A long moment and more muttering issued from the behemoth pacing angrily in my doorway.
“You’re starting to weird me out,” I muttered, frowning up at him as he rambled on.
“No care no more,” he grunted out, having some sort of internal conflict, heated conversation with himself.
Glancing from him and then down towards the box, I nudged the side of it with the toe of my boot. “What’s in this stupid thing anyway?” I huffed and puffed, as if I didn’t care, like I wasn’t dying to know, then dropped my foot and quickly glanced away.
“Us.” That single word, uttered in such a way, softly, almost shyly, held a wealth of meaning.
I scoffed, maybe a bit too hard. Elm’s reaction was instant. It had finally happened. I’d pushed Elm Forest Tree to his breaking point.
With a growl that startled the pants off of me, he practically launched himself at me. Stumbling back, I would have fallen flat on my thick rump if he hadn’t caught me up.
Setting me on my feet, he bent and grabbed at my jacket, jerking me to him. Before I could garble out an expletive ladenwhat the hellhe planted one on me that could give that smooch near his parents’ store with Cy a run for its money.
I was all of about ten seconds of resistance before I started melting against him.
A deep, chest rattling rumble rolled up his chest as my mouth began to move against his eagerly.
The thick fingers digging into my coat tightened, crushing me to him as he turned his head to deepen our liplock.
My stomach dipped as his tongue tentatively joined the party, testing, teasing, tempting, and a deep rumble loud enough to send me trembling left him.
“Mine,” he muttered softly when we finally came up for air. He met my gaze, expression still that ever serious, impassive scowl, growled something, and dove right back in. His eyes looked so dark, the green of them gone from bright to looking nearly black.
My hands had found his chest, slid up, and were gripping the collar of his flannel in a death grip, desperate to keep him tightly against me.
There wasn’t a whole lot of great kissing experience under my belt to judge, but Cy and Elm were at the top of my list.
It was a weird thought, and left me disturbed by the idea of them kissing lots of other women to get the kind of experience they had, the kind of experience I knew I didn’t possess.
This time when Elm broke our liplock to suck in a deep breath, I dipped my head, dodging any possible attempt to pick right up where we’d left off.
My head was swimming, full of his scent and the way kissing him made me feel. A strange, electric, almost a buzzing enveloped me, had me lightheaded, oddly giddy. I’d never felt that way with anyone else. Uhm, aside from the tingling shivers with Cy but that kiss, that moment, it was purely to distract me and couldn’t possibly count.
Instead of backing off at my retreat, instead of getting upset and acting like I was being a pain in the ass or wasting his time, Elm pressed a kiss to the top of my head and cuddled me against him. Not sure what my next move should be, struggling to digest what had just happened, work through the fact I’d just made out with my ex best friend and it had knocked my socks off, the urge to lift my face and start it up all over again strong, I froze, my thoughts locking me in place.
A soft, rumbling purr dragged me from my thoughts.
Above all else, beyond the fire kissing Elm lit inside me, past the questionable nature of how all of this got started, the what the heckery of it all, the urge to retreat and sit in my feelings was strong.
When Elm didn’t begin to fidget nervously, appearing content with the direction things have taken, I allowed myself to sink into his embrace, if only for a moment.
Time ticked by and we remained like we were, half inside the house, Elm wrapped around me, rumbling contentedly as he rubbed his cheek against the top of my beanie covered head, no sign of pulling back and calling it a day.
My mouth opened and I tried to speak but it was like the words were stuck. Anything I might have said, none of it was going to come out right.
Elm was the first to pull back. Green eyes full to brimming with emotion met mine and easily held.
Too stubborn to meekly glance away, I felt the blush creeping up my face, until it felt like my cheeks and ears were burning.
Another rumble left Elm, this one even louder than the last. My embarrassment pleases him?
My confused frown turned into a scowl.
Elm’s expression didn’t change but I felt it when he picked up on my discomfort.
Smoothing a hand over the back of my head, he tugged on the back of my beanie.
