“It’s okay. I know you were just joking.”

Jake stuck out his hand. “Truce?”

“Truce,” I said, relishing the warmth of his firm grip on my hand and wishing that his idea of a truce involved more than just a handshake, something like…oh…sucking on his bottom lip.

Yeah, I was a lost cause.

He let go of my hand, and we walked down the rest of the hallway to the kitchen together.

Ryan shut off the television that he and Tarah had been watching in the adjacent living room. “Tarah and I are going down to Eleni’s for some grub. You guys wanna come?”

Jake was drinking straight out of an orange juice container when he stopped and looked over at me awaiting my response.

“No, thanks. I am not that hungry…gonna just stay here and read,” I said.

Jake then waved his hand. “Nah, man, I’ll pass too.”

“Okay, ya’ll. Suit yourselves!” Tarah said as she and Ryan left the apartment.

When the door slammed shut, Jake walked over to the sofa and turned on the television. It was a rare sight, since he spent most of his time holed up in his room listening to music. He was channel surfing, spreading his long legs out onto the coffee table and looked over toward the kitchen at me. “Isn’t your test grade supposed to be in by now?”

“Yes.” I smiled guiltily, knowing it was most definitely in. I had been putting off finding out what it was.

“Did you check?”

“No.”

Without saying anything, Jake left and returned from down the hall with his laptop. “Come on, Nina…it’s d-day. I can’t wait to take you on this next one. Is it wrong I’m hoping for a suck-ass grade?”

“Yes…very wrong,” I said as I opened the laptop.

He was rubbing his hands together, in taunting anticipation.

“Are you trying to start a fire with those hands of yours?”

“Just gearing up for the inevitable.”

“Thanks for the confidence,” I said as I typed in the password.

“It’s gonna be a good one. You should be hoping for a C.”

Jake’s excitement about our next little adventure gave me mixed feelings to say the least.

As I scrolled down, once again, I noticed Alistair’s name before mine.

Alistair York: 90. Well, whattya know, he’s not perfect after all.

Jake leaned in. His breath hitched because he saw it before I did:

Nina Kennedy: 94.

Holy crap!

When I saw my name, I had to blink multiple times to make sure it was real. I was speechless as I turned to him.

Jake’s dimpled smile was bigger than the Joker’s, and he threw his head back. “Nina Kennedy…you f**king rock, girl,” he said as he pulled me into him hard for a congratulatory hug.

I closed my eyes and relished the heat and familiarity of being in his arms again amidst the excitement I felt at having achieved what I thought was virtually impossible. It was euphoric. My heart was beating fast against his chest.

He pulled back with his arms still on mine, and his eyes sparkled as he shook me. “Nina…you did it! You f**king did it! We have to celebrate.”

“Jake, you did this. I can’t thank you enough for all your help.”

I wanted to kiss him.

He kept smiling at me, then said, “Where do you wanna go? What do you want to do? Anything you want.”

I want to feel you inside of me.

“Actually, I know just what I want to do right now,” I said.

“What?”

“I wanna make you your favorite dessert.”

“No…come on. You shouldn’t have to cook tonight.”

“I want to,” I said. “I owe you big time for this, and I could really go for some myself. Plus, all the ingredients are still in the cabinet from last time.”

“Well, if you insist. Your Bananas Foster is like crack, so you’re not gonna hear any argument from me.”

“I didn’t think I would.”

As I gathered the pan, rum, spices and bananas, Jake leaned over the counter following me with his eyes as I moved around the kitchen.

“I am a little bummed about the excursion you’re gonna miss. It was going to be killer. But there’s always next time,” he said.

“Now you’ve got me curious about what was in store for me. Something tells me I dodged a massive bullet.”

His grin said it all. “You have no idea.”

“You’re evil,” I said, throwing a banana at him, which he caught. “You can peel. I’ll cut.”

“I can handle that. I’m good at stripping off layers slowly,” he said winking.

