Another step. She takes one backwards, but her eyes never leave mine. “Are.”
One more step for me. Another backwards step for Sophie that has her colliding with the wall, pressing her hands to the plaster on either side of her hips like she’s trying to anchor herself. To figure out if this is really real, and I almost laugh becausefuck yeah,this is as real as it gets, baby. “Fucking.”
One more step. I’m right in front of her now, so close our bodies are practically touching. I can feel her warm breath on my lips, see the pulse fluttering in her neck. The way her pupils dilate when I ease a little closer, planting one hand on the wall above her head and leaning in. “Mine.”
And with that final word hovering between us, I slide my free hand around her neck and tilt her chin up, crashing my mouth to hers.
CHAPTER TWENTY
SOPHIE
Tyler is kissing me.
Holy shit, Tyler is kissing me. Tyler Hansley is kissing me and it’s the best fucking kiss of my entire life. It’s the kiss of my dreams. The kiss I’ve watched in a million rom-coms over the years but always thought only existed on the screen and in my very vivid imagination. Except I was wrong because the second Tyler’s lips touch mine, sparks race under my skin and fireworks explode overhead and this is better than any kiss in any movie because this kiss is real and it’s mine.
The low din of voices filters back from the bar, but I don’t hear anything at all because Tyler is kissing me the way I always hoped he would and my brain only has one track right now and that track is screamingOHMYGODYESTHIS.
Three-years-ago me is belting out “This Kiss” into a hairbrush. Fuck, even yesterday me is wearing a grin so huge it cracks my face.
Nothing is ever going to be the same again, and thank fucking god.
Tyler licks along my bottom lip, and as if he commanded me with words, I open for him instantly. The second he licks inside my mouth, he groans. The sound is hungry and fierce and arrows straight between my legs as he tangles one hand in my hair and slides his free hand around my back, tugging me to him and erasing every inch of space between us. I wrap my arms around his waist as he devours me so perfectly, so thoroughly, I marvel at the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever done this.
This kiss isn’t even over yet and I already want to do it a million more times.
Tyler presses me more firmly between him and the wall, sliding one of his legs in between mine as our mouths move together, and we’re all moans and sighs. Groans and tongues and roving hands and heat searing my veins, and nothing on earth has ever felt as good as this.
A tiny part of my brain that isn’t blissed out on the way Tyler’s lips feel pressed against mine is wondering what’s happening right now, but I tell that synapse to shut the fuck up because Tyler tastes like the beer he must have been drinking earlier, and his big hands are holding onto me like he never wants to let go, and it’s so damn sexy I almost expire.
When he eases back, still holding me tightly, we stare at each other for a beat. His lips are wet and his breath comes in soft pants and his eyes are dark with heat as they rove my face, almost as if he’s seeing me for the very first time. Without the benefit of his mouth on mine, that tiny part of my brain sparks to life, questions and questions and questions tumbling to the forefront. But then Tyler leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead, lingering there, breathing me in like he’s trying to memorize this moment, and all the questions vanish, replaced by butterflies in my stomach and electricity sparking under my skin and, when his eyes meet mine again, the bone deep certainty that I’m standing out on a precipice that will change me forever. That I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life.
“Hey, pretty friend,” Tyler murmurs, running the back of his fingers over my cheek, gliding his thumb along my bottom lip before dipping his head and taking my mouth again, his hands cupping my face as he kisses me long and slow, and everything inside me dissolves into a puddle of lust. It’s not the frenzied heat of before. It’s quieter. Deeper. Reverent almost. It’s two people who have known each other for their entire lives, realizing that, amazingly, they still have things to learn.
God, I want to learn them all.
I want to know everything about this man.
But right now, I want him to keep kissing me and to never, ever stop.
“Fuck, Sophie,” Tyler mutters, skating his lips over my jaw, pressing a line of kisses down my neck and following the path back up with his tongue. He flicks it over my pulse point and lets out a satisfied hum when I gasp. “I want to kiss you for fucking ever.”
I give a strangled laugh when he sucks lightly behind my ear because even though we’re in the process of turning our friendship into…whatever this is, it’s comforting, somehow, to know our brains still exist on the same wavelength.
“Same,” I manage, when he sucks on my bottom lip before covering my mouth with his and kissing me so thoroughly, I almost lift a hand to the top of my head to make sure it’s there and hasn’t blown clear off. I’m still struggling to make sense of the fact that, at least for this moment, Tyler seems to want me as much as I want him, and that knowledge is scrambling my brain.
In the good way.
The best way.
The way that makes me want to drag him upstairs to the loft where Jack lives because Tyler’s house seems way, way too far away and we shouldn’t be driving when we could be kissing. And doing so many other things. People criticize men for thinking with their dicks. Well, right now I’m thinking with my vagina,and that bitch wants this man on a flat surface as soon as possible. Or a non-flat surface. I’m not picky.
“I want you,” he groans against my lips, mirroring my thoughts again and grinding his hot, hard cock against my stomach. And then this man, this giant, gorgeous, goofy, football playing man I have known my entire life, shivers. He shivers against me, and the thrill that runs through me is otherworldly. The fact that I can do that to Tyler a dream I never want to wake up from. “I want you so fucking badly. Only you. I want you to want only me too. Delete the app, Soph, so it can be just you and me because we could be so good together. I swear. Let me show you how good we can be. Delete the app and I’ll show you what it could be like. Please.”
Tyler with a plea in his voice is a heady thing, which is the only reason it takes so long for the wordsDelete the appto register, but when they do, it’s like a proverbial bucket of cold water dumped directly onto my head. With ice.
“What did you just say?” I ask sharply, planting both hands on his chest and shoving him back a step.
“Huh?” he asks, his eyes hazy and a little unfocused, pupils blown wide.
