Page 33 of Heartless Pucker in Love

The brief, innocent contact made my dick twitch, which was ridiculous. Who got turned on by a tap on the forehead? I’d gone way too long without sex. Exhaling softly, I shrugged. “I’m fine.”

She didn’t look convinced but she turned back around and grabbed her fork. “I’ll stay under your employ on one condition.”

I lifted a brow. “What’s that?”

I was looking at her profile, but I could see her trying to fight a smile. “You take me to the restaurant you wanted to take me to tonight. The food is good enough for me not to care about being seen with you.”

I grinned. “Very funny.”

She turned to me with a bright smile, and we went back to enjoying dinner. April and I slipped into our comfortable banter, sometimes bickering about trivial matters and sometimes flirting. I couldn't get enough of her sarcasm and the way she became flustered when something she didn’t mean to say out loud slipped out.

She asked me about my business ventures and I was honest with her. I could be honest with her and she gave me her advice or opinion without kissing my ass like so many did. “You want to retire early,” she said with a nod. “So that’s why you seem as if you're chasing something, and your time is limited.”

I pause. “Wait, is that the impression I gave?”

“Of course. I’ve only seen you behind the scenes for a few weeks, but it’s enough time to see how insanely driven you are. You take on things that you don’t need to.” She glanced at me. “I’ve even heard your manager lecturing you to take it easy and focus on your hockey career. Now, I understand. You’ve been stacking your cards so that you can stop playing.”

I let out a long breath and abandoned my dessert. “You got it. No one else knows. Shit will hit the fan if it gets out that I want to retire already. I haven’t said anything yet because I’m not even sure exactly what I want.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

My eyes met hers. “I know.”

We stared at each other for a moment too long and things got uncomfortable. Sexually uncomfortable, that is. We kept getting caught in these uneasily intense moments where we both clearly wanted to kiss each other but no one made a move. Like right now. Her eyes dropped to my mouth, and I stared hungrily at hers. We hadn’t said a word about our hot as fuck kiss in L.A. I guess that was deliberate on both our parts. Talk about an awkward conversation.

I swallowed and yanked my attention away from her tempting mouth. April and I had something good going here. We were in a good space. We shouldn’t let sex confused what we were. April was my friend. She licked her lips, her tongue sliding against one corner, and I lost my shit. Fuck it, April and I couldn’t be friends. I wanted to kiss her, devour her. I wanted to get between her delectable legs and stay there for as long as I could.

I leaned towards to kiss her, and I heard her breath hitch. She wanted the kiss too. However, my lips were met with...nothing. April shot to her feet, cheeks infused with pink and eyes wide. “I should get going.”

Biting back a groan, I let out a quiet sigh. How long were we going to do this dance? The we-want-to-but-we-shouldn’t dance. It was driving me crazy. Shoving fingers through my hair, I stood up. “Yeah, okay.”

“I should help you clean up.”

“It’s okay.”

“But your hand?”

“It’s fine,” I said tightly.

Lips pressed together, she backed away. Another awkward end to our time together. It was becoming our thing. “So, I’ll see you in the morning?”

“Uh-huh.” I was too busy keeping my erection under control to come up with actual words.

April visibly swallowed, nodded, and turned to walk to the door. She hesitated a moment but then kept going. The door opened and closed. “Son of a bitch,” I hissed. Another cold shower and jerking off tonight. It was cool. Keeping things nonsexual between us was for the best. My dick vehemently disagreed but what did it know about maintaining healthy friendships? I stared at the door, still thinking about April and sex. I wanted her so badly. When was the last time I craved a woman?

With a growl, I threw every idea about maintaining our “friendship” out the window and marched to the door. We had to stop this. It was time we talked and confirmed what the hell we had going on between us. We needed to either hop into the sack and go at it or put it out there so that we’d remain platonic. Yanking the door open, I stopped right before I collided with April.

16

APRIL

“Julian,” I gasped. I stared up at him wide-eyed. His were a little wide too and filled with curiosity. I knew he’d ask me why I was standing in the hallway staring at his door like an idiot. “I...was…” Standing outside your door contemplating throwing caution to the wind to have sex with you.

“You’re probably wondering what I’m…” I averted my gaze. “The thing is I…” Flustered, Awkward April had entered the chat. I was horrible at this. I’d made the first move that night in my suite and kissed him, but it hadn’t even been a real kiss. He was the one who’d had the guts to really go for it. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to center myself. It wasn’t like I wanted to make a move in hopes of landing him as my boyfriend or anything. I wasn’t into relationships on that level, and I was sure he wasn’t either.

Plus, we really shouldn’t muck things up between us with sex. But there was something there, some chemistry sizzling between us. I really wanted to put an end to this silly will we, or won’t we awkwardness. Surely, after we took a dip in the sexual pool, we’d both realize how wrong we were for each other. Foolish logic? Perhaps. I just knew that I was on fire for him. As soon as my eyes opened, Julian’s fingers landed on my nape and tugged me forward.

I crashed against him, my surprised gasp lost in a kiss hot enough to melt my underwear off. It was slow but passionate, as if he was testing the waters, waiting to see how I’d respond. I stepped closer, letting him know I was down for whatever he wanted to do, and however far he wanted to go. I moaned when his tongue slid into my mouth for a sensual exploration. He tasted so good, like red wine and sex. Julian was sex on legs ever since he hit puberty.

---