It’sBen.
I’m somehow, for some reason, lying on top of Ben.
This recognition is enough to prompt me to lift my head and blink down.
Yep. Definitely Ben. He’s lying on his back—his big body cramped by the sofa’s size and by the length of my body sprawled out on top of him.
He must have been sleeping too because his blue-gray eyes are groggy as they peer up at me. “Hey there.”
I huff, a fond amusement spilling out of me. “Hey there to you too. You went to sleep.”
“I only went to sleep because you did first. Seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.”
The archaic word catches my attention. “Who thinks about being gentlemanly anymore?”
“I do.”
I smile. He desperately needs a shave. One section of hair near his forehead is kinked wildly in the wrong direction. And his eyes and lips are both warm. “Yes, you do.”
“I do.”
“I just agreed that you did.”
“I wasn’t arguing. I was reaffirming.”
“Oh. Okay. The point is reaffirmed.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“Very good.”
I giggle. It’s not a laugh or a chuckle or a huff of amusement. It’s definitely a giggle. “Very good,” I repeat.
Then, overwhelmed with a force of affection there’s nocontaining or halting, I scoot up his body until my mouth is even with his.
Then I kiss him.
It’s just a light, sweet kiss. A feather-soft brush of his lips. I have no agenda or purpose beyond giving shape to the deep feeling in my heart.
But I freeze as I pull away until I’m poised a couple of inches from his face.
He’s frozen too. Staring up at me.
Because we don’t do that.
We never, ever do that.
“Sorry,” I burst out, backtracking as quickly as I can. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was a random impulse that doesn’t mean anything. Let’s just pretend it never hap?—”
My rushed words are broken off because it happens again.
This time it’s Ben who closes the distance between us. He lifts his head and his hand at the same time, finding my lips and then curving his palm around my neck so he can bring me down with him as he eases backward.
His kiss is not gentle and barely there like mine. He works my lips until I’ve parted them, and then he slides his tongue into my mouth, still holding my head against his and using his other hand to slide down my back to my ass.
He adjusts my body so that my thighs are parted and straddling him just above his groin.
