Page 80 of Told You So
“Then don’t.”
“You act like it’s that simple,” she breathes. “We are never simple.”
I drop her purse on the couch, holding her gaze despite how crazy she makes me and the fact that I want to pin her against the wall and show her how good we’d be together. “No, we’re not. But all these years have been building up to something. It’s time to see where it takes us.”
She licks her lips. “It’s going to ruin whatever this is between us.” It’s like she says the words because she thinks she should, not because she means them. They’re light on her tongue, almost breathless, and her eyes are locked on mine.
“Or,” I whisper, “make it better.”
Her head shifts slowly from side to side. “You can’t know that.”
“I know that you look smokin’ hot in those cowboy boots that I’ve watched you dance in more times than I can count, and that I nearly lost my shit today when you took off your sundress.” I take a step closer so that her sandals touch my toes. “I know you’ve worn the same perfume since high school and that you’re neurotic when you need to be in control of something.”
I tuck her hair behind her ear and frown. “I know that when I’ve seen you with other guys, you don’t give them any part of you—you barely look at them, definitely not the way you’re looking at me.”
I lean closer, sunblock and shampoo filling my nose and making my insides ache with desire. “And I know that you’re having an extra bad day when you knot your hair on top of your head, and that you’d do anything for your brother, no matter what it costs you. Some nights you go out and want to live with abandon, but it never sates you.” I take her messenger bag off her shoulder and let it drop to the ground. “I know that you push me away because whatever this is between us scares you more than anything.”
“And it doesn’t scare you?” she rasps.
I appreciate her soft bottom lip and the dimple on her left cheek when she swallows thickly. “Not anymore and certainly not enough to let you leave.” I want to see what we could be, to prove to myself it’s not all in my head. I want to prove that it’s not years of tension and distance that’s made us feel an attraction to one another, but something real beneath the surface.
No more waiting. I kiss her.
No more games and back and forth. In this moment, she’s my life’s blood. She’s the heat coursing through my veins, the adrenaline that makes my body hum and my heart pound, like I’ll explode without the taste of her again. I want her in every way, and all it takes is her lips parting against mine and a whimper before I lose myself.
Forty
Bethany
I’m lost in a wave of euphoric surprise and sudden relief as Nick’s mouth covers mine. His hands are hot against my jaw and neck, and I can’t help but whimper as his tongue slips between my lips. Mint and man fill my senses, and a lightning storm enlivens every nerve ending on my body. Thunder rumbles through his chest and the charge that has always filled the space between us becomes an air supply I can’t breathe without. It’s what makes him so dangerous. It’s what consumes me and stirs something wild awake inside.
My arms tangle around his neck, unable to resist the pull between us that’s become a life-support my body can’t deny, and I give into him completely.
Hands flutter. Our bodies press together. Nick lifts me up against the wall, it’s unyielding behind me. My legs wrap around him, my insides swirling with a red-hot need as his hands grip my thighs and his mouth devours mine.
This is different than our kiss before. It’s frenzied and raw and all-consuming.
His hands find the hem of my dress. “Take it off,” he commands, tugging at it. “I want it off.” My bathing suit top gets in the way, but that doesn’t slow him down. It fuels him, filling him with more determination as he tears my dress away. His hands are greedy and he yanks my bathing suit top down, lifting my breast into his mouth.
I gasp and pull his soft hair between my fingers, my body clenching in need as liquid heat pools inside me, yearning.
“Nick,” I rasp. “Please.”
He bites my lip. “Say it,” he growls. “I want to hear you say it.”
I’d do anything he asks if it meant he’d fuck me. “I need you.” I whimper as his fingertip brushes over my nipple. “I—want you,” I gasp, squeezing my legs tighter around him.
Nick yanks me from the wall and walks us to his bedroom. He drops me onto the bed, appraising me, like I’m a prize he’s won, watching me writhe with wanting as he pulls away. He tugs his shirt over his head then unbuttons his shorts. “There’s no going back,” he says. It’s a warning, but I’m not sure if it’s for me or himself.
Every doubt is gone. Every fear is a fading memory. “I don’t want to go back.” The chill without him against me makes me tremble, and I run my hands down my body. Nothing matters before this. “I never want to go back.”
Nick pulls a condom from the bedside table, and I struggle to keep my eyes open in my anticipation. I feel the bed move and Nick climbs over me. “Look at me,” he says. His voice is a distant, alluring rumble, pulling me to him.
I open my eyes, lost in the wild green and brown that stare back at me.
He kisses me again, more gently than I expect, and I memorize this. This feeling. This elation and levity. When he finally eases himself inside me, the weight of the last ten years disperses, and I’m completely undone.
Forty-One
