Page 13 of Promises & Pumpkins
“Not at all.”
We answered at the same time, and Harper tugged her lip between her teeth. “I’m actually going to run to the restroom.” She looked around, finding the outhouse Stanley had put in and giving me a quick smile before she shuffled away.
“You’re a dick.” I turned to glare at my partner. He laughed.
He was amused. “I thought you said she was a friend?”
“Fuck off.” I licked my fingers clean of the sticky chocolate and marshmallow left behind.
“I’m just messing with you,” he said, nudging me with his elbow. “I haven’t seen you have so much fun with someone since Miranda died.” Stanley looked too sincere for me to get annoyed. He was right. I shied away from women most of the time. There was something about Harper that didn’t feel wrong—something that made me want to spend more time with her.
I shrugged, looking over my shoulder to make sure she wasn’t walking up behind me. “I like her,” I said when she wasn’t there. “But she’s not looking for anything.”
“Are you?” He looked surprised, and I shook my head.
“No, not necessarily.” I didn’t know that I would ever feel like I was completely ready to move on, though. “But I like how she makes me feel.”
Stanley looked over my shoulder but continued. “Maybe because she’s so young.” He winked when I grumbled, ready to defend myself. She didn’t act like the twenty-something-year-old girl next door. She was more mature than that, and she challenged me. “Give her some time. She seems like she likes you too. At least a little bit, judging by that kiss. She’ll come around, and maybe she’ll decide being with your old ass isn’t so bad.”
“I’m not even forty yet,” I grumbled. Who was he calling an old ass? We were only six months apart.
“You may as well be. You’re thirty-eight. At that point we start rounding up.” Stanley laughed, throwing his head back with amusement at his own joke.
“What’s so funny?” Harper asked, walking back up. A sense of relief flooded me when she wrapped her arm around my waist.
I shook my head, wrapping mine around her shoulder and pulling her closer. My side buzzed with new familiarity. “Nothing,” I said, resisting the urge to kiss the top of her head and glaring when Stanley’s eyes widened. “What do you say we get out of here?”
“Thanks again for coming with me tonight,” I said, standing behind her while she unlocked her front door. When I heard the lock, the tension in the air between us grew heavier. Harper turned, leaning back against the front door and holding her hand loosely over the knob.
“I’ll admit it. I had a really great time.” She smirked. “Even if you tricked me into going.”
I took a step toward her, closing the distance between us. “Would you have gone with me if I hadn’t?”
She gulped and shook her head. “Probably not.” Harper bit her lip, and I was filled with envy. Then her breathing changed, growing heavier and slower. “Did you, um, want to come in?” She didn’t bother to offer me a cup of tea she wasn’t going to make. We both knew exactly why she was inviting me in.
“What for?” I asked, taking another step until she was framed neatly between my body and the wood panel behind her.
She shrugged, and I followed the bob in her throat when she gulped. “Isn’t that what friends do?”
“Friends,” I repeated, closing my hand over hers and opening the door behind her. When I took another step, forcing her backward, we both entered the house. Harper reached around me and flipped on the light. I slammed the door behind us, and she jumped slightly. Her breath hitched in her chest, and I could feel the butterflies swirling inside her. “Do you really think we’re just going to be friends, Harper?”
She nodded, and I smirked. I curled my finger under her chin, guiding her gaze to meet mine, and her eyes flickered around the entryway, from the full-length mirror next to the door and back to my face. “I’m not good as more than friends.” Her voice shook.
“I don’t think that’s true.” When I leaned in toward her, she closed her eyes like she was preparing for me to kiss her. Instead, I guided her a step forward, stepping around her to stand behind her so we were both facing the mirror. “Look at the hunger in your eyes right now,” I said, holding her gaze against the mirror while I ran my nose along the soft spot on her neck under her ear. “Is that how you’d look at a friend?” She nodded again, but more meekly.
I kissed Harper’s neck, inhaling her soft gasp and tracing the goosebumps that rose on her skin with my lips. Then she leaned back against me, and I wrapped my arms around her. “What if you’re wrong?” she whispered. Her breath was heavy with the arousal we both felt.
“Let me show you that I’m not,” I said, running my hand down the front of her stomach to the button on her jeans. She held her breath while I unfastened them, pushing them past her hips just enough for me to reach my hand between the soft lace that separated me from her. Her body dropped back against mine when my finger brushed over her clit. “You’re already so wet. Do you get this wet for all of your friends?”
Her eyes got wide, and I watched her face turn from horror to embarrassment to need in her reflection. Then she shook herhead, closing her eyes when I circled my finger around her clit, spreading her arousal. “Most of my friends don’t dothat,” she whined when I slipped two fingers inside her and curled them, causing her back to curve. “Or that!” I pressed my thumb against her clit, pulsing against her slowly and at an even rhythm. Her eyes closed tighter.
I pulled my hand from her damp panties and pushed her jeans along with the lace down her thighs. The fabric dropped to the ground, and I moved my hand back to her now-bare mound. “Open your eyes,” I said, sliding my fingers back between her lips. “I want you to watch how you fall apart for me. Then you can tell me when we’re done that I’m just your friend.”
Her eyes flickered open, and I got lost in the blue reflection. My cock pressed against my own zipper, and the more desperate her stare got, the more it ached to be freed—to be buried inside her. Then her pussy clenched around my fingers, and I had to feel her body ripple like that around my cock. When she pushed her hips back, rubbing her bare ass against the bulge in my jeans, I couldn’t resist any longer.
I moved as quickly as I could to get my own jeans off by her next breath. The head of my erection pressed against her round ass, and precum glistened on the tip already. I was as desperate as I knew she was.
“Put your hands on the mirror,” I said, placing my hand against the middle of her back and guiding her forward. She bent at the waist, flattening her hands against the mirror, just above her face. When I pushed more on her back, she arched it, forcing her to stare into her own face. “Don’t look away.”
