She stopped me before I could finish, her eyes narrowing immediately.
“Don’t you dare.”
I laughed.
“Wow,” she said. “Growth.”
“I’m evolving.”
“Into what?”
I lowered myself enough that my mouth brushed her ear. “Something that’s about five seconds away from making you forget how tired you are.”
Her breath caught, and for one second, the room shifted.
Heat moved through the dark between us, familiar and sharp, but I didn’t push it. Not yet. I kissed her temple instead.
She made a tiny sound that might have been protest or approval.
“You’re confusing,” she muttered.
“I know.”
“Very emotionally expensive.”
“You can afford me.”
“Debatable.”
She grabbed my face then, taking the kiss I withheld only because I wanted her to want me just as much. The kiss started slow, her mouth dragging over mine like she had nowhere else to be and no intention of pretending she wanted to be anywhere but here. Her fingers slid into my hair and tightened, pulling me down the rest of the way with a quiet little sound that hit every violent, possessive, ruined part of me at once.
I kissed her deeper.
Her body softened beneath mine, but her mouth didn’t. Her mouth never did. Pip kissed like she argued, like she had a point to prove and a pathological need to win, and holy fuck if that wasn’t one of the most addictive things about her. I shifted my weight carefully, pressing between her thighs while keeping most of my body braced above hers, but when she lifted her knee against my hip, I used mine to part her legs wider and thrust up against her.
She inhaled sharply against my mouth, and I was learning quickly that Pip liked a dry fuck.
Her eyes opened, heavy and dark and locked on mine.
“Cade,” she whispered.
I slid my hand along her cheek, thumb brushing the corner of her mouth while I watched her face because I couldn’t stop watching her face. Not after everything she’d told me. Not after the marble. Not after realizing the girl underneath me had spent years choosing light while the world kept handing her reasons to stay in the dark.
“I’ve never felt what you make me feel,” I said, and the truth of it came out rougher than I meant it to.
Her fingers flexed in my hair. “I feel it too.”
That was all I needed.
I kissed her again, and this time she met me with everything. Her back arched beneath me, her legs tightening atmy sides while my hand slid down to her ass and gripped hard enough to pull her closer against my now hard dick.
Nothing drove me crazy like Bliss Bennett. She snuck in when I wasn’t looking and changed vital parts of my life. She was mine in a way I didn’t have a name for yet but could feel burning itself into every part of me that had ever known how to want.
And I wanted to be hers. For her to see me as hers and stop this friends-with-benefits bullshit and just be us.
Her hands moved over my shoulders, down my back, then up again like she couldn’t figure out where to touch first. The kiss kept deepening, slowing, breaking apart only long enough for breath before dragging us back in again. Her mouth was swollen now, her breaths turning uneven, and every sound she made went straight through me like a blade.
I pulled back barely enough to speak. “I hate friends with benefits.”
