“Nope. You’re stuck with me forever.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked, her voice quieter now.
“Anything. You know that.”
“Sometimes I feel things when I’m near you.” She quickly sat forward and turned to face me. “Not in a weird way.”
I raised a brow. “Okay. In what kind of way?”
“Well, you know I’m in this curious stage, right? Like I want to feel something. Explore things a little bit, but I don’t know how to do casual. And I can’t force myself to have a fling with someone I’m not attracted to.”
“Agreed. You shouldn’t be with someone you don’t want to be with.”
“Right. And I think the problem is that I don’t want to be with anyone right now. I need to be single and focus on this new job in New York when I leave in a few months. But I also want to experience things, you know?”
I nodded. “I understand that.”
“And obviously you and I are best friends. And that will never change,” she said, clearing her throat and looking out at the water to avoid looking at me. “And I know I brought this up as a joke the other day, but after thinking about it, it’s not really that outrageous of an idea. I mean, there’s no doubt you’re abnormally good-looking, and I feel safe with you.”
“You should always feel safe with me, because I would never do anything to hurt you.”
Where was this going? Because if she went there again, and she wasn’t joking, I didn’t know that I’d have the strength to fight it.
I wanted her.
I fucking wanted her so bad I couldn’t see straight.
It wasn’t right and I knew that, but it didn’t change the fact that I was struggling with these feelings.
She turned to look at me. “I know that. And that’s why I wondered if maybe you could show me a few things, you know, not just tell me, but show me how it should feel. You could make me feel good and I could make you feel good.”
Her cheeks flushed pink as the words left her mouth, and I didn’t miss the way her chest was rising and falling.
She was asking me to touch her, and she wasn’t joking this time.
“I would do anything for you. I just don’t ever want to do something that would hurt our friendship. So you’re going to have to be real clear about what you’re asking, and what you want, Jeege,” I said, noting the way the sun had started to tuck behind the clouds in the distance.
“Listen, we’re both very different when it comes to relationships. And we know that. So there’s no mystery. No surprises. No one’s pretending to be someone they’re not. That’s why I thought this might be something that would be okay. Like a one-time thing, and we never talk about it again. And I’m not talking about sex—that would make things too complicated, at least for me. And no kissing, because that’s intimate in a different way. But maybe just—other things.”
Jesus.
Was she actually asking me to be the first man she allowed to taste her?
Because there was no fucking way I could deny her.
It would be something I’d never forget. No doubt about it.
“Do you want me to make you feel good?” I whispered as I leaned close to her ear.
“Do you think it would be weird for us if we did this? Because I would want to make you feel good too—I mean, just the one time.” Her words were breathy, and my dick turned to stone immediately.
Was I really going to do this?
I was doing this.
One time.
