Page 57 of Unless It's You
“Are you... Last week, when we kissed, you had a call from Helen.”
He pulls back so he can look into my eyes, then nods.
“Are you dating her? Or anyone?” I hope he doesn’t realize it’s through the slightest bit of online stalking that I know to ask this question.
“No.” He shakes his head slowly. “Helen’s a friend. Someone I used to date. I think... she wants to get back together. But I don’t. We won’t. And there’s no one else.”
“Okay.” I want to ask for more details on that last time they dated, when he and I first kissed, but the information he’s given me is good enough to kiss him today. “You can kiss me now.”
He doesn’t hesitate, leaning in to connect our mouths. There’sa fire sparking inside me, and our lips meeting—again—fans the flames. Ethan’s beard tickles my chin as our mouths press together, gently, with closed lips. This is what I’ve been waiting for. To kiss him. To do it slowly. To savor how it feels. The connection between us is unending, infinite, burning forever.
Then he pulls away, but slides his hand behind my head, burying it in my hair.
“What?” I whisper, opening my eyes reluctantly, immediately lost in his shadowed dark eyes. I want him in a raw way. Desperate, aching need courses in my veins.
And he wants me, too.
It’s so unbelievable. How did we get here?
“I’m sorry last week was awkward.” His voice is raspy. “When you kissed me.”
I try to pull away further, squirmy at the memory, but he doesn’t let me.
“Wait. Listen. You surprised me. I wanted it so badly. Fuck, Stella, the way your lips felt on mine... and when Nessie interrupted us, I got in my head about things. And you left, and I didn’t know what to do.”
I still don’t really understand why he didn’t run after me and pull me back into his arms, but for now, it’s enough to know he wanted me.
That hewantsme.
“You should’ve done this.” I kiss him again, and he’s ready for me, parting my lips with his tongue, shallow at first, then deeper. A growing ache between my legs blurs all my thinking. I should respond to him properly, say something, but it turns out that kissing Ethan doesnothelp me think straight.
“I wanted to know what it’s like to kiss you.” I barely stop kissing him to say the words.
“But you already knew that,” Ethan growls at me, sucking my bottom lip and pulling me closer.
I want more than just to kiss him. So much more.
“I know, but that night was different.” I breathe against him, opening my mouth against his. I slip my heels off and tuck a leg under my body, raising myself up to him.
These kisses. They’re making me desperate. My chin is going to be sore from his beard, but I don’t give a fuck. No more talking. I just want to kiss him, and maybe?—
He pulls away.
I groan.
“How was it different?”
I swallow. “I don’t know. Lower stakes? Seemed like just a bit of fun? We... didn’t know each other.”
He’s quiet. “Yeah. It was fun. Then what is this? Do we know each other now?”
“We know more.” I feel like I know more about who he is deep inside than I ever did about Ben after a year of dating. “It feels like a lot more. But not enough.”
“Not enough,” he whispers, running a thumb along my jawline. I swallow and his eyes dart down to my throat.
“But I really want to keep going.”
“With what, Stella?”
