Page 48 of Puck Block

I tug on my arms. “Did you seriously download and login on the app? How do you even know my password? When did you do that?”

His mouth is so insanely hot now that I know how it feels against mine. I hate that his grin twists my insides with desire instead of irritation. “I know everything about you. It isn’t hard to guess your password, and I did it when you were sleeping.”

A sarcastic laugh fills the space between us. “You stayed in my room all night, didn’t you?” I ask.

Ford looks away, almost like he feels bad. There’s a teeny-tiny slip in my anger with the thought. He can be overprotective, irritating, and borderline obsessive, butGod,he can be so thoughtful too.

“That’s why you weren’t playing your best tonight, isn’t it? You stayed up all night to watch me.”

And here I thought it was because he couldn’t stop thinking about our kiss–silly me to think I was running circles in his mind like he was in mine.

Ford pins me with a look, and there’s something unreadable trapped behind the blue hue. “Partly.”

The snowflakes that fall in between us do nothing to cool my flushed skin. Before, there was a playful hint in his tone, but now, there’s something else. Something heavy and so damnenticing.

“And the other part?” I blink at the sound of my raspy voice. My chest rises and falls too quickly, and I pray he doesn’t notice. I’m focused on his tight grip against my wrists and the small space separating us. It’s too similar to last night in the bar bathroom when his hands drifted over my curves like he couldn’t have stopped himself from touching me even if he wanted to.

Ford angles his head to the dark sky, and his jaw is sharper than a knife. “Don’t make me say it.”

My lips part when he peers down at me.

“Because once I say it out loud, I can’t take it back.”

I’m following his movements like my life depends on it, and when he peels his fingers from my wrist, he snakes his arm around my lower back, and instinctively, I arch. My chest brushes against his, and we lock eyes.

The snow makes everything quiet.

Silence surrounds us.

My heart races when Ford bounces his eyes back and forth between mine, and I’ve never felt so desirable from a single look.

The chime on the door carries to where we are, and Ford flies from my body quicker than I can take a breath. He looks like I've slapped him, and I feel like he’s slapped me.

Shit. What are we doing?

Ford’s hollow cheeks fill with air, and he grips the back of his neck. “After you fix your monitor, I’ll show you what else I’vedownloaded on my phone to help you find a date...” His sentence trails, and I barely hear him when he says, “Or someone to fuck.”

He takes another step backward and adds to his sentence. “Someone who isn’t me.”

I blush but can’t fathom a response because he’s right. Maybe if I can find someone to curb my insane pining, then I can stop wishing my brother’s best friend would put me out of my misery and do the deed himself.

[ 22 ]

FORD

“A double date?”Taytum shakes her head. “No. No way. You already get to see the guys who swipe right, and now you want to come along on a date with me…for what?” she shrieks. “You want to watch me get railed by one of them too?”

I choke on air at the visual, and I can’t decide if I'm angry at the thought or turned on. Maybe both? Which, honestly, is just as bad.

Taytum climbs back onto the stage in her stupid little leotard that does nothing to help my wild thoughts. Our kiss awoke something in me, and I’m afraid the only way it’s going to fall dormant again is ifshe’sthe one to shut it down. Which is precisely why I need her to be more active on the dating app I set her up on. She needs to be swept off her feet by some guy who isn’t me, and I need to sit back and watch so I can be put in my place. As each day passes, our subtle touches are becoming less playful and more tempting.

I know she feels the chemistry just as profoundly as I do, because her pupils dilate every single time we touch. It’s messing with my head.

“What’s up?” Theo takes a seat beside me, and I click out of the dating app on my phone. He sends me a sideways glance when he looks from the screen and then back to my face. “Having trouble finding a girl you haven’t fucked yet?”

“As if I wouldn’t double dip,” I say.

He chuckles. “Then why are you on Bex Hex?”

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