“You’re not that bad.” I lied.

“I’m worse than bad.” He chuckled and leaned forward to kiss me. “I proposed to Maria because I thought that was what I was supposed to do to keep her by my side when she expressed an interest in a study abroad program.”

“Oh.”

“It worked.” He kissed my cheek. “But boy, was it a mistake. I regretted it the moment the new semester started and she was nagging me to do this and that.”

“But you wanted to be with her.”

“My heart and the dream in my head thought I wanted to be with her. I wanted to get a relationship right. My dad, well, he’s never been a stable one-woman man. I wanted to be different from him.”

“Oh, I see.”

“But I proposed to Maria for all the wrong reasons. We ended up breaking up four weeks into the semester.”

“What?” I looked at him in shock and he laughed.

“And she keyed my car.” His hand crept up my shirt and he gasped as he touched my naked breast. “You’re not wearing a bra?”

“I didn’t feel like it.”

“You didn’t go out like this, did you?” He pulled away from me, and this time it was he who had the jealous expression.

“What if I did?”

“I don’t want other men seeing you.”

“I had on a top, Brandon.” I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t naked.”

“But still,” his eyes glazed over as he looked at my chest. “Men know.”

“You’re just trying to change the subject.” I pouted at him and pulled away.

“Katie, listen to me good. I love you. I’m with you. Yes, I was engaged once. But only because I was young and dumb. I’m not a liar and I’m not a cheat.” He paused and pulled me towards him. “I won’t lie to you, Katie. Know that if there is someone else, I will tell you. Don’t listen to anything you hear about me, unless it comes from me.”

“I just want to be your number one.” I melted against him as he kissed me. I felt so loved when I was with Brandon, but I also felt so insecure. I always felt like one day I was going to wake up and he was going to be done with me.

“You’re my only one, Katie.” He whispered against my mouth. “The only one.” He pushed me back down on the couch and pulled my T-shirt up. He kissed my stomach lightly and I waited in sweet anticipation to see if his mouth was going to go north or south. My whole body was tingling in excitement as I waited to see what he was going to do.

“Do you trust me, Katie?” He raised his head and I moaned aloud, disappointed that his tongue hadn’t travelled to either part of my body.

“Yes,” I groaned. “Of course.”

“Let’s go out.”

“What?” I shook my head frustrated. “I don’t want to go out.”

“What would you rather do?” He smiled wickedly.

“I want to make love.” I groaned and reached for him. “Make love to me.”

“I will,” He grinned. “Eventually.”

“What do you mean eventually?” I made a face.

“Let’s have some fun first.”

“What kind of fun?”

“I want to take you somewhere.”

“Where?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“You never said it was going to be a surprise.”

“Well, I’m saying that now.” He jumped up and pulled me up with him. “Come on, Katie.”

“I don’t want to go.” I shook my head childishly and wiped my tears away. “Not unless you tell me where we are going.”

“I want to take you to an art exhibit at the Met.” He sighed and shook his head. “I wanted it to be a surprise because I wanted you to meet the artist.”

“Oh.” I made a face. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“And I wanted to have sex with you behind one of the sculptures.” He grinned at me with vulture eyes.

“Brandon,” I laughed and jumped up eagerly. “Let’s go.”

“You’re my eager beaver.” He swung me around. “If I’d known you’d be this excited, I would have told you right away.”

“I like trying new things with you.” I paused and touched his face. “Unless we get caught. If we get caught I’ll kill you.”

“Don’t worry, if you get caught and you get a record and your job finds out and they fire you, you can just come and work for me.”

“Yeah, sure.” I pressed my face into his chest so that he couldn’t see the rising red in my face. Every time he brought up my job I felt a burning wave of shame and horror fill me up.

“We won’t get caught, though.” He hugged me to him. “Go and put on a dress. Not too long.”

“Okay.” I grinned back at him wickedly, excited about what he had planned for us.

“Oh, and Katie?”

“Yes?” I turned back to look at him as I walked into the bedroom.

“No need to put any underwear on.”

“Okay.” I smiled at him and he winked back at me. My body rose in temperature and I giggled as I looked through all my new dresses, deciding what to wear, all thoughts of the phone call long gone.