Page 81 of Full Tilt
He edges even closer to my mouth until we’re practically kissing.
“I’ll prove why you were right to defend me to Kendra and why, despite the way I want to hold you at arm’s length and recount the times you turned me down, I’ll never be able to stop coming back to you. We aren’t enemies, Hellion. We’re fucking magnets.”
We eyeball each other. A final standoff of wills.
“I’m waiting for you to tell mecobraagain,” I whisper.
He just shakes his head on a smile that I feel against my own mouth. “Not a motherfucking chance.”
And then … he’s kissing me.
It’s everything I expected and knew he was capable of as our tongues collide with reckless abandon. I can’t be sure whosewhimpers fill the room as we explore each other’s mouths for the first time.
I don’t know when he last kissed a woman. It could be weeks, months, or even years. Still, I’d never be able to tell since he’s so perfect at it, so brutal yet so precise with the way he massages his tongue against mine.
I’m so caught up in him, in his kiss, that I don’t notice when he releases my hair until it’s hanging around my shoulders.
Tommy unlaces his fingers from mine, cupping the sides of my face between his warm palms.
He breaks from the kiss, and I’m already desperate for more. I want him everywhere.
“Can I stay tonight, Jenna? Give me a chance to prove that your instincts were right about me.”
He asks the question like I still might be having doubts. I don’t care if he’s the greatest con artist to ever walk the earth.No onecan fake a kiss like that.
Blood pumps through my body, fire singeing every nerve ending.
“And what happens after tonight?” I ask between ragged breaths.
Tommy brushes his thumbs underneath my eyes, setting a kiss against my forehead. “That’s entirely your call. No one hour windows and no pressure. You give me tonight, and in return, I’ll give you space to decide if you want me to remain in your life.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
TOMMY
My arms tremble as I carry Jenna into her bedroom and kick the door shut behind us. She has her legs wrapped around my waist and her mouth clamped firmly against my own.
I was nervous to kiss her and not just because of fear that she could reject me. I can’t remember the last time I kissed a girl, and that’s the God’s honest truth. With sex, I’m confident of my abilities, but with kissing, I’ve genuinely no idea if I’m any good.
Jenna has always teased me for being younger, and the last thing I wanted was to show myself up as inexperienced.
Truthfully, tonight, I haven’t got a fucking clue what I’m doing. I might as well be marooned on a desert island with no map or supplies. I’m completely out of my depth. Still, there was no chance that I was driving straight home from the airport. I’d never gotten through security faster and never made a twenty-five-minute car ride in fifteen minutes either.
I wasn’t lying when I said that I expected her to text me back. I’d felt sure the day I left for our away series that she was feelingthe kinds of feelings that I was. A kind of attraction that runs way deeper than lust.
For the final hour of our return flight home, all I could think about was Jenna getting all dressed up to go out with her girlfriends, only to end up in another dude’s bed. I knew she’d be tempted to go searching for affection in an empty hookup because we’re the same. It’s what I’ve always done with women. If I’m going through shit in my head, I’m more likely to bag a girl and bring her back to my place for some fun.
Jenna might act like the playgirl—easygoing and not after commitment. That’s not who she is though, and I can see that in her eyes. I can feel it in the way she kisses me back.
When she appeared at the end of her hallway tonight, I couldn’t miss the redness around her eyes. She’d been crying, and I guessed that was why Kendra had come over to keep her company.
I fucking hated to see her upset, but realizing that my worst nightmare of her sleeping with another man hadn’t come true, and instead, she was curled up on the sofa with fake wine, only spurred me to push the boundaries and refuse to leave her place when she repeatedly asked me to go.
This girl might think thatI’mthe one playing games, but right now, the only one fooling themselves is her. She wanted to text me back, and I honestly thought I could walk away if she didn’t.
I was wrong.
I can’t walk away; I could barely spend eight nights before I lost my goddamn mind over who she might be jumping into bed with, letting them touch her body. The only hands that should be on her skin are mine.
