Page 73 of Love Off-Limits
“I was trying to be responsible! To buy us some time to get to know one another.”
“A worthy effort.”
She shook her head. “Maybe at first. But I don’t want any more time.”
“No? What about the third question?”
She huffed. “Really? You’re going to be a stickler about it now? When we’refinallyalone?”
“It was your idea, not mine,” I teased.
“Fine. Guess my favorite food.”
I furrowed my brow in thought. “Okay. Str—”
“Yes.”
I laughed. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“I don’t care. Whatever you were guessing, that’s my favorite.”
I smirked. “That’s still only two correct guesses. Since you already confessed my movie guess was wrong.”
“Tyler,” she said pointedly, her eyes warm and inviting. “Stop being difficult and just kiss me already.”
She didn’t have to ask me twice. I leaned down and brushed my nose against her, hearing her sharp inhale of breath at the contact. Our lips touched, featherlight at first, then with increasing pressure as my hands moved from her waist to the sides of her face. She moaned softly as her lips parted and the kiss deepened, the pace shifting from tentative to a little more frenzied. Together, we stumbled backward toward the wall of the barn until my shoulder blades were pressed against the rough slats of wood. We paused for a brief moment, our breathing heavy, and Penelope let out a well-timed bleat.
Olivia laughed lightly and pressed her forehead into my chest.
“My hands are so cold,” she said without looking up at me. “Actually—”
Without warning, she snaked her hands under my rain jacket and tugged up my t-shirt, pressing her palms flat against my stomach. I gasped as her rain-chilled skin met mine.
“That’s better,” she said with an uncharacteristic giggle. Slowly she slid her hands around the inches of skin just above the waistband of my jeans, stopping when they reached the small of my back. Her hands were like ice, but I hardly cared. It was a small price to pay to have her so close, to have her hands on my skin.
I tilted my head and leaned toward her, and she pushed up on her tiptoes to meet me. I kissed her slowly, loving the soft give of her lips, yielding only when the feel of her hands sliding over my back distracted me. I groaned, my head falling back against the barn wall. “That... you...are very good at this.”
“It’s not me,” she said softly. She looked at me, fire sparking in her eyes. “It’s us.” Her chest rose and fell, her breathing as shallow as mine. “It feels different, doesn’t it?” She gave her head a little shake. “It’s never felt like this for me before.”
Suddenly everything that I’d done over the past few weeks, leavingRandom I,moving to North Carolina, taking a job mucking stalls and feeding chickens and cutting grass, it all made sense. Because Olivia made sense. Wherever she was, that’s where I wanted to be. I could figure everything else out eventually. I just needed her in my life.
Olivia pulled back and dropped her hands from my waist and entwined her fingers with mine. She backed up slowly, tugging me just past Penelope to the corner of the barn where several rectangular hay bales sat stacked against the wall, the closest row only one bale high and perfect to sit on.
“You’re too tall for your own good, Tyler Marino,” she said as she sat me down. I hardly cared that the hay was scratchy behind my head as she kneeled beside me, taking my face in her hands. She moved slowly, tracing a trail of kisses across my jaw, then hovering above my lips. “I have been thinking about doing this for a very long time,” she whispered, the sweet breath of her exhale warm against my skin.
I growled my approval as I pulled her onto my lap. My hands tangled in the damp strands of her hair as her lips found mine, and the last shred of reality slipped away. We were lost to anything but each other.
Minutes, hours, I wouldn’t have known the difference.
There was only us.
Onlyher.
“Olivia,” a sharp voice said from somewhere beside us.
Only us...annnndOlivia’s older brother.
Olivia’s eyes went wide before she scrambled off my lap and landed in a heap at my feet. I lunged forward and grabbed her elbow, steadying her while she found her footing. She looked... rough. Hay in her hair, her shirt slightly twisted, her cheeks red. Okay, she actually lookedbeautiful.But very much like she had just been thoroughly kissed. Not exactly preferred when your brother was looking on.
