. My stomach sank because there was something he could do that she wasn’t going to let me do – but my sadness was soon quashed as she carried on speaking, “It wouldn’t work out, his dick’s a lot bigger than yours. It’d be impossible,” she said, her voice deadly serious.

I felt the smile slip onto my lips. She’d just given him the ultimate insult. Dismissing the size of a man’s penis was the worst thing that could happen to a guy, especially in front of another guy.

She turned to me and smiled, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Want to dance?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just turned and started to walk towards the dance floor, taking my hand and tugging gently to get me to walk.

Before I followed her, I stepped to Josh’s side. “Ouch. I bet that hurt the ego, huh? Round one to me I think, but you keep trying, it’s fun watching my girl shoot you down,” I said, laughing and following behind Rosie to the dance floor. I pulled her into my arms and grinned at her proudly. “Thanks for that,” I whispered, kissing her softly.

She smiled against my lips. “For what?”

“The whole ‘his dick’s bigger than yours’ line.” I cupped her ass and pulled her closer to me so her body pressed against mine.

Rosie pursed her lips. “I’m really sorry he’s hounding us. Maybe we should go?” she suggested, trailing her hands up my chest and slipping her arms around my neck. I nodded and kissed her; her legs seemed to go a little weak, so I held her tight against me, supporting some of her weight. When we broke apart, she smiled. “Come on then, Nate. Take me home, and maybe we can end the night on a high. I already told you that I’d make sure you had a good night,” she purred seductively, her eyes boring into mine.

“Are you gonna let me do that thing you like?” I asked, kissing the side of her neck, biting a couple of candy loops from her necklace.

Her fingers dug into my shoulders as she giggled. “Maybe some other time. You never know, you might not like that. Why would you offer to do something without knowing what it is?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

I shrugged. “I’ll do anything you want. I don’t get scared easy.”

“Mmm, I keep forgetting you’re a badass SWAT agent with no fears. Didn’t take you for a guy who likes toys up their ass though…” She trailed off, frowning thoughtfully.

I recoiled, horrified.

She burst out laughing, shaking her head at me.

“Nate, oh that was priceless! Wow, that face, I wish I’d had a camera!”

I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding. That was seriously not something I ever wanted to try so thank f**k she was joking! “That was a joke, right?” I asked nervously.

“It was definitely a joke,” she confirmed, still laughing at me. I breathed a sigh of relief as she ran her hands down over my shoulders, down my arms until she got to my hands. She linked her fingers through mine and gave me a little tug towards the door.

I jerked my chin towards where we left Josh. “Not gonna say bye to the ex first?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Nah, I have other things on my mind right now.” She raked her gaze down my body, and I felt my dick start to harden at that one look alone.

I didn’t want to bring up Josh on the short cab ride back to hers. I just pulled her close to my side, brushing my hand over her cheek, marvelling over her. I prayed that she felt the same about me. She had to be at least starting to fall in love with me now, surely. What more could I do to make it happen before Josh the douchebag came swooping in and stole her from under my nose? He was right, they had something I didn’t have, a connection that I didn’t. They had DJ.

I suddenly found myself wishing DJ was mine. It was a weird thought considering my previous non-existent relationships and player ways. It was a little strange that I felt that way, but I did. If DJ was my kid then I wouldn’t have anything to worry about, I would have an incredible girl and an incredible son, and no one would be able to take them away from me. But as it stood, Josh seemed to have a better claim on them than I did. If she decided to give him another chance then I would just be yesterday’s news, just a guy that she dated for seven weeks, someone she didn’t even ‘do the nasty’ with.

Why couldn’t I have met her first?

“What you thinking about so hard?” she asked, tracing her nose up the side of my jaw, making my whole body ache for hers. The no sex thing was seriously getting to me now; my body was on high alert, every small movement made me more and more desperate, and nothing I did to relieve it made it any better. Blue balls seemed to be a permanent part of my life at the moment.

I sighed and decided to go with the truth, I just prayed that it wasn’t against the rules for me to say this to her. “I don’t like Josh flirting with you,” I admitted.

