It’s late when we roll out of the forever breakfast joint. I’ve sunk enough cider that I’m warmly buzzed, but I’m not drunk, and I’m glad of it. I don’t want to forget a minute of being with Tanner like this, even if he won’t let me pay for his dinner.
“You let me live with you for free. It’s the least I can do.”
Tanner hustles me onto the street. “It wasn’t free. You left a ridiculous amount of cash in my kitchen.”
“It was fifty bucks.”
“Yeah, for what? A couple of sandwiches and a teabag?”
“It was, like, twenty teabags.”
He shrugs. “Bite me.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Tanner shoots me a hot grin, and I take it as my cue to lead him to my front door. Last night he wouldn’t come in, but it’s a new day. The world is a different place, and this time, I don’t give him the chance to say no.
He follows me inside and upstairs to the studio apartment I’m renting from Jerry’s friend. It’s tiny, and Tanner seems ridiculously tall in the room that doubles as my bedroom and my living space. I have to stand close to him to remember we’re the same size. That his lips are exactly where I need them to be. That I could lick his instead of my own and I wouldn’t have to move that much.
Tanner slides his hands over my hips. His thumbs ghost beneath my clothes and find bare skin. “Should we put your new sheets on your bed?”
“Sheets?”
“Yeah. Seems an awful shame to leave them in the store bag after you spent so long picking them out.”
“I spent three minutes picking them out.”
“Yeah, I don’t care about the sheets.”
I don’t either, but I want him in my bed, and tumbling him to my sleeping bag doesn’t quite have the same appeal.
Tanner finds the store bag I’ve dropped by the door, while I pack my sleeping bag away and find the comforter my friendly landlord left in the linen closet for me. It doesn’t take long to fix my bed—thanks to Tanner, the sheets fit—but it definitely looks like two drunk blokes made it in the dark.
I fall onto it, laughing.
Tanner flops down beside me. His coat is gone and his boots are with mine by the door. He’s still wearing too many clothes, though. I don’t know how naked I can take him right now, but his shirt needs to go. I need his skin against mine.
My pulse kicks up a notch just thinking about it. There’s no way he can’t hear it. I roll over and dig my phone from my pocket. The apartment came with a Bluetooth speaker built into the wall. I poke at my phone until it connects and cue up the first playlist I can find. Larrikin Love filters out. It’s naughties punk, and it’s not the worst soundtrack to push Tanner down and kiss the shit out of him. And he lets me, so it’s not long before music and the fact that I forgot to turn the lights on are the last things on my mind.
I kiss Tanner on my clumsily made bed, pushing him into the sheets that smell brand-new. He’s wearing a flannel shirt—obviously—and a T-shirt. The flannel goes first, then I yank his T-shirt up his hard body and drink in his inked chest as if I’ve never seen it before.
He’s patient with my kid-in-a-sweet-shop impression. I straddle him and kiss him everywhere while he watches me with coal-dark eyes, his long fingers threaded into my hair. “You said you’d bite me,” he says.
“No, you asked me to. Are you asking me again?”
“Maybe.”
I can’t tell if he’s taking the piss, but his relaxed pose makes me want to dig my teeth into his unyielding flesh.
So I do. And hemoans.
Wow. Okay. That’s a sound I can live with, but before I can drag it from him again, strong hands grip me, and I’m on my back. Tanner claims the space above me. His muscles pop where he’s holding himself up and I have to give myself a mental pinch to check I’m actually awake. That this is my life right now.He’s so fucking hot. And he’s smiling too, just to top off my wildest fantasies. Scratch that, he’ssmirking. I know I’m in trouble, and for once in my life it’s the good kind.
Tanner eases his hand under my clothes. His palm blazes with heat and a whole-body shiver rocks me. “You need to lose this.” He jerks his head at my shirt. “It’s only fair.”
Nothing about how he makes me feel is fair. But I ditch the shirt anyway and lay back down.
Tanner nudges my legs apart and makes a cradle for himself between them. His abs press down on mine, and fuck if I don’t feel every part of him.
