Page 51 of The Moment Promised

My eyes are saucers, and I strain my ears to make sure I heard him correctly.

He bends and sets me down. Amber eyes wander and his lip twitches. “Damnit, Adeline. If this is your idea of fun, then go shampoo your hair.” He holds up a finger. “But if I catch anyone hidden in the bushes with a pair of fucking binoculars, someone’s dying.”

I gasp. “Fuckingbinoculars…the horror,” I tease, spinning around to retrieve my soap.

I walk a distance back to where I was before Finn picked me up. I twist the bottle, pouring some into my hand and rubbing suds against my skin. The rain rinses it away almost the second it touches me. I scrub some in my scalp, trying to slow my breathing as I recall the last minute of my life.

It’s awfully quiet coming from where I left Finn, and I turn around to see where he went.

“Ah!” I touch my chest instantly, startled by Finn who stands only two feet from me, expressionless. “I didn’t know you were there.”

He stays unmoving.

“You can wait in the car. I’m almost done.” My words linger in the air, an uncomfortable amount of time goes by before he speaks.

He shakes his head. “I’m not going to make you stand out in the freezing rain by yourself.” His hair appears black from water. A single droplet runs across his jawline, gathering beneath his chin and finally falling to the ground.

Soap starts to drip close to my eyes. I tilt my head back and use my hands to rinse it away. I put some more soap into my hand and reach for Finn, slapping some onto the top of his head. “Might as well clean up while you’re here then.” I’m completely giddy, and even closer to the man than before.

The corners of Finn’s lips slightly lift …he almost smiles. I massage the soap into his hair, loving the feel of the strands slipping between my fingers. As the shampoo rinses from his hair and travels the length of his body, I wonder what the rest of him feels like wet and soapy. The fabric covering my breasts graze his chest.

He studies me, and the amber is nowhere to be found behind his dilated pupils.

The only air between us is our breath.

I still completely, warmth erupts in my belly. His lips are hardly feathering mine. I breathe him in, tasting the remains of gummies. Every sense of reasoning goes out the window.

I want him.

I forget about the boundaries being best friends with someone implies and let an almost inaudible moan break free.

A sound comes deep from his chest as if answering me. He cups my face in his hands, staring into my eyes, unhurried to move.

I can’t take it anymore, but before I can even blink his lips devour mine. They feel different than before, lubricated from the rain.

“Fuck,” he mutters, gazing so deeply into my eyes. It feels as if he sees through them, studying the deepest parts of my soul. “I’m sorry.” He breaks away.

No.

“For what?” I shiver, not from the cold.

He is three paces away from me now. “I keep messing up. God, you’re just—” He pulls at his hair. “You make it so difficult to resist sometimes.” He laughs without humor. “I don’t know why I can’t stop myself from kissing you.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” I whisper.

Do you want me just as much as I want you?

“I can’t do this, Adeline,” he whispers at the ground.

I shatter.

“Look at me.” He’s closer now, gently raising my chin. “I want to kiss you so badly. Hell, I want to kiss every inch of your body and do things to you that you’ve only read about in the filthiest book.”

Every cell I’m made of burns to discover the things he desires.What’s stopping you?Is on the tip of my tongue.

“I won’t risk our friendship and your happiness out of selfish desires. So yes, I do want this, but I can’t have it.” he says so low I almost don’t hear it.

“But thiswouldmake me happy.”

---