Page 17 of Enemies in Earnest

Come back to my place.The words were on my tongue. Every time I tried to give voice to them, she’d dive in for another heady kiss, and the invitation would become unmoored, lost in the heated pool of desire we both waded in.

“Get a room!”

An SUV full of teenagers honked as they zipped past us, screaming obscene suggestions as they did. I tried to hold her face, to cover her ears and deafen her against their catcalls and juvenile humor. But it was like trying to bail out a boat with a teaspoon. They were successful in doing exactly as I feared. Acacia pushed off my chest as if she’d been doused in ice water. I couldn’t confidently say exactly what words formed on her lips, but I didn’t want to hear them. Feared, actually, that there would be some snotty comment about how I took advantage of the situation or kissed her when she didn’t want me to, and I felt too raw and exposed to be able to tolerate another barb after going eleven rounds with her.

“Thank you for the olive branch.”

With her face cradled between my palms, I pressed one final lingering kiss to her mouth before wishing her goodnight and heading off in the direction of my car.

ChapterTwelve

It tookme a solid fifteen minutes of sitting in my car panting before I finally came back down from whatever corner of the stratosphere making out with Edwin had shot me to. It was just a kiss. Fine. More like twenty heated, passion filled kisses that felt as if my soul had become disconnected from my body, and Edwin had sucked it out like a kid with a milkshake and a straw.

I wanted more. Every fiber of my being, down to the cellular level, strained with an insatiable need to find out exactly how Edwin Wheeler could mollify whatever witchcraft had overtaken my body with that kiss. Each blood cell seemed to have a mind of its own. None of them operated in tandem as if they floated through my veins playing chicken with one another.

I vibrated. My whole body tingled, and all I could think about was the feel of Edwin’s hands on my back. The memory of his lips taking inventory of every bump, dip, and ridge of my lips felt like I’d dreamed it. And let’s not even talk about the heat he was packing behind those well-pressed pants.

I wasn’t a virgin. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I’d never felt so out of control. My body and its reactions to another person felt alien and otherworldly. And that was before his cock started rubbing against my clit.

If he’d asked me to go back to his place, I don’t believe I would have said no. In fact, I’m sure of it. So sure, in fact, that I found myself parked on Sandpiper Lane, staring at the light on in what I assumed was a bedroom in his half of the duplex.

His mom’s half was dark with the exception of the porch light. I assumed that Klaus and Felicity hadn’t yet arrived home. I’d cut the engine on my car ten minutes prior and told myself at least six times that it was now or never. I needed to sack up and march myself to the front door and tell Edwin exactly what I wanted from him. Yet I continued to remain cemented in my seat watching his shadows play against the curtains.

The longer I sat, the more time studious, proper little Acacia had the opportunity to infiltrate through the haze of desire. She reminded me in the same Catalonian accent as my mother, that proper ladies did not ring on men’s doorbells with the intent of getting laid. Though my mom would never use the wordlaid.She would simply say something like “if a man is interested, Acacia, he will work hard to earn that claim. Don’t give it to him for free. Then he’ll be lazy and not think you’re worth the effort.”

Curiosity won out which shocked me. I was out the door and sauntering up his sidewalk before my brain caught on to my body’s actions.

Call it curiosity, attraction, or perhaps total ineptitude as to realizing when you’re getting sandbagged and lined up to be another notch on Edwin Wheeler’s bedpost. Regardless of thewhat,my body wanted to experience everything his kisses and caresses promised. As much as the thought made me uneasy, I also felt the heat of desire pulse through every capillary in my body.

Edwin yanked open the door, shirtless with a pair of pajama pants hanging low on his hips.

“Acacia?”

Seeing him in shorts and t-shirts every day had given me peeks into his lean form. Nothing, however, prepared me for getting an eyeful of the expanse of his defined chest and soft but not flabby belly. My fingers itched with the need to run my nails down his chest and feel the warm press of his skin.

“I’m sorry.”

Words began to tumble out of my mouth. Totally nonsensical. I don’t know what I planned to say when I walked up to his door, but seeing his chest, the lazy slouch of his cotton pajamas, his defined hip bones, and the soft thatch of hair that traveled from his belly button below the waistband to the cock that stood in relief against that thin cotton barrier—my brain short circuited. I had words. Lots of them. Spent years learning about how to string them together in the best ways to get your point across. But standing there on Edwin’s porch, I forgot what my intention was.

“I should have probably just waited until tomorrow. But I wanted to see you. I messed up. Earlier. When you kissed me. Or probably I kissed you. Regardless, I should have asked you to come back to my house. Or who knows. Something better than standing there, stunned that you were kissing me. Maybe you’re still interested. I don’t know. Nothing makes sense. Was it just the heat of the moment? And now, here I am looking at you in your pajamas who knows maybe you’ve suddenly realized that you don’t actually want to sleep with me—” I practically growled with frustration.

Nothing that I wanted to say found its way from my brain to my mouth. Instead, I sounded akin to my seventeen-year-old self, the one who called every boy in my class to see if they were interested in going to prom with me. Only to be turned down each time.

My own existential crisis didn’t phase Edwin. I barely had my monologue complete, and I was in his arms and he kicked the door closed. His mouth crashed against mine. The moment the two of us joined, my brain logged off for the night and turned the keys of my body over to sensation. Mouths and tongues weren’t enough to dampen the fire that suddenly flashed in my veins and shot through my body.

“Jesus, Acacia.” Edwin’s fingers tangled in my hair, his lips traced along the bend of my jaw before making the journey up to my ear lobe. “Tell me I didn’t pass out drunk in my bed. This is real? You’re really here, in my house?”

We didn’t come up for air long enough to answer. My dress ended up somewhere as I followed him up the stairs to his bedroom, not caring whether or not I survived the climb up the stairs with barely a glance at my feet or the stairs.

“No. Stop.” Edwin pressed his palm flat against my collarbone just as I was about to follow him on to the oversized king bed. “I’ve waited so long for this.”

His words sent a gentle caress all the way to my soul. It had to be a line. Something to mollify the book nerd so she didn’t change my mind at the last minute.

“Show me how beautiful you are.”

There were so many emotions tied to that statement. But every objection that knocked against my inner psyche flew right out the window. Edwin Wheeler, propped against his headboard, lust weighing down his eyelids and slackening his jaw, manhandled the outline of his cock through his pajama pants. Just seeing thesuggestionof how turned on he was had my insides turning to jelly.

I was not the most feminine woman. Most of my clothes leaned toward function versus beauty. My bras and panties were mostly from Target, occasionally I’d grab a cute set from Victoria’s Secret if I got drawn in by an ad fed to me on social media. But I never would be the kind of girl to drop hundreds on fancy lingerie with a French name. With one exception. A black lace set from La Perla gifted to me a long time ago by a boyfriend that didn’t need to be named or even thought about. The gift, however, had its usefulness. Like while I stood at the foot of Edwin’s bed in just a black lace balconette bra and a pair of cheeky lace panties that lifted and separated and made my ass look spectacular.

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