Page 82 of The Charm of You

She seems to appreciate it, too, and I can’t deny how much I love that.

She slides her hand into mine and leads me out of the kitchen.

At the foot of the stairs, impatience grips me by the balls, and I stop her from climbing up. Instead, I press her back against the wall and crush my mouth to hers.

I savor the faint essence of the wine on her tongue, and I note something sweet too. Like she’d had chocolate before I arrived.

Her head knocks back with a soft thud, but she doesn’t stop kissing me.

The train from last night could crash through here, tearing the entire house down, and I still don’t think I’d stop.

With Caroline leading the way, we climb up the stairs together, although “climb” isn’t the right word. What we do is stumble, and I nearly twist an ankle trying to make sure my mouth never leaves hers—that our connection doesn’t break no matter how far apart we’re pulled by gravity, distance, or reality.

chapter

twenty-five

CAROLINE

Austin rises onto his elbows from the middle of my bed to peer at me. Then his gaze travels over my room, starting with my closet and skimming over the cream ladder in the corner, whose only purpose is to hold the folded blankets on the rungs. He ends on the white desk and the pale-yellow bench tucked underneath it. The oval mirror hung above it holds our reflections, and I meet his gaze there.

“Look at this—I’m in Caroline Summers’s room.” Austin’s devilish grin launches explosions of excitement in every part of my body like fireworks.

“Why do you say it in the same way golf fans talk about the Masters?” I ask as I crawl onto the bed to straddle his hips.

With a hand to his chest, I nudge him back and lean down until my hair creates a curtain around our faces.

“Because my sixteen-year-old self is lost somewhere in time wondering how the hell we ended up making out with Caroline Summers in her bedroom.”

He draws me in for a kiss, sinking his teeth so tauntingly into my bottom lip. He’s already hard between my legs, and it drives me wild.

My moan gets lost in his mouth, and I nearly lose control of my head.

As I ease my hips lower to meet his, he thrusts upward until I feel the outline of every bulging inch of him.

Gasping, I tighten my hold on either side of his face as I kiss him more vigorously, urging him on by moving my hips back and forth.

His hands land on both of my ass cheeks, and he tightly squeezes until I squirm.

I’m dripping wet.

My core weeps with need for this brooding, complicated, beautiful man.

He flips us over in one swift movement, and I blink to clear my vision—I don’t want to miss a millisecond of him.

Especially since he removes his shirt.

He raises the solid material slowly, teasingly, revealing more and more golden skin with every exposed inch.

My mouth waters like Niagara Falls set up residence in there.

His skin is taut, stretched gloriously over thick muscles that beg for me to explore them.

He licks his lips, watching me like he’s going to feast on me as hard and hungrily as he did last night, and instinctively, I clench my legs together. The action does nothing to comfort my quivering core. That’s a job reserved solely for Austin.

He lowers himself over me again and rests half his body on the bed beside me as he resumes kissing me.

I run my fingers over his chest, where the whispers of hair there call to me. Our kiss grows heavier as he slides his hand inside my leggings, and my heart soars.

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