Page 31 of Head Over Heels

Goddamnit.

That wasn’t what I meant to do.

I mean, it was, and it wasn’t.

I meant to kiss her. Hell, I couldn’tnotkiss her.

I just didn’t mean to kiss her like that.

I got so mad when she started bullshitting me. It made me go crazy, and that’s why I said what I said and did what I did, the way I did.

But I should have done it right. Above board. Told her how I felt, given her time to think about it, to end things with Kieran properly.

Instead, I made her think I was trying to prove some point. Just trying to one-up Kieran. I hurt her; I made her angry; I made her sad.

And now?

Now, I might have lost my chance to do this thing right.

I groan.

Goddamn.

And the thing is, I can’t have lost my chance. I can’t. Because it was too good, and I want more. I want Liv more than I’ve ever wanted anyone.

Reliving events in my head has had the predictable effect on my body. I shove my shorts and my briefs down and wrap my fist around myself. Hard enough to pound nails.

I want another chance. I want to give her a demo of what it feels like to be kissed so deep and so well that remembering it will make her hot all over again. So hot she can’t string five words together.

I want to make her wet and soft and open and full of sighs and whimpers.

I want to pick up where we left off. That’s what I want to do.

I stroke myself, imagining. The sweet give of her lower lip, the way she’d press her curves against me, her nipples hardening against my chest and her pubic bone tipping against my dick.

I imagine getting her so worked up she’d have no choice but to tell me the truth.“I was never into Kieran. I’m into you, Chase. I’m so into you.”

I imagine how it would feel to have her breasts and her ass naked in my palms, handfuls of her as I—

And holyshit,I’m ramping up so fast it’s like I’m fifteen and fantasizing about whatserface in math blowing me under my desk.

This is Liv. MyfriendLiv.

I don’t care. I just care about the images and fantasy sensations that are careening through my head now, one after the other, the way she’d look naked, the way my lips and tongue would slick her pussy, the way I’d suck her nipples hard into my mouth, the way I’d lay her back on my bed and plunge, burying myself in her.

And I’m coming so hard I bite my lip and pound my available fist into the mattress to keep from groaning it out loud.

Chapter 14

Liv

Eve and I meet for breakfast the next morning, Monday, at our favorite diner.

Her honey-colored corkscrew curls are loose in a puff around her head, but otherwise, she looks like she’s on her way to work—dressed to kill in a blouse and pencil skirt and heels. Eve is an incredibly successful Realtor, one of Seattle’s youngest, and part of why she’s so good at what she does is that she’salwayson the job, even when she’s theoretically relaxing.

Eve and I met in college, after I transferred to UMass. She was my roommate, and we’ve been friends ever since. It was Eve who lured me to Seattle in the first place from Boston, where I worked first after college. And it was Eve who scraped me off the floor and spoon-fed me Ben & Jerry’s after I moved out of the apartment I shared with Zeke.

“Hey,” I say, plopping down across from her.

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