“Alot, Liam.”
He took my hand and drew me into the kitchen until he was pressed against the bench and I stood between his opened legs. His jeans were coarse against my skin, prickling against my hairs.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it the entire drive home.”
He brushed a kiss over my bottom lip and pulled back to stare, mesmerized, as if my lip could sparkle. I curled my lip in, tasting the warm spot.
“You crossed my mind a fair bit too,” I said. “The place feels so much more comfortable with you in it.”
The next kiss came to the top of my head, matting short hairs to my forehead. “It’s so hard for me not to ask you again.”
I stilled a moment. He meantus, our relationship—being more than friends. More than just having sex. A relationship meant the development of an emotional connection. I teetered on answering him immediately, but reined in the urge. I needed to be one hundred percent sure, and that meant thinking through the repercussions should things turn out horribly in the end.
What would it mean for our friendship? Would this beautiful thing vaporize before my eyes, leaving me alone, grappling at thin wisps in the air?
And then there was Hunter. Quinn and he had been friends forever. Hunter’s allegiance would, and rightly so, be with Quinn.
I’d be back to Liam Davis, reporter forScribe, with no friends outside of the magazine.
I remembered going to the Nightmare on Shady Avenue party, wanting to prove there were worse nightmares out there than mine. Instead I’d proven a dream had been missing. Now that I knew it, I didn’t want to mess it up.Friendshipwas the relationship most lacking in my life.
“Would you still live with me if I decided that I’d prefer us to stay friends?”
His body tensed, his hands clutching tighter around my upper arms. He took his time, swallowing before he answered softly, “I want to have you around.” He rubbed my arms. “Is that your answer?”
“I’m not sure yet. I like having sex with you.”
A laugh tumbled out of him and he turned me, pressing me tight against the bench, his arousal nudging at my lower stomach. He reached around my side, took the spatula and flipped the last pancake. It was a good example of multi-tasking, even if the pancake was close to burned.
“So, you came back,” I murmured, pressing a hand to his chest and playing with the peak of one nipple bumping his T-shirt.
“I said hello to my family and then found myself saying goodbye, hopping in my car, and driving back here.”
“They’ll be missing you then.”
He turned off the stove, slipped the last pancake onto the plate behind me, and kissed my lips. A soft kiss that felt delightfully unfinished.
He ripped up a pancake and fed me bits, pushing the pad of his syrupy thumb into my mouth and scraping over my teeth.
“I hope this leads to a ravaging of sorts,” I said after the next bite, rubbing the heel of my hand against my length.
Quinn’s pupils dilated. His arms came quickly and firmly around me, fingers digging into my ass as he urged me to wrap my legs around him. He walked me purposefully toward his bedroom. “Is it okay to break the wall if you’re the one helping me do it?”
“Yes.”
His laugh tickled at my throat.
“I can’t think straight when you do that.”
Quinn paused in his doorway, arms flexing with the weight of carrying me. I squirmed to my feet, relieving him of the pressure.
“Was that a joke?” he asked as he brushed a thumb over my nose to the edge of my mouth. “Did Liam Davis just crack a joke? The end of the world must be coming.”
My robe had come loose and I shrugged out of it, letting the soft material sink to a puddle at my feet. I stroked myself. “Not the coming I want to concentrate on right now.”
His voice tensed, and his lust was undeniable. “Another one. Shoot.”
“Really?” I said, linking our hands and pulling him toward the bed. I kissed him quickly and flung myself over his semi-made bed. “Because I could, you know.”