“I thought we established you were not, in fact, an exotic dancer.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t give private shows.”

I must have momentarily lost my mind. Even though I laughed at him, the mental images that emerged made my cutting of the bananas faster and harder. And just like that, the knife I was using slipped and plunged deeply right into my finger.

“Ow…shit!” I screamed. “Ow!”

Blood gushed out, and the pain was excruciating. Jake immediately got up grabbing my hand. “Shit. Nina!”

“Ooh, ow, ow,” I cried.

What happened in rapid succession over the next ten seconds nearly undid me. He looked around for a towel and didn’t find one. On instinct he wrapped my finger in the bottom of his shirt and squeezed it. When he lifted it out and saw that it was still bleeding badly, he took my finger into his mouth and held it there, sucking it hard to stop the bleeding.

Took.My.Finger.And.Sucked.It.

Remember that saying about experiencing pain to attain a pleasure you have never experienced before? Well, I think for the first time in my life, I actually got it.

He was completely serious, mind you, in those seconds of applying pressure to my wound. He was just trying to get the bleeding to stop. It wasn’t meant to be a turn on, but of course, everything Jake did had that effect on me whether he knew it or not, and well, this just put me over the edge.

It was not an exaggeration to say those seconds of my finger being trapped in his hot mouth while he breathed rapidly over it, were more exciting than full-on sex with Spencer had ever been, ten fold. The competing sensations of pleasure and pain were something I had never experienced together at the same time.

His mouth made a popping sound as he released my finger to the cold air, and there was a tiny bit of my blood on his lip. He took off his now stained shirt and wrapped it firmly around my finger. I couldn’t help staring at his body. It looked as if it were carved from stone.

The bleeding had slowed, but it had not stopped. “We’ll wrap it in this for now,” he said, holding my finger tightly in his shirt.

“You have some blood.” I nervously lifted my fingertip to his bottom lip, grazing the ring and wiping it lightly. “Right here.”

Instead of wiping it with his free hand, he slid his tongue back and forth slowly across his bottom lip, licking away the rest as he looked at me. My heart skipped a beat. It was so strangely erotic, and my body became fully aware. He stared into my eyes as he held my wrapped finger, and I felt something shift. I couldn’t put my finger on it (no pun intended), but something felt different between us in that moment. It was a feeling I had definitely never experienced before.

The room was completely quiet as he broke the stare, looking down at my wrapped finger. He cleared his throat, his voice was thick, “I’m gonna see what we have in the bathroom for first aid.”

Still in a state of bewilderment, I nodded but said nothing, as he ran down the hall, returning with gauze, peroxide and bandages. Removing the shirt from my finger, he carefully treated the area with some peroxide on a cotton ball. I tried to look down at the wound and not at his bare chest as he blew on the cut before wrapping it in gauze, followed by a bandage to hold it together.

“That should do it for now,” he said before releasing my hand. “You may want to take a look at it tomorrow. If it looks worse, there is a walk-in down the street. Hopefully, you won’t need stitches.”

I felt like I lost more than blood in this process, like perhaps my ability to speak. “Okay,” I muttered.

The look in Jake’s eyes was sincere. “I am sorry you got hurt trying to do something nice for me.”

Not knowing exactly how to respond, I smiled and said, “I am sorry you had to suck my blood like a vampire.”

His gaze stayed on mine, and it made me uneasy only because he wasn’t laughing at my joke. “I wouldn’t do that for just anyone, Nina.”

My lip twitched in response, and I laughed nervously, not really knowing what to make of that statement. What I did know was that tonight was not helping my vow to get over him one single bit. “Thanks.”

Jake started clearing out what bananas I had managed to cut. “I’m gonna get a new shirt,” he said. “Why don’t you change, and we’ll meet Tarah and Ryan downstairs.”

“I don’t know…”

“Come on, we’re supposed to be celebrating your exam, and those bananas are toast. I’ve ate enough blood for one night.”

