Page 87 of Five Alarm Love
He brushed his fingers over hers.Virtual sparks arced at the contact, arrowing to other areas of his anatomy.He put down his fork.She did the same.
Their eyes locked.
Held.
Tuli cleared his throat.“Can I pay the bill so we can get out of here?”Whatever this new, delicate thing was between them, he wanted to explore it.Nurture it.Protect it.
Her eyes turned into dark, sensual orbs that caged him in place.“Please.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Whether it wasthe company, the night, or the realization that her genetic makeup hadn’t ruined her chances with Tuli, Lou couldn’t keep her hands off him as they climbed the stairs to her apartment together.
Every few steps, those little touches, deep kisses, and breathy sighs all took up space in her heart and mind until every sense focused on Tuli.
She fumbled with the lock on the door but finally managed to turn the bolt and step inside.Two steps away from the door, she flipped on a light and toed off her booties, shooing Frost away.
Tuli stood right there, staring hungrily as if he hadn’t just had dinner, taking up all the space in front of her.His serious facade cracked when he quirked a dark brow and shot her a half smile.Then, without taking his eyes off her, he reached out and threw the bolt from the inside.Thethunkof metal into the door jamb was loud in the quiet apartment.
Lou didn’t breathe.
Tuli stared at her, his broad chest rising and falling.
Neither of them moved.
Until they both moved.
They closed the two feet between them in a sensual collision of lips and arms and chests pressed against each other.
She set and reset her hands, restless, desperate to touch all of him all at once.
His arm banded around her back, tightening up, then easing off the pressure, over and over, as if he consciously forced his muscles to loosen up.Yet kept failing.
Her head spun as she locked her arms around his neck.He was her north star in a swirl of bright lights and emotions.He walked them until she bumped against the back of her loveseat.Still, he moved forward.Trapped in the sweetest of prisons, she throbbed as pressure and heat built between them.He crowded her.His eyes darkened.This was a side to him she’d never truly seen before.She couldn’t move.Didn’t want to move.She needed more.
He pulled away from a soul-stealing kiss.“Lou, I want you so much.”
Blasts of images and thoughts raced through her mind—the two of them playing together as children, growing up together, working to help patients, hanging out at festivals, chatting over morning coffee in the deli.Two orbits intersecting as they circled in proximity.
Her childhood memories and her adult memories were all filled with one smiling face—Tuli’s.
This moment would change everything.Hell, it had already changed.
What he was asking.What she desperately needed.She’d never be the same again.
She never wanted to be the same again.
She needed her best friend, her rock, her colleague.The guy who always understood her, even when she didn’t speak.A full body shudder rippled through her.
She wanted him.
“Please,” she said.
“I can’t… I—” He didn’t finish his sentence before dipping his head and taking her lips in another sensual kiss that went on and on.
The world tilted and shifted.He held her steady.He was her anchor, like he’d always been.
He slid his hands over her waist and breasts, teasing nipples into tight, hard peaks even through the knit dress.His kisses along her neckline set off tremors.When his hands drifted down to fist the skirt material, he dropped his forehead to hers.His chest heaved.
