Page 70 of Sneak Attack

“Neither had we, you know. So why do you hold yourself fully responsible?”

I hadn’t wanted to go there, but she was so willing to absolve me of blame, and now she was willing to do the same for Selma.

“I don’t know.” She pushed her lips to the side, rolled them together. “Because I still feel bad. Because she’d be here if I hadn’t come to town. If I’d been able to stop what we were feeling.”

“Don’t you think that says something, though? That neither of us could despite how hard we tried? I could have hurt Hilary that first day back at school as soon as I saw you. I took her backafterwe kissed, because I figured it was just a thing, you know.”

She flinched, and I hadn’t meant to hurt her, but Hilary had been trying to get me back, begging me, reminding me of everything I promised her and all the ways we’d spend our senior year. It wasn’t guilt that drove me to kiss Eden before I took Hilary back, it was desire and curiosity and me wondering if I even loved Hilary. And after that kiss, I’d known I didn’t, that’d I’d already moved on from my high school girlfriend but breaking her heart and dating someone else seemed so cruel.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know.” Eden nodded and reached out, brushed her hand over my stomach where my shirt had ridden up. Her touch was soft, tentative, and at the first brush of her warm flesh against mine, my stomach tightened. “I should go though.”

“Probably.”

“Your mom is probably getting tired.”

“Yeah.” Or she was asleep already, her cross stitch in her lap and her mouth slightly opened like she always fell asleep in the evening.

Eden chewed on the corner of her bottom lip and glanced up at me. “Do you think, well, can I have a kiss before I go?”

Absolutely she could.

CHAPTER23

EDEN

Adevilish gleam curled Cole’s lips, and he didn’t waste time accepting my request.

His hand slipped to the back of my neck, his other went to my waist and with a quick pull of my body, moving me like I was no heavier than a football, he had me settled on his lap, my legs bent and straddling his.

“Come here.” A firm press of his palm at the back of my neck sent a flash of excitement sliding down my spine and then his scruff was scraping my cheek as his mouth brushed along my jaw. “You never have to ask for this, after all the years I’ve waited for you to be right here.”

His words were a balm to my heart, soothing me, but at the same time, forced a panicked ball of emotions into my stomach. He was so certain. So sure.

After all this time and now barely knowing each other.

My feet itched to run even as I moved in closer, twisted my neck until our lips brushed together.

A sated sigh fell from my parted lips as Cole took over, gently at first, discovering the taste and feel of me, until whatever control he had snapped and then his mouth pressed to mine, his tongue dove in.

He kissed me like he’d been dying for this. Like we hadn’t spent seven years apart and like he knew exactly what I needed to get out of my mind, to silence the doubt and fears quickly fleeing to the dark recesses of my brain.

My hands slid up his chest and as they burst over his chest, a beautiful, low groan fell from him and he cupped the back of my neck harder, slid me closer to him until my breasts were pressed to him and the beautiful, thick hardness against my core couldn’t be disguised or hidden.

Cole Buchanan had been the only man of my dreams and fantasies and nightmares for as long as I could remember and the reality of him having me here, like this, his passion for me thrumming through every tense and pressured touch of his hands on me proved he wasn’t only a god in football.

He’d be the master in bed as well.

A shiver rolled through me and a mewl tore my throat as he rocked me against his hard length, large and obvious against my center.

“Cole,” I rasped against him, and I didn’t know what I was asking.

For him to finish me off like this. For him to takeeverythingor for him to slow, allow me to regain my bearings.

He tore his mouth off mine and shoved his lips to my ear. “Think of this later, how hard I am for you, and how much I want you, and how good this feels for you when you start conjuring up your escape plans.”

My body was so electrified from the lust he’d stroked so quickly it took me a moment to realize he was no longer kissing me but running his hands slowly up and down my back, and when I finally registered his words, I frowned. “What?”

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