Page 49 of The Plus One
That noise, quite simply, turned Jude inside out.
He growled in response, pushing her against the couch cushions. Getting closer to Indira.
Indira.
Oh God, this wasIndira.
He absolutely should not be kissing Indira. Shouldn’t be gripping her hips, pulling them snugly against him. Shouldn’t be angling her hot and hungry mouth to seal perfectly against his.
Indira, his best friend’s little sister, shouldn’t be dragging herhands through his hair, pulling at it until he grunted in pleasure at the sensation.
Her name repeated on a loop in his mind—Indira. Indira. Indira.He couldn’t hold back the groan of it against her mouth as he took the kiss deeper. Harder. As she arched against him. As she tilted her head for even more.
Jude thought he knew the human body. He knew muscles and blood vessels and bones and organs and how they all worked in miraculous harmony. But this kiss, apparently, had the power to reroute nerve endings. Turn blood into smoke. Set fire to every cell. Indira was a fever, one that had been biding its time, waiting to compromise his system.
Her hands clawed down his chest, landing at the button of his jeans. He kissed her more, tasting the dangerous sweetness of her silky mouth. Biting those lips that always had a ready retort.
“Holy shit,” Indira whispered, dragging her teeth down the column of his neck. “What’s happening?”
Jude didn’t know how to answer. He had no words for whatever alternate universe they’d tumbled into. All he knew was that it shouldn’t be happening.
It had to happen.
He didn’t want it to end.
Through their panting breaths, a new sound emerged. It was far away. A tinkling. A nearly imperceptible warning they both wanted to ignore. And then the unmistakable sound of a key entering a lock, the turning of a bolt, jolted them both back to reality.
Their heads whipped to the side, Indira’s hair getting caught in Jude’s gaping mouth, his body heavy as he pressed her against the couch. They watched in fear as the doorknob turned.
Indira finally got some sense between the two of them. With a tiny squeal, she slid out from under him, Jude pitching forward and banging his face on the arm of the couch. She scrambled to standing, then sprinted to the bathroom.
Jude rolled off the couch at the last second, bouncing to his feet and fixing his pants and hiding his throbbing erection just as Collin walked in through the door.
“Why are you home!” Jude yelled. Then cringed as Collin’s head jerked back. So chill.
But, truly, what was the proper reaction for his best friend almost walking in on him feeling up his sister?
“I live here!” Collin yelled back in a mocking tone. “Did you forget?”
“I mean… why are you back so soon?”
“I left my wallet. Didn’t realize till we sat down, so I ran back home.” Collin grabbed his wallet from the ceramic dish on the entryway table, slapping it against his palm as he looked around. “And, uh, I wanted to check on Dira. Talk to her. Where is she?”
Jude’s mind went completely blank. “Outer space!” he shouted.
Collin blinked. “What?”
“I… She…”
A flush and the sound of water running interrupted Jude’s fumbling, and Indira walked out, looking perfectly put together, except for deep red splotches that stained her cheeks.
“Hey,” she said, giving Collin a limp wave.
“Hey. Can we talk for a minute?”
Indira nodded, then led them to the dining room table. Jude stayed put, pressing his back against the hallway wall and trying to calm his swimming head. A few words drifted in on the soft murmur of their voices—sorryandI love youandeverything’s fine—but Jude couldn’t process them with the memories of Indira’s moan flooding his brain.
After a few minutes, Collin reappeared by the front door. “Sure you don’t want to come grab a beer with us?” he called over his shoulder.
