Page 39 of Friends Don't Kiss

The music changes to something fast-paced, something that doesn’t require Colton’s arms, and I breathe a little better when he begins to let me go. But he’s always there, touching my hand, my lower back, looking at me like I’m the only person in the room. His jacket is long gone, his sleeves are rolled up on his corded forearms. His shoulders strain the shirt, the muscles testing the seams in a provocative way.

At some point he leaves the dance floor to get us some water, and I end up between a cousin I haven’t seen in forever and Uncle Bill. But without Colton, I feel lonesome. This is my family, and I shouldn’t feel this way, but I do.

When he comes back, Eloise has gone to bed. “I think we can go now,” I say in his ear.

“Whatever you want, Sweets,” he answers, then pats Uncle Bill on the back and leads me upstairs.

Once in our room, he shuts the door softly and says, “You okay, Babe?”

I flinch at his term of endearment but choose to ignore it. “Tired,” I lie. I’m wound up, and horny, and angry. I could use a good orgasm right now, but I’m not going to tell Colton that.

Reaching inside his pocket, he says, “Got you your phone charger.” He plugs the cable in an outlet he fishes from his bag and looks around for my phone, but I’m too stunned at the moment to make a move for it. Colton didn’t need to do this, and I almost say the words. But of course he didn’t need to. He wanted to.

As Colton snatches my dead phone from the bed, it hits me. This is Colton’s love language. Fixing my car. Getting my charger from the cold. Keeping me from my family.

How long has this been going on?

My voice comes a little strained when I say, “Thank you,” but he doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does, it doesn’t show.

“Take the bathroom first,” he says, sitting on the one armchair in our room. “I’m gonna get comfortable here for the night.” He wiggles into the chair as if to find the right angle for his lower back. If he thinks he’s settling for the night, he’s thinking wrong.

I search through my bag for my pajamas and toiletries. “Colt, it’s a king bed. We’ll share. I’ll put a pillow between us or something.”

He shrugs. “I don’t mind the ch—”

“I mind. You’re not sleeping in this chair. Or the floor.” Not with everything he’s doing for me.

Friends can share a bed, right?

He doesn’t answer, and I take his silence as a yes. Standing at the bathroom door, my gaze stays on him a beat too long. He’s playing with the TV remote, his attention off me, so I steal a last look at his profile. The set of his jaw, the bump of his Adam’s apple, the planes of his face, his high cheekbones and strong nose stir something inside me that they didn’t use to. The way his mouth dips slightly down at the side, twitching up as he finds something to watch that he might like makes my stomach flutter as I witness an emotion—any emotion—pass through him.

“Did you want to tell me something?” he asks, making me jump. His gaze is still firmly fixed on the TV, and he mutes it while still flipping through channels.

“Um… no.” I take a shaky breath. He’s still not looking at me, yet his presence alone fills the whole room, makes me lose my breath and my train of thought. I could fall for him, in fact I might already have, and I strengthen my resolve to remain just friends. The one thing I value in my life is the friendships I forged, and Colton’s is at the top. I’m not risking it to satisfy a physical attraction.

He plops the remote on the couch where it lands with a soft bump, stands, and in two strides is in front of me, lightly touching on my shoulder. “Turn around,” he says under his breath before I have time to retreat into the bathroom.

Clasping my stuff against my belly, I do as I’m told. In that split second, my resolve does a one-eighty. Whatever it is he has in mind, I’m not saying no this time. Giving into Colton this evening might not have been the plan, but it ended up being so good. What if I let him take the lead the rest of the weekend… the rest of the way? Any regrets I’ll inevitably have will be for later. It’d be nice to live in the present for now.

It’s decided. I’ll say yes to anything Colton asks of me.

His fingers gently flutter against my back as he fumbles with the zipper of my dress. When he’s done with the clasp, he unzips it slowly, the sound agonizingly arousing as I imagine his gaze on my naked skin, lowering to my bottom. His voice catches when he says, “All set,” and gently pushes me inside the bathroom.

Once in the shower, I forgo the self-care I had sort of planned in my head at some point in the evening, then brace myself for the confession I’ll have to make before we go any further.

But when I come back out he’s created the Great Wall of China down the center of the bed, using the couch throw pillows in a line that runs the whole length of the bed. He’s turned the side lamps on and the main lamp off, in effect creating a romantic atmosphere at odds with the sleeping setup.

“That was fast,” he says, unfolding his stature from where he was crouched next to his duffel bag. My eyes lock onto the tattoo on his muscled back and I find it hard to swallow. He’s wearing nothing except a pair of dark briefs that mold his perfect ass. I stay frozen in place, clutching my dress in front of me.

I’m both mortified and relieved that I packed the ugliest pair of pajamas I could find as a shield to this particular situation. At least the contrast between us is evident. Mom is right. I could never keep a man like Colton. No way.

The twinkle in his eye tells me that his mind is right back where it should have been all along. Securely in friend territory. “Is that what you wear to bed, grasshopper?”

I step inside the bedroom and drop my dress on top of my bag. Looking down at my tattered, baggy pajamas, I answer, “When I’m sharing a room, yes.”

His mouth twitches. “Do you own any other pajamas?”

“Do you ownanypajamas?” I ask back.

---