I threw a piece of banana at him. “Very funny.”

He was unphased. “What do you say?”

There was no way I could say no. “Okay, I’ll change.”

About ten minutes later, he came out of the bathroom with a fresh coating of cologne. His hair was wet, and he was wearing a maroon colored long sleeve shirt that hugged his chest and black pants that hugged his ass. He looked and smelled amazing.

I had put on a black button down shirt, dark colored jeans and the six-inch heels I usually wore whenever I was feeling inexplicably inadequate. Somehow adding height seemed to give me a false sense of power when I felt I needed it. I didn’t know why I was nervous about going downstairs with Jake. Something just felt different tonight between us. Maybe it was the sucking of the blood thing. I dunno.

***

When we entered Eleni’s, the lights were dimmed, and a live Greek band was playing at the corner of the restaurant. The owner, Telly, immediately rushed toward us and got some extra chairs to add to Tarah and Ryan’s small table. It was packed for a weeknight.

Our roommates were sipping coffee and eating dessert when Jake and I sat down to join them.

“To what do we owe this honor?” Tarah joked as she gave me a hug.

Jake grabbed my arm and lifted my hand. “Nina got an A on her test and then to celebrate, she chopped her finger off and got a sudden craving for Greek.”

Ryan grabbed my hand. “What the—”

“It’s partially true. I didn’t chop off my finger, but I nearly did, trying to make Bananas Foster.”

Tarah cringed. “Damn! Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Nurse Jake took care of me.”

Jake joked, “Who’s the nurse now, bitches?”

Tarah looked over at Jake and then to me and said, “You two are so cute together.”

Insert sound of record screeching here.

Jake said nothing, and I stared at her dumbfounded before glaring at her.

Why would she say that?

I could have killed her and immediately changed the subject. “So, what’s good on the dinner menu?”

Before Tarah could respond, a sultry female voice came up from behind us. “Actually, the best thing on the menu is the moussaka, but Jake will stick to the same thing every time, avgolemono and spanakopita…right Jake?”

I turned around, and my heart sank when I noticed a very attractive girl with long black hair around my age wearing a low cut white blouse that left little to the imagination and a black apron wrapped tightly around her waist.

This might not have bothered me so much if she wasn’t undressing Jake with her eyes. I knew that look; shit, I owned that look.

“Hey, Des.” Jake nodded.

She batted her eyelashes. “Hi, Jake. Long time no see.”

He just looked at her and didn’t respond. Ryan broke the awkward pause that followed. “Desiree, this is our new roommate, Nina. She grew up with me.” He turned to me. “Nina, this is Desiree, Telly’s daughter.

“Nice to meet you, Nina,” she said to me while looking straight at Jake.

“Likewise,” I said as my stomach became tied up in knots.

There was an awkward pause, and then “Des” began listing the specials. I heard nothing because I was obsessing over the realization that Jake was a chick magnet and I was just one in a long line of women who wanted him. This wasn’t news. It was just the first time I had witnessed it first-hand and out in public.

“So, the usual, Jakey?” She winked. He simply nodded yes, making little eye contact with her.

She looked at me signaling that it was my turn to order. I really had no desire to eat anymore and had no idea what most of the stuff on the menu even was, so I responded with, “Um…I’ll have the same.”

Desiree looked at Jake suggestively again and went to put in our order. Her ass wiggled as she walked away, and I felt more insecure by the second. For the record, the heels I was wearing were of absolutely no help in this situation.

Jake was looking down at a dessert menu, bobbing his head to the song the band was playing. Probably sensing the tension in the air, Ryan and Tarah just looked at each other.

I couldn’t stand it any longer and chimed in with, “What the hell did I order anyway?”

Everyone started laughing in unison.

“Nina, hope you like egg lemon and rice soup and spinach pie,” Ryan said.

Actually, given my recent loss of appetite, that actually sounded horrible.