Oh holy hell.
“Now I think I would rather die than not kiss you again because fuck, you sure can kiss.” He chuckles but doesn’t say anything else, like he knows I’m not finished. And I’m not. So I gather all my brave to say the last thing. My truest thing. “This isn’t nothing to me, Tyler. Kissing you, being with you? It’s everything I’ve ever wanted. But we both have to go into this with our eyes open. We both have to want it. This is a friendship ruiner. I think we need to be ready for that.”
“Sophie,” Tyler murmurs, leaning in and pressing another one of those sweetest kisses to my forehead. When his eyes meet mine again and his thumb does another lazy stroke of my jaw, I wonder if it’s possible I don’t survive this night. “I want it. I want you. I want you so badly, and my eyes are wide open. I wish I could say I’ve felt for years what I feel now.”
That pained regret swims back into his eyes, like he trulywishes he could say he’s wanted me for as long as I’ve wanted him. “But I feel it now, so deeply I think maybe it’s been there for a long, long time. I didn’t know I could have this much in me for another person, but it makes perfect sense when that person is you. This isn’t nothing to me either, Soph.” His eyes go a little fierce, his hand flexing around the back of my neck so firmly, I swallow thickly. “You are not nothing to me. You’re everything. You’ve always been my favorite person, and now you’re more. So much more. I know it’s scary. That there’s a lot on the line. But what scares me even more is feeling this way for you and not seeing where this can go. What it could be. Whatwecould be. So let’s do it, Sal.”
Tyler’s intentional use of his childhood nickname for me, the one that has always meant friendship and security and us against the world, has my heart squeezing, warmth rushing to my chest. He smiles, sliding his free arm around my waist. “Let’s hold hands and do it together because I think when it’s you and me, it’s not that scary at all.” His eyes lock with mine as he eases so close to me our lips brush when he speaks. “I really, really want to do this, and I know you do too. Let’s ruin the friendship, Sophie, because even though I didn’t know it, I think I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.”
Oh god.
My elation has elation as his words sink in.
Definitely not surviving this night. I may be deceased already.
“Yes,” I say quietly, and I don’t have time to say any more words before Tyler slants his mouth over mine, and holy shit, it’s better than our first kiss earlier at the bar. And the second one. It’s the best kiss of my life. The best kiss anyone has ever had. It’s the kiss of my dreams because it’s the beginning of something. Something amazing and scary and wonderful and everything I’ve ever wanted, right here in front of me, kissing me like I’m his reason for being.
With a thumb under my jaw, Tyler tilts my head up slightlyand traces my bottom lip, groaning when I open, melting into him as he sweeps his tongue over mine. Our tongues dance together, our bodies pressing desperately closer until there is no space between us at all.
And still, it doesn’t seem close enough.
Tyler seems to agree because a split second later, he bends, gripping my thighs in his big hands and lifting me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. A desperate, needy noise I didn’t even know I could make falls from my throat as I settle over him, his erection right between my legs. He’s huge and hard and hot even with our clothes between us, and I want him so desperately that for a minute I forget to breathe.
“Bedroom,” I practically moan, grinding against him like a cat in goddamn heat, my entire body achy and trembling with a kind of need I have never, ever felt before. It turns out when I’m finally about to get the man I’ve wanted for years and years, my impatience has fangs. “We need to be horizontal, like, yesterday.”
“You’re so smart.” Tyler gasps, his mouth breaking away to trail a line of hot, wet kisses over my jaw. “The smartest girl in the world. And the most beautiful,” he says in a low voice as he carries me to the stairs. “The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” My stomach is a mass of butterflies, and Tyler’s mouth never leaves my skin as he walks. His lips explore my neck and the spot behind my ear that makes me gasp. My collarbone and my throat and my galloping pulse before making their way back to mine, his tongue taking my mouth in long, slow strokes that have me whimpering and writhing against him as he makes his way up the stairs.
“Oh, holy fuck, Sophie,” Tyler mutters as he practically stumbles through the door to his bedroom, kicking it shut behind him and turning to press me against it. He slams his mouth to mine, his hands gripping my hips so tightly I’m sure he’ll leave marks, and the idea of that is so thrilling I grind down hard on him, a dark kind of joy arrowing through me when his hands gripme impossibly tighter. “You feel so fucking good, and if you don’t stop that I’m going to come in my goddamn pants before we get to the fun part.” I feel him smirk against my mouth, his tongue tracing my lower lip in a rhythm that threatens to drive me insane. “And I really, really want to do the fun part.”
I pull back, my head knocking against the door, and the second I take him in, my entire body explodes in heat. “Holy fucking shit,” I mumble, tightening my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, breath gusting out when the head of his cock slides right over my clit.
