“I am not.”
“You definitely are.”
We turned down his street. He parked and got out before I could even reach for the door handle. I barely had time to look up before he was opening my door.
“Come here,” he said.
“I can walk.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”
Before I could argue, he scooped me up.
“My feet work!” I laughed.
“Not tonight,” he said. “Tonight you are not responsible for anything.”
As soon as we stepped inside, he kicked the door shut behind us and carried me straight to the couch. My heart was already racing, but when he sat me down gently and dropped to his knees in front of me to unlace my sneakers my body started reacting sexually.
The liquor had settled deep in my veins by then. My body felt warm and loose, like I’d been unbuttoned from the inside out.
He looked up at me from between my knees, hands resting lightly on my thighs.
“You good?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He stood slowly. “You know what I like about you?”
My stomach tightened. “What?”
“You have no idea how fine you are when you let yourself breathe,” he said.
My face burned. He touched me like I was something new, and I was discovering myself. His fingers traced down my arms, over my waist, along my hips. He bent and pressed a slow kiss just below my collarbone, and my body responded instantly. My back arched before I could stop it.
“There she is.” He kissed against my skin.
The liquor made me brave. I reached for him.
He caught my hands gently. “Slow,” he whispered. “Tonight ain’t about rushing.”
He guided me to stand.. His fingers slid along the waist of my jeans before easing them down my hips. The entire time he kept talking.
“You think too much,” he said. “Even now. You’re trying to figure out if this is wrong. If you deserve this. If you gon’ regret it.”
He was right.
“I’m not thinking,” I lied.
“Your brain is loud as hell, Khloe.”
His mouth brushed mine. And when I kissed him back, fireworks weren’t the right word. It felt like something I’d locked away years ago had just been handed the key.
His mouth traveled down my neck again. I felt so free. I wasn’t a teenager fumbling in the dark. I was a grown woman realizing she’d skipped chapters.
He walked me backward slowly until my knees hit the couch again and eased me down.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
