“Hunter.” She flashes her face upright, locking her sapphire gaze to mine. “I’ve fallen for you, okay? I know you just want to be friends and I respect that, but I can’t control how I feel. I just—”
Everything in my chest aches as if my insides are made of carbonation and someone just shook the hell out of me. There’s only one way to release the pressure.
I lean forward, pulling myself out of the plushness of the cushion and lock my hands around her arms, pulling her toward me, allowing her to fall into me as we sink into the bottomless pit of the couch. I cup my hands firmly around her cheeks and shut my brain off—I forget everything—as I close my eyes and crush my lips into hers. I don’t think I’m breathing but maybe I just don’t realize I am because my brain is not functioning properly. I am only able to think about her lips…the way they taste and feel like a ripe cherry.
Dammit to hell, I’m not coming back from this. Charlotte’s body trembles beneath my grip, but her lips interact with mine at the same intensity mine are pursuing hers.
Her fingers slowly comb through my hair, sending shocking sensations down the length of my spine. With her body pressed against me, I realize I have officially lost all control—everything about her is incredible, and the memory of why I was so angry just an hour ago has faded into nothing more than a blur.
My hands explore the length of her back until the tips of my fingers graze the skin between her shirt and pants. The simple touch of her skin is all it takes to make me hard, and I know she’s well aware of that as we somehow end up lying flat on the couch with her straddling me.
I almost forgot Lana was home when I hear her shout, “Mom, I’m thirsty!” from the other room. Charlotte jackknifes upward, separating our lips that have been connected for at least five minutes. Lying here, staring up at the flushed look on her cheeks and the heavy movement in her chest, my suppressed thoughts surface one by one. I thought I would feel remorse but I feel free, and while I think it might be a horrible thought, I needed to feel this. I’ve needed this for so damn long.
“Oh my God. Imagine if she just walked in here,” Charlotte says. “We got a little carried away.” The mom in her speaks out and I couldn’t agree more. I never would have let this happen in my house, not with Olive always peeking around the corner.
“I shouldn’t have had that knee-jerk reaction,” I tell her.
“Yes, you should have,” she corrects me. “That was like the best first kiss I’ve ever received in my twenty-nine years of life.” I wasn’t expecting to hear that after nearly forgetting how to use my damn lips.
“Now what?” I ask her. There doesn’t have to be an answer to this question but I need to know what she’s thinking.
“Now, we’re still Hunter and Charlotte. We’re still whatever you want us to be, even if that’s just friends who kiss andwhatever,” she says fervently.Whatever. What does she mean by whatever? When would we even be able to arrange “whatever” with the girls running around? Is any of this even possible? “No rules. No expectations. No labels.”
“‘Whatever’ works for me,” I tell her. “But right now, I should probably get back home.” I point over my shoulder to the window that overlooks my front yard. Why am I pointing at my house like she doesn’t know where I live? I’m so out of my mind right now, and it feels nice.
She reaches over and pinches both of my cheeks. “You’re looking a little pale. They’ll know.” She gives me a cute wink before giving each of my cheeks one more slightly painful pinch. “There, now your cheeks are rosy again,” she says. The moment makes me feel a bit giddy as I yank myself off the couch. Rearranging my clothes so they fall correctly, she stands up and smoothes her fingers through my hair once more. “Couch head.”
“Worth it,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her back as I pull her in to me once more. She’s small in my arms and I have to lean down quite a bit to close the space between us, but she presses up on her toes and finds my lips with hers. I grip her tighter, needing to hold on as hard as I can while I inhale everything about her. A quiet moan pulses against my lips and once again, she brings me to another point of losing all control from the waist down.
“I—I might not be able to wait forever for ‘whatever’, so I just need to put that out there,” I whisper into her mouth.
“Well, maybe you both can come over tonight so the girls can watch a movie, and we can just do ‘whatever’,” she says.
I pull away, gauging the look on her face, taking pride in the flush of her cheeks as well as the lustful look in her eyes as she pinches her lower lip between her teeth. “Okay.” My eager agreement comes without much thought. “I’ll see you later, Lana,” I yell into the other room. “Thank you for letting metalkto your mom.”
“You’re welcome,” she squeaks.
“Tonight then. Six?” I confirm once more.
“Whatever,” she says with a quick wink.
CHAPTER NINE
The problem withbrothers is that there is no hiding information from one another. It only takes one look from AJ when I walk in, and I know my face is redder than a Maine lobster. He stands up from the couch with a shit-eating grin from ear to ear as he starts toward me with a slow clap.
“Don’t be a douche,” I tell him.
“I’m so proud of you, bro.” His arms stretch out in front of him, reaching for me. “You’re going to make it after all,” he continues crooning with obnoxious baby-talk voice. If I were him, I wouldn’t take another step closer. His condescending words are quickly eliminating every happy endorphin I walked in here with.
“I should have just stayed there,” I say under my breath. Stepping away from AJ in order to hold myself back from punching him, I make my way into the TV room and find Dad still asleep, Mom folding a load of Olive’s laundry, and Olive tearing outfits off of each of her Barbie dolls.
“Is everything okay with you and Charlotte now?” Mom asks.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I say, kneeling down next to Olive. “Want to have dinner with Lana tonight?”
“Yay!” Olive shrieks. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hops up and jumps on top of me, locking her arms around my neck. “Can I wear a dress?”
“If that’s what makes you happy, of course you can,” I tell her.