“What?” he asks, running his hand down my thigh and back up again, lips curving up in a smirk so painfully sexy I can’t even believe this is happening right now.
I shake my head, trying to figure out if this is some sort of fever dream. If maybe I’ve wanted Tyler so much, for so long, my brain finally gave up and served me my wildest fantasy on a silver platter. “It’s just that it’s a good thing I didn’t know what you looked like when you’re all hot and turned on, hair a mess from my hands, lips wet, eyes dark and a little dangerous and you’re literally blushing. I’ve never seen anything so sexy in my entire life. I never would have survived the last three years with that image of you in my brain. Shit,” I mutter, realizing all those words just came out of my mouth. “I think being sex starved and so turned on I could die evaporated my already nonexistent filter.”
Tyler grins like all that was the best thing he’s ever heard and dips his head to find that spot behind my ear, chuckling against my skin when I gasp again. “Tell me more,” he murmurs, sliding his lips over my jaw. “Tell me how you pined for me. Dreamed of me. Tell me how much you wanted me, Soph.” He lifts his head so our eyes meet again. “Because I bet it’s the same way I pined for you for the last couple of weeks…” He trails off, pressing his lips to the corner of my mouth. “Wanted you.” Kisses the other corner. “Dreamed of you and woke up so hard, my hand around my cock, fucking my fist before my eyes were even open and wishing I was fucking you.” Taking my lips again, he kisses me long and slow, our tongues molding, tangling, until we’re grinding together, both breathless with want.
“Two weeks is nothing,” I say against his lips, moaning when Tyler rolls his hips into me, little sparks of pleasure dancing under my skin. “Try three years.” I pause, wondering if I should say this next thing and then figure, what the hell. I’m letting it all hang out there tonight, so what’s one more thing.
For a split second my brain offers me an image of what it would look like to give up nights like this. To leave the man of my dreams for the job of my dreams. But I shove it away as fast as it comes because that’s a problem for later. This is now. “I dreamed about you all the time. Thought about what it would be like to have you like this, and also in every other way. Waking up with you in the morning and going to sleep with you at night. Building a home with you. A life with you.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting my fingers drift into Tyler’s hair, playing with the short strands at his neck. “How it would feel to have everything with you.”
Emotion clouds Tyler’s eyes as he brings a hand to my cheek. “There is so much inside of me for you, Soph,” he says again, this time with a little hint of wonder in his voice, like he still kind of can’t believe we get to be here like this, and the look on his face is so earnest, my heart threatens to burst straight out of my chest. “I’ve never wanted everything with anyone else, but I think I would like to have everything with you.”
Overcome, I rest my forehead against his, and we stay like that for a minute, wrapped together, breathing each other in. It’s a lot, I realize suddenly, to get everything you’ve ever wanted in one single night. In a good way. The best way. Leaning back, I smile. “That sounds like something dream Tyler has said to me before. More than once, probably.”
Tyler’s lips lift into a smile. “Well tonight, let me be the Tyler of your dreams.”
His words hang between us for a split second before I burstout laughing. A second later, Tyler is laughing too, and then tears are streaming down our faces. Tyler’s body presses mine to the door as we cackle, holding onto each other in a desperate attempt to stay upright. “What the fuck was that?” I ask through a peal of laughter.
Tyler snorts, which makes us both laugh harder. There is something so wildly delightful about knowing that we’re still us—still Sophie and Tyler, best friends forever—even as our relationship takes on a new shape, that my face practically cracks in half with my grin. “I have no idea, but for sure it was the worst thing I’ve ever said.”
I laugh again and it causes my body to rock against Tyler’s, my pussy sliding right over his cock, and just like that, we’re not laughing anymore. Tyler spins around with me in his arms, stalking towards the bed. “How many orgasms do you think you’ve given yourself over the last three years while you thought of me?” he asks, tossing me onto the mattress. I land with a bounce and look up just in time to see him reach behind his back and pull his sweater over his head in a single motion, tossing it to the floor and then unbuttoning his jeans and dragging the zipper down, leaving them hanging open, clinging to his hips.
My mouth goes dry as I look at him, all those glorious football muscles and golden skin, thin line of dark hair disappearing into the waistband of his boxers. All of it begging for me to touch. It’s not the first time I’ve seen him shirtless, but it might as well be because tonight, for the first time, I don’t have to keep my hands to myself. I can touch him. All of him.Everywhere, I think with a little thrill.
Tyler leans a knee on the bed and drops down to hover over me. He pushes a hand under my shirt, sliding it up over my belly, between my breasts, until it rests lightly at the base of my neck. He squeezes just a little, thumb gliding over my throat, his eyes full of heat, and I inhale sharply, desire pulsing between my legs at this little display of possession.
I want more, immediately.