She frowned, but didn’t pull away from me, which I took as a good sign. “You’re probably gonna have to get used to that. It’s in his nature, that’s just Josh, he flirts with everyone,” she replied, shrugging.

I bit the inside of my mouth when I wanted to forbid her from seeing him ever again. I needed to chill the hell out. I needed to get some advice about the dos and don’ts in relationships; I’d try and speak to Ashton this week about it.

I nodded, not really knowing what to say. Throughout the night she hadn’t flirted back with him at all, she knocked back every single one of his advances, even turning most of her knock backs into insults too. It wasn’t her fault if he was a serial flirt.

When we pulled up at her apartment, she looked a little nervous. I smiled at her, wondering why she would be nervous, then it suddenly hit me – was she thinking we were going to be ha**g s*x tonight? Was she worried about it?

For some reason, I started to get my hopes up that she was worried about that. If she wanted to have sex with me then that was another step in the right direction and meant she was serious about me. But I still wanted to hold out for her to fall for me. I didn’t want to just be something physical for her, I wanted her heart too, so I knew I would be knocking back any advances that she threw my way tonight. I just wanted to wake up next to her, that was the only reason I was here tonight, not for anything else. Well, nothing that benefitted me anyway, though I was definitely up for a repeat of her calling my name like last night!

Another part of me badly wanted to have sex with her tonight. That would just be another connection that I had with her. Part of me wanted to show her that she was mine so she’d never even think about Josh again.

She held my hand as we walked up the stairs. The desire that I felt for her was actually painful, I could barely stand it. I hated that she made me feel so needy, desperate and vulnerable, but at the same time I loved that she had this power over me that no other girl had ever had before. The challenge of making her fall in love with me was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

As we walked through her door, she turned to me, biting on her bottom lip, looking so sexy that I actually couldn’t believe my luck that I got a girl like this. A gorgeous girl but with a wonderful personality and a brain on top, which just made her blow my mind.

She gripped the front of my T-shirt and pulled me closer to her; I moaned in the back of my throat and crashed my lips to hers, wrapping my arms around her tightly so she couldn’t get away from me. She walked backwards into the lounge and pulled me along with her, never once breaking the kiss as she lowered herself down onto the sofa. I couldn’t keep my hands off her; she was being so forceful that it was almost killing me.

I pressed myself to her, running my hands down her body, savouring the feel of her curves under my fingers. Her body was incredible and ‘little Nate’ was fighting with me to just give in already and screw the life out of her.

The make out session was getting so hot that I could barely think about anything that wasn’t her. She’d taken over all of my senses; her taste and touch were the only things that mattered in the world. I couldn’t get close enough to her.

Rosie moved, wrapping her legs around my waist and suddenly yelped in pain, arching her back and reaching behind her. “Ouch, crap!” she moaned.

I pulled back to see if she was okay, just as she pulled a toy car out from behind her back, laughing. I took it out of her hand. “Oh sorry, I was wondering where I left that,” I joked, making her laugh as I dropped it over the arm of the sofa. I smiled and kissed down the side of her neck, chuckling to myself that she still smelled like beer from earlier in the night where Josh’s friend had spilt it on her. “You still smell,” I muttered, licking the skin on her upper arm, seeing if she tasted like beer too.

She pulled me up slightly so my face was level with hers. “You’re such a charmer.”

“I know, that line works every time,” I agreed, playing along. I pulled back, lifting my body off hers because if I didn’t get some distance between our bodies soon, I was going to lose all of my will power to stay strong and wait for the L word. “Why don’t you go grab a shower so you don’t make your bed smell like a brewery too?” I suggested.

“Want to come wash my back?” Her face showed me exactly how nervous she was about that though, she looked terrified of me for some reason.

I bit back my ‘hell yeah’ response that tried to escape. Instead, I shook my head. “Not tonight. You go, I’ll wait for you here,” I suggested, easing myself up to a sitting position, and pulling her up too.

She recoiled, looking a little concerned and embarrassed. I smiled and leant in, kissing her lightly before pushing her up off the sofa, and nodding towards her bathroom. She chewed on her lip with a cute little bewildered expression on her face.