Page 140 of Honeysuckle
“I mean, I don’t mind doing it for you,” I smirked, my stomach tightening in response.
“All that attention is going to your head,” he purred, and I swear my temperature rose. I could feel my ears going red and instantly hated it. “But look at that, same old Tuck.” He licked his bottom lip clean of the melted vanilla ice cream.
“Doesn’t help when I didn’t get attention from the one person I actually wanted it from,” I tried to tease, though my brain was swimming and my heart was racing. Josh set the spoon down and straightened out, his chest coming to meet my shoulder. He was so close now I could count the freckles that painted the bridge of his nose and the few golden flecks in his sable eyes.
“Is that so?” he hummed. "Because from my point of view, my attention never wavered.”
I wanted to kiss him so badly that the need itched at my fingertips.
But Josh enjoyed the game more than the outcome, he always had, and if this was his foreplay, I would resist cutting it short because seeing him wound up only made me hard.
“I caught you checking Van out,” I teased. “Is it a height thing or…”
“Yeah, I’m unreasonably attracted to trees,” Josh smirked.
“I knew it.” I smiled back at him. “It’s alright, I get it. We’ve both seen what Mitchell is hauling around.”
“So compliant, not jealous at all?” Josh whispered. “You know, there was a guy there tonight—tall, blond…” His eyes flicked to my hair, his lashes so long I could still feel the way they tickled my skin when we kissed. “Annoyingly happy with a smart mouth, I enjoy kissing and an incessant need for attention twenty-four seven.”
“He sounds horrible,” I said, swallowing tightly as I turned so our chests were parallel.
“The worst,” Josh said in amusement.
“Can we go back to the kissing part?” I asked quietly, and he laughed. “I’d really love to hear all the ways you enjoy kissing—maybe you can show me. Or not, that’s fine too…” I rambled.“I mean, if you want to find that guy from the party, he sounded handsome, and I wouldn’t blame you—”
“Dean, would you just…” Josh huffed, completely exasperated with my shit—but still smiling like I was his favorite person in the world. His breath was warm against my lips. His hand moved to cup my jaw, his thumb tracing my bottom lip as he brought us closer together.
“Shut up and kiss you?” I asked more softly that time.
“Shut up and kiss me,” he said, his voice low and sincere.
The kiss that followed was gentle as my hand came to his face, fingers curling into the sharp ridge of his jaw and tugging him forward into me. Josh groaned softly, his other arm wrapping around me to deepen the kiss. It was surprisingly passionate—slower than he usually kissed me—and I sank into the feeling, never wanting it to end.
After a while, Josh finally broke the kiss to rest his forehead against mine, his breath shaky and shallow. "Dean,” he breathed out.
“Josh.” I brushed my nose against his, tempted to steal another kiss.
His hands moved to frame my face, his baseball-worn fingertips brushing over my cheeks. “If you keep doing shit like that,” he paused, his voice lowering and his breath hot against my skin. "I’m going to need you to…” He sighed.
“Only if that’s what you want,” I said quietly, and he leaned in, capturing my lips with more urgency this time.
“It’s what I need,” he said, pulling away.
“Are you sure?” I asked him.
“Are you?” he asked, his voice catching. “You seem…” I watched as the nervousness bubbled violently up inside of him, and I realized that he thought I didn’t want it just because I was making sure he did.
TUCKER
Josh’sgazefollowedmineas I drew in a nervous breath, glancing down at him, then back up to his face. I could see how scared he was but how sure he was about it, and I wasn’t going to question his courage. I thought for half a second before wrapping my arms around him and lifting him around my hips.
“Tucker,” his voice was low with warning as he got comfortable in my arms.
“Yes, Josh?” I started toward the stairs, not giving him a chance to change his mind. A playful smirk spread across my face, despite how serious what we were about to do really was. “If you’re about to tell me to put you down, don’t waste your breath.”
“What exactlyareyou doing?” He swallowed tightly, his grip sliding to my hair and tugging roughly in protest.
I reached the top of the stairs and started toward our room, not stopping even as Josh glared at me. I kicked open the door and brought him inside, setting him down on the bed.
