Page 71 of Just One of the Groomsmen
She’d cried about it more than once, and it was one of the reasons she’d fled town as quickly as she did.
He didn’t want Addie to be dragged through that—she was tough, but everyone had a breaking point, and words often sliced and scarred worse than anything else.
He hadn’t had a long-term relationship in years, either, but every single one had included ugly fights. His life was in total upheaval right now, too.
He groaned, and she gave him a sympathetic smile.
“My thoughts exactly,” she said.
“I get what you’re saying, but I can’t stop thinking about you, no matter how much I tell myself not to mess things up.” His hands drifted down to her ass, not lifting like he wanted but copping a generous feel. “And, Addie, Ineedto kiss you. I don’t think I can go without doing it again.”
She trailed her fingers over his jaw and flattened her hand against the side of his face. Their lips met in the middle, and he lost the will to hold back—not that he had much of one in the first place.
He lifted her into his arms, anchoring her to him as he rolled his tongue over hers. She drove her fingers through his hair, her fingernails dragging across his scalp, and it felt so damn good he worried his knees would give out and he’d dump both of them in the water.
He walked them toward the truck, blindly reaching out for the hard metal surface, and as soon as he found purchase, he pressed her against it.
She dropped her forehead to his, her rapid breaths sawing in and out of her mouth. “Weren’t we in the middle of discussing how this is a bad idea?”
“I don’t recall that, no,” he said, kissing her again.
She laughed against his lips, and then she pulled back and looked him in the eye.
He’d seen her in just about every state, but he’d never seen her like this. Lips swollen from kissing, lust swimming in her big brown eyes.
It turned him on all over again, until his veins contained more fire than blood.
“Maybe if we…take it slow?” she asked. “And constantly check in with each other? And we have to be honest about how we’re feeling, no holding back.”
“Sure, we can do that.” His concerns about the gossip bobbed to the surface again. “And we should definitely keep it just between us right now. That’ll help cut out a lot of that extra pressure and unnecessary drama.”
She pursed her lips together, getting that deep-thinking crinkle again, and then she slowly nodded. “Right. And if it starts to get in the way of us…” She ran her hand down his cheek, and it calmed everything inside him even as it also stirred it up. “I need us to be us.”
“God, me too.”
“In the name of going slow, I think you better take me home.”
A groan ripped from his throat as she slid down him in one torturous drag, and when she turned to open the truck door, he tugged her back to him and pressed his lips against her neck.
“I know, I know,” he whispered. “I’ve just been thinking about kissing you for a while, and I worry if I let go, I might wake up.”
She pinched him, and a sharp pain shot up his arm.
“Ouch.”
“Not a dream,” she said.
“I appreciate you usingmeto make sure.”
She smiled over her shoulder at him. “Anytime.”
This could work. They could go slow. Check in.
It’d be them but with kissing and hopefully, eventually sex, because he was rock hard from the amazing things she did with her tongue, and thinking of having her legs wrapped around him propelled him into the blue-balls-for-days stage.
He boosted her into the truck via a hand on her ass, rounded the hood, and readjusted himself the best he could as he settled behind the wheel. He glanced at her long legs in those yoga pants andholy shit, her nipples were hard and straining against her thin T-shirt.
“While we’re taking it slow, maybe you can wear that ratty sweatshirt you love and help downplay those curves. Baggy sweats, too—didn’t you used to wear those all the time? Or those fucking farmer overalls.”
