Page 82 of Naughty & Nice

He stares at her, his eyes darting between her eyes and her lips.

He wants to kiss her.

I stand there with my chest heaving, waiting…

He leans in, going in for the kiss, but right before their lips touch, she tenses and blurts, “I’m hungry.”

A laugh erupts from my throat as I watch Wilder’s face fall and Noelle step back.

“Uh… yeah,” Wilder muses, rubbing at his scruff-covered jaw. “Good idea. That’s totally what I was thinking too.”

“Sure you were,” I laugh, reaching for Noelle’s hand and tugging her into my side. “What are you thinking?” I ask, my eyes bouncing between her glassy ones.

She’s buzzed, that’s more than obvious. It’s probably for the best we eat before this gets out of hand.

Together we navigate our way through the almost darkness into the kitchen.

She pulls the refrigerator open, but unlike normal, the light doesn’t come on.

Stepping up behind her, I shine my flashlight into the dark space to illuminate our options. They’re pretty limited considering we only have a fire to cook on right now.

“Cheese. We need cheese.”

21

NOELLE

My body burns red hot, and my heart pounds a million beats a second as I stare aimlessly into the refrigerator.

I was hoping the cool air might help with my current situation, but all it does is remind me that I shouldn’t have opened it.

We’ve no idea how long this blackout is going to last; we don’t need all the food in here getting warm before necessary.

Apparently, there is no limit to my recklessness. If you can compare opening the fridge in a power outage to dirty dancing with twins.

My chest compresses and a huge sigh passes my lips.

“Noelle?” Rix’s voice is deep and raspy in a way I’d never really heard before this trip. Hearing it also isn’t the bucket of ice water I really need pouring over me.

“I’m okay,” I whisper, finally reaching for what I came in here for.

I wasn’t lying. I am hungry. And more than that, I need something to soak up the alcohol.

I don’t usually drink, and when I do, it’s not shots of vodka. And something tells me this is only the beginning. The three of us… we have a lot of night ahead of us.

My stomach knots with a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and anticipation.

Both of them had their hands and their lips on me.

Desire coils between my thighs and a little regret seeps in that I stopped it.

Should I have kept going?

I shake my head, trying to reconcile the old me and this bold new version.

Who knew that getting just a taste of what real sex is like would turn me into this… this…

An erratic laugh erupts from my throat as I wrap my fingers around a block of cheddar and spin around to face my best friend… my… boyfriend?

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