My chin dropped. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
He raised a brow. “I didn’t, but I know you like to throw yourself headfirst into a challenge.”
I closed my hand around his cock and twisted on an upward move.
River gasped as I chuckled. “You were saying about me throwing myself head in first?”
As I explored further, his breath hitched, his lean muscles tensing. I sped up the strokes, and his response was immediate, a sharp intake of breath that became a moan. With each stroke, I learned what made his body sing until he was teetering on the edge, held there by the thread of my touch.
The sounds out of his beautiful lips got me hard again, so I pressed closer against him and took both our cocks in my hand. I knew I wouldn’t come again, but I hoped the friction would get him there.
“I’m so cl—Adam!” he shouted as his release coated my fingers, warm and sticky.
Afterward, we lay there, limbs entangled, River’s chest rising and falling against my side.
“You fucking bastard,” he said, reaching for my hand, our fingers intertwining naturally.
“I take it that was okay.”
“That was more than okay,” he whispered, each syllable heavy with meaning, “You have no idea how scarily more than okay this was for me.”
My chest filled with pride and hope. If us being together like this was more than okay for River, that was because we had atrue connection. Not just the best friend kind of connection, but the kind like what my brothers had.
I tried to look for the fear in my head, but I must have misplaced it somewhere outside River’s apartment because all I could feel was rightness.
21
RIVER
Istood motionless in the storeroom, my hand hovering over a crate of lemons. I’d forgotten what they were for as I replayed it all again—the warmth of Adam’s touch, the unexpected connection between us that had surged like a live wire, the rightness I felt being with him.
It was ludicrous that Adam, my childhood friend, the same man with those piercing blue eyes that never seemed to hold anything but brotherly affection for me, had sought my touch like he was craving it more than his next breath.
I could still feel the roughness of his breath against my skin, every whispered word, every moan.
Disbelief didn’t quite describe my emotional state of mind. I’d accepted years ago that what I felt for Adam was more than friendship. I knew the exact moment I stopped seeing Adam as the kid from school with the blond straggly hair and started seeing him as a man. Noticed every single curve on his body, the way he pronounced certain words, or how he smelled.
We’d been fourteen, and I’d said yes to the kiss that had sealed my fate.
But the way my body reacted to his touch? I didn’t want to believe how deep it reached.
“River?” The chef’s voice cut through my reverie, sharp and impatient. “We needed those lemons ten minutes ago!”
“Sorry,” I muttered, finally grabbing a handful of the fruit. I gave a passing server the lemons and asked him to take them to the chef. If my time in hospitality had taught me anything, it was to stay out of the way of a crabby chef, and while ours was generally a great guy, he didn’t like to be kept waiting when he had work to do.
I slipped unseen to the front of the house, something I regretted immediately.
Drew’s complex moves with a cocktail glass hid how good he was at picking up social cues, which was why I’d tried to avoid him since he started his shift today. But I knew it was only a matter of time until he trapped me.
“Hey,” Drew said, his voice low enough not to carry, “everything okay with you tonight?”
I nodded, forcing my gaze toward the happy diners in the restaurant. “Yeah, just tired is all.”
“Uh-huh,” Drew replied, clearly unconvinced but respecting the boundary. “Fundraiser planning is going wild,” he added. “West is on a roll.”
“Really? That’s great. Will you tell me if you guys need any help?”
He gave me asurebefore his lips curled into a smile. “You have company.”
