Page 41 of The Best Friend and the Shortstop

I glance down at the floor, my muscles still twitching a little from throwing punches and shoving Brayden through a screen door. Fuck, I’m going to feel really embarrassed about that later.

I lick my lips, then bite the tip of my tongue before glancing up at her through my lashes. Her gaze was waiting for me.

“It wasn’t all about making him jealous.”

“No?” she whispers.

I shake my head.

“There was a part of me that really liked the excuse to see what it was like,” I admit.

She smirks, then turns to the side and tosses my sweatshirt on top of my desk. She steps closer, and when I reach out this time, she willingly gives me her fingertips, balancing them individually, meticulously, on each of mine.

“And what was it like?” She quirks a brow.

A low laugh rumbles in my chest.

“The flirting bit? Holding your hand and maybe, touching you, like . . . right . . . here?” I brush the back of my hand across her bare stomach. She quivers. “That was a pretty great hall pass.”

“Hall pass, huh?” She kicks one of her feet forward, tapping her toe against mine.

“Yeah, it was a hall pass. I knew it was temporary.” It was supposed to be temporary. But then I felt her. Not just her body but the way she cares about me. I felt it all at once. And I kissed her. Everywhere. And we can’t go back.

“We’re way past temporary, Alex.”

“I know,” I agree.

My tongue pushes in the side of my cheek, my gaze fixed on the very hard peaks of her tits poking through her white cotton crop top. My eyes flit up quickly to hers.

“I know we need to talk. But I’m still pretty wound up from what happened,” I admit.

“Me too.”

I move my hands to the bottom of her shirt and gather up two fistfuls, bringing the material up her body until it stops right at the edge, showing off just enough skin. How did I not know she wasn’t wearing a bra all night?

My gaze moves back to her face.

“I know we’re friends, Nikki. But I want to fuck like we’re enemies.”

Neither of us blinks, but over the next several seconds Nikki draws in a slow deep breath that pushes her chest forward. I tug where I’m grasping her shirt and her breath hitches. She lifts her chin but holds my gaze. It’s a standoff, and the longer it lasts, the harder I get.

I tug again, but she resists, shaking her head slowly and tsking.

“This isn’t about Brayden,” she says. It’s not really a question, but she requires my guarantee. I understand. I owe her that.

“Not even remotely close,” I say, tugging again.

This time, she obeys, moving into me until her knees hit the edge of the bed. I push her shirt up over her bare tits, rubbing my thumbs over her nipples then pinching the skin, tight. Nikki moves her hand into my hair, pulling my head toward her, coaxing my very willing mouth to suck on her.

I meet her request, covering her tit with my mouth as one hand sweeps behind her back and pulls her into me, hard. My tongue swirls the hard tip while my other hand rolls the opposite peak until they feel like pebbles to the touch.

I hold her nipple hostage in my teeth as I push her shirt up more, urging her to take it off. She tosses it to the floor before her hands move to my back and claw until my shirt is on the floor next to hers.

Her small frame makes it easy to sweep one hand under her ass as her legs wrap around me until she’s sitting on my lap, straddling me. I kiss my way from her breast up her neck until my mouth locks on hers. It’s not a tender kiss this time. It’s possessive. And maybe there is a little bit of me proving something to Brayden in this act. I hate that he ever saw this. Nikki wouldn’t say, but he did. He said it a lot. I hated it then, and I hate it more now. But this is not just him I’m proving something to. It’s all men. Every male that looks at her and thinks they can. That they deserve her time. That they’re worthy.

They do not. They are not.

Neither am I, but I’m taking what’s mine anyway. If our friendship dies because of this, I need to know it was worth it. That I had something so great, so rare and beautiful, in my hands and devoured it. Lived it. Breathed it.

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