Page 37 of After Tonight

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“You ever sat on this couch with a girl and not made out with her?” Riley asked as they settled onto the two ends of Derek’s sofa.

He reached for the remote and gave her a glance. “Of course.”

“Who?” She picked two pieces of cheddar popcorn from the bowl she held and tossed them into her mouth.

“Peyton. Hannah. My mom.” He flipped through the settings on his TV to get to the DVR.

Riley laughed. “So the answer is actually no.”

“And now you,” he commented as he settled back into the couch and reached for a handful of popcorn.

Okay, cheddar was good. But kettle corn was better. Riley was right on that one.

“So you’ve never sat on this couch with a woman you were attracted to and not made out?” Riley clarified her question.

Derek concentrated on chewing and starting the movie. Because the answer to the question was actually “not until tonight”. Because, dammit, he was attracted to Riley.

Thirty-seven minutes later, she was fast asleep. And she’d barely touched the popcorn. Cheddar was Lucy’s favorite, and if he was going to have movie nights with her, that was probably a good thing to know. But now Derek wished he hadn’t asked and had just gotten the kettle corn Riley had wanted. At the time, after all the talking about mouths and actually saying the words “go down on a woman” to Riley, the mention of Lucy had seemed like a good way to refocus what was going on between them. Which was nothing, really.

And if he had been picturing Riley spread out on his coffee table in nothing but a smile and her sassy attitude, well…he was only human.

He was also only human right now.

She looked gorgeous. Since they were sharing the couch, she’d fallen asleep propped up in the corner. She wore a hoodie over a tank top and loose cotton shorts that hit her mid-thigh. The hoodie was open, one breast pressing against the tank. She wasn’t wearing a bra. He could tell if he looked closely. Which he wasn’t. Anymore.

Her face was relaxed, and her hair was escaping from the messy bun she had on top of her head. And he could hardly count how many times in his life he’d seen her asleep. Several. Many. Yet, for some reason, tonight it hit him how damned beautiful she was. Which meant he should probably go to bed. Because he’d never had an urge to run his hand up Riley Ames’s leg before, and right now he was having a hard time fighting it.

Derek got to his feet, and then leaned over to move Riley so she wouldn’t wake up with a sore neck. He ignored how warm she was and how great she smelled. Mostly. Surely over the years he’d noticed that she smelled amazing. So why was it hitting him so hard tonight? And why wasn’t he just waking her up to go home? But it was late. And there was no problem with her crashing on his couch. They were friends, after all.

She promptly stretched out as he pivoted her to lie down on the cushions. Like a damned cat. With lots of arching and curling. That thrust her breasts and her sweet ass out. Yes, her ass was sweet, and yes, he’d told her so. After having it pressed up against his cock for nearly two hours while napping, he wasn’t going to pretend it was anything but one of the nicest he’d had the pleasure of being pressed against. And he’d never spent two hours in that position with a woman. Taking a woman from behind simply didn’t take two hours. It was one of his favorite positions, and he made sure they always thought so too. Fairly quickly.

Swallowing hard, he slid a pillow under Riley’s head and then draped the blanket over her. He could send her home, but he somehow knew that she wouldn’t be sleeping in at her mom’s house. He was sure she’d shown up on his doorstep that morning because her mom had awakened her, either intentionally or accidentally. He’d known the Ames family long enough—hell, he’d spent the night at their house enough—to know that Riley was the only night owl in the family. The rest of them were morning people. The types who weren’t just up at an ungodly hour, but who were happy and perky about it.

So yeah, Riley could sleep in on his couch. And then he could sleep in too.

He sent a quick text to her dad, letting him know she’d fallen asleep watching a movie and not to worry. Jake wouldn’t check his phone until the next day over breakfast anyway, and he certainly wouldn’t worry about Riley spending the night at Derek’s. Honestly, if something was going to happen between him and Riley, there had been thousands of opportunities over the years. Jake trusted him.

As Derek turned off the light in the living room and headed for his bedroom, he thought about that. Not only did Erika and Jake trust him, they would probably be fine with him and Riley getting together. They loved him like a son. And they definitely found him more responsible than their daughter. They’d probably consider him a stabilizing force for Riley.

But that would be too bad.

That thought hit him as he stripped down to his boxers and slid between the sheets. Stabilizing Riley would mean changing her. And that really would be too bad.

That was his last thought as he drifted off.

Only to be awakened by a pounding on his door five minutes later.

When he looked at the clock, he realized it was actually three hours later. But it was pounding nonetheless. On his door. At the butt-crack of dawn. And it wasn’t his front door. It was his bedroom door.

“Come on, Wright, let’s go!”

He was going to kill her.

He got out of bed, stomped to the bedroom door, and yanked it open. “Jesus, Riley!”

She was standing there with a hand on her hip, clearly expecting his reaction. “I missed you.” She gave him a full-of-shit grin.

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