Page 66 of Pinkie Promise

“Yes,” he growls. “I want that so much. But you’re literally trapped in my apartment because of a damn blizzard, Fallon. Doing anything while you’re vulnerable like that would be taking advantage of you.”

“But what if I want it?”

He scrubs his palm against his forehead and angles his hips away from my belly. “Maybe don’t say things like that,” he pleads quietly.

I stare up at him, unsure about his hesitance when I thought that it was quite clear that he liked me. I couldn’t have been more open with him today, and a dull ache begins to spread in my chest as I wonder if I wastooopen.

I’ve been closed off to romance since I was a junior being scared out of my mind in my parents’ house, and I thought that I’d waited long enough. I thought that, now that I’d distanced myself from them, I would be able to move past those fears. From the moment that I saw Hunter I knew that he was perfect on the outside. The only problem was that he ended up being perfect on the inside too.

Or maybe he’s not. Maybe I’m too damaged, even for someone with a heart of gold.

I drop my arms from around the warm expanse of his shoulders and I scoot away from him, slipping off the sofa.

“What are you doing?” he asks, his voice still gravelly as I pick up my gym bag.

“I’m going to get changed,” I tell him. “Which one’s the bathroom?”

“Fallon, you don’t have to…” I position myself on the other side of the sofa and we watch each other with cautious expressions. Hunter’s chest is rising and falling so violently that I’m surprised he hasn’t actually tackled me back down onto the couch.

He flexes his hands, thrumming with testosterone.

“You can get changed in my room if you want,” he says in a voice that makes me think that that’s whathewants. He sounds sad and sorry, as if he thinks that he’s done something wrong.

Maybe he can’t see that having had no romantic interactions in my past means that every wrong move I take with him issimply me dipping my toes into the water because I don’t know what the right moves are yet.

“The bathroom’s through that door, but you really don’t… I didn’t mean to…” He stops himself and then stabs a thick digit towards the sofa. “I’m gonna be here. If you’d rather have some time to yourself, that’s fine. Take my bedroom. But after you get changed if you still wanna hang out here…” He looks at me with those beautiful sparkling eyes. “I’ll just be waiting.”

The sincerity in his tone makes my heart ache.

Unsure about what I want to do versus what I should do, I nod and then I quietly close myself into Hunter’s bedroom.

Chapter 18

Hunter

I’m a damn idiot, that’s what I am.

I sit with my elbows on my knees, hands raking through my hair as I stare blankly at the hockey game that’s quietly playing on the screen. Fallon has been in my bedroom for what feels like hours and I’m so strung out for her that I can barely sit still. I’m dying for her to come out here so that I can give her an apology. If not for the fact that there was a fucking porno lying around our living room, then at least for the fact that I just mounted her from the back while she was wearing a damn cheer skirt.

I glance at the beer on the coffee table that I grabbed from the fridge, wanting to take a damn long pull on it but knowing that adding alcohol to this already fragile situation will only make things worse. Only make me want her more. Then I look over at the oneStar Warsmovie that we had in our stack, that I’ve positioned in the centre of the table just in case Fallon does come back out here, and I get a sharp stab in my gut over my lack of self-control.

I try to refocus on the game and not think about the beautiful girl alone in my room.

A door opens quietly behind me and my shoulders immediately swell. I drop my head down and stretch out my hands, waiting for her to come over here instead of rushing her like I want to. When the room remains quiet, the only sound themuffled noise coming from the game on the box, my breathing starts to get a little heavier, coming in faster deeper pumps. I wait her out for another ten seconds but then I can’t take it anymore and I finally turn around to look at her.

My blood throbs faster.

She’s wearing a Carter U cheer team jumper that’s slipping down one of her shoulders and a pair of joggers, but really the one thing that I can’t stop staring at is theget over here and undress mebra strap that’s holstering her tits up and peeking out from her top.

My knee starts jerking up and down as my cock thickens in my boxers.

“Hey,” I rasp, trying not to swipe my tongue over my lower lip as I give her a once-over for the fifteenth fucking time.

“Hi,” she says quietly, glancing briefly at what’s on the screen.

I want to stand up and go over to her but I also don’t want to freak her out any further, so instead I grip my right fist in my left hand and say, “I’m not watching the game. You can change it if you want. I, uh…”

I breathe out an embarrassed laugh as I lean forward and pick up theStar WarsDVD that I’d left out for her. I don’t even know if it’s the one that she likes but I face it towards her anyway, just in case.

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