Page 34 of Hard to Take

Miles beats me to retrieving it.

“You didn’t use it.” He holds up the foil packet with the letters XL printed on it, the wrapper glinting in the light.

I lift a shoulder.

Triumph etches on his face. I wait for him to give me shit, but all he says is, “I’m glad.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

I laugh.

He’s flirting with me. I like it.

It feels safer here somehow, surrounded by our friends.

Not like back at the condo we share where anything could happen.

“You still owe me the rest of that photo.” His voice is lower now.

“There was no rest of the photo.”

It’s Miles’s turn to chuckle. “For real? That was my entire motivation for winning. Guess I’ll have to make do with what I saw in the mirror.”

“The mirror,” I echo, confused.

I reach for my phone and pull up the image.

I’d been so intent on Waffles’s adorable face, I didn’t realize I was giving Miles a lot more than I planned.

My teeth wrestle with my lip.

“Don’t tell me that wasn’t the idea.” He arches a brow.

“It was all about the dog,” I vow.

“Well, fuck.” His laugh is fuller this time.

I promised we wouldn’t do this if we moved in together. But damn, resisting him, resisting the pull between us, is taking everything in me.

“Maybe there’s a consolation prize.” I glance past him, then take his wrist and tug him after me into another room filled with easels and stacks of canvases and boxes.

The solarium is dark, lit only with soft fairy lights and the moonlight streaming in through the windows.

Music drifts in from the hallway, plus the sound of our friends laughing. My senses are focused on Miles, and the heat flooding my body.

I want him more than I can remember wanting anything.

“Pop quiz. What’s better than a picture, Garrett?”

I reach for his hand and press it between my legs under my skirt.

He stills, and the world seems to slow down, too.

For a guy who isn’t known for his self-restraint, he’s remarkably composed.

I wouldn’t know how much he wanted me if it wasn’t for the uneven rasp of his breathing. The way his fingers flex on my thigh rather than pulling away.

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