“How is it a casual hookup if we’re dating?” She spoke from the doorway, and he froze, naked as a jaybird, having tossed the towel on the bathroom vanity.
“Because it’s too soon.” Keeping his voice steady because,damn, he liked her looking at him, he jerked on a pair of boxer briefs. Half hard under the gaze that felt like a touch, he stepped into a pair of gray sweats. Holding her gaze with a hard one of his own, he shrugged into a white undershirt. “And you know I’m right.”
Rolling her eyes, she turned away and stalked to the living room. He followed and paused in the doorway when she flopped on the couch. Yeah, she was a different kind of only child from him.
He rested his hands at his hips. “We should talk about how Lamar will take this.”
Lips pursed, she propped an elbow on the back of the sofa. “Yes, because that would be so much more fun than anything we could do with you half naked.”
“He’s your close friend, and he’s going to have a problem with you and me together.” He pressed his index fingers into his hipbones. Bored with them, Ralph flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes on a satisfied huff. “Maybe we should talk about how that’s going to go down, how it will make you feel, because the idea messed with my head so pretty sure it’ll be a big deal for you, too.”
Her mouth pressed into a tight line, irritation sparking like electricity in her blue eyes.
A couple of strides covered the distance between them. Resting a knee on the couch, he cupped her face in both hands, catching a flare of surprise in her eyes, drowning out the irritation before he dropped his mouth to hers. Beneath his, her lips were warm and pliable, and she softened into the kiss with asigh, looping her arms about his neck and drawing him down to her. A hand at her waist, he leaned in, deepening the kiss as she opened her mouth under his.
She tasted rich and sweet, like chocolate with a hint of mint laid over the top. Her hum of approval vibrated across his tongue, and she ran a playful hand under the hem of his t-shirt, tracing his abs before sliding up to shape his pec. She darted an exploratory fingernail over his nipple, sending an arc of electricity over his nerves, dragging a hiss between his teeth.
Her lips moved beneath his in a smile. “You like that.”
“Sensitive there.” A repetition of the tiny scrape uncoiled a heavy drag of arousal in his balls and lower belly. With lazy movements, she pulled back and rucked up his shirt, baring his torso to his armpits. She toyed with both nipples, his abs clenching, dick stirring to life. His next breath grew heavier, and with an impish smile, she leaned forward to flick her tongue over one before closing her teeth on him. He gripped her hip, hard. “Hell.”
Her light laugh shivered over his skin. “You said something about taking things slow?”
Her smug tone hit him wrong, sliding up against a place in his brain that was almost a memory. He jerked his head back, setting himself away from her. “I did.”
She froze, a hand planted on the sofa next to his thigh, her gaze serious and watchful on his face. “What did I do, Colt?”
He shook his head, his now-dead desire a pile of cold ashes in his gut. With a sharp tang of bile coating the roof of his mouth, he shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Okay.” She straightened, spangles sparkling in the lamp light, and he dragged his shirt down, a sensory memory spearing through his head. Noise — music and chatter and laughter — an ice pick through his brain while he pulled his shirt into place,running and dodging through dark, crowded rooms, trying to catch up to Tick, his chest so tight he thought he’d die.
He blinked. Where the hell had that come from? Blowing out a breath, he dragged a hand through his hair. He needed a long, slow drink of water because right that second? He verged on coming out of his too-tight skin.
“Want something to drink?” He was on his feet, striding for the kitchen, hardwood cool under his bare feet.
“No, thank you.” Her soft voice, tentative now instead of smug, slid over him. If he turned, he’d find her looking at him, trying to take him apart, so he didn’t. He filled a glass from the tap and stood at the sink, his back to her, while he drained it, one slow, long swallow at a time.
Finally, he set the empty glass in the sink.
Huh. His hands were shaking.
“Colt?”
“Yeah.” He flexed his fingers, trying to steady them.
“I’m sorry.” Her small voice gutted him.
“You didn’t do anything.” He straightened his shoulders, tensing his core before he turned to face her. Tyler had hated this about him, the moments when something tried to claw out of him, the reactions that came out of nowhere and made no sense. Keeping his face impassive, he met her narrowed eyes, dark with concern. His shoulders lifted and fell with a fatalistic shrug. “It’s just me.”
She didn’t say anything, only stood and looked at him, that ridiculous sweater glimmering with each breath.
“Probably has something to do with Sue.” He shrugged again, trying to relieve the tension stringing his shoulders and nape tight. His temples pulsed with renewed pain. “Childhood instability and all that shit.”
“Probably.” The word bordered on a whisper.
He rested a hand on the counter, desperate to move on from this moment. “You know he’ll be pissed we’re together.”
She lifted a brow, insightful gaze telling him she wasn’t fooled by the change in subject – and that she knew whichhethey were talking about. ANd it wasn’t Barlow. “You know no one runs my life but me.”
