Page 10 of For Emery

Gauging Emery’s reaction, I slipped my hands from where they rested on the dip above her ass slowly up her back. Her eyes never wavered from mine as my hands drifted from her back to her face, cupping her cheeks.

She pulled in a breath that caused my dick to twitch.

“Emery?” I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could. “Is this really what you want?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

Shit.

Frantic thoughts whirled through my brain.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

“You can stop this whenever you want to stop,” I assured her.

“I know.”

“And I’m only doing this because I don’t want some other guy to be your first kiss.”

The realization of what I’d said sucked the spark right out of her eyes. “Is that the only reason?”

My eyes riveted between hers. What did she want me to say? What did I want to say? I didn’t want to lead her on. I didn’t want to ruin the friendship we’d built. But we were getting older. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t having these weird feelings toward her.

“No,” I admitted softly.

A soft blush colored her cheeks as her lips tipped up in the corners.

Fuck it. There was no turning back now.

I gently urged her face down to mine, stopping when our lips were no more than a breath apart. “This can’t ruin us.”

“It won’t,” she breathed.

I counted to three in my head then closed the distance between us, touching my lips to hers. An unfamiliar numbness spread through them as I took her top lip between mine and sucked on it gently.

Her hands slipped up my arms. Weird tingles erupted over my biceps. She didn’t normally touch me with such feather-light caresses. Her hands drifted up to my shoulders before stopping and holding on tightly.

My mouth moved to her bottom lip, sucking on it as gently as the top. It was just as soft and I suddenly couldn’t get enough.

I wanted more.

And, Emery did too.

Her hands slipped to the back of my head, her fingers tunneling into my hair as our lips parted in sync. I licked my way inside her mouth, my tongue moving against hers. Her hands froze, startled by the intrusion. But I kept at it. If she wanted a real kiss, I was going to deliver. Her hands moved again, bracing me to her and keeping me where I was. If this kiss was going to end, I’d be the one ending it.

I was suddenly very aware of her growing breasts pressing through the T-shirt and into my bare chest. Of her ass covered solely by underwear right there for the grabbing. I deepened the kiss, my tongue moving with purpose as I contemplated how far I should take it.

“Jordan?” my mother gasped.

Emery and I flew apart, both of us gasping for air as my mother stepped into my room with wide eyes, taking in the two of us—Emery now at the foot of the bed in nothing but my T-shirt and her underwear and me at the head of the bed in nothing but boxers.

In the last six years my mother never walked into my room without knocking. Probably for fear of finding my hand down my pants. But it always gave Emery time to hide.

For some reason, probably to subconsciously stop things from escalating between her son and his best friend, she entered without announcement.

“Emery, I’m going to need you to head home, honey,” my mother said kindly, though I knew a cussing-out was inevitable once she left.

Emery scooted off the bed with her eyes focused down on my floor and walked barefoot to my bedroom door. She glanced back at me briefly, before grabbing her wet clothes and disappearing down the hallway.

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