“Good,” he repeated. “I’m not sorry, either.”
I couldn’t have stopped the smile that spread over my face if my life depended on it.
“Simon,” I said—sighed, really, the kind of breathless sigh I’d always wanted someone to saymyname in.
Not someone. The specific person in front of me.
“That’s what you call me,” he said. Another person wouldn’t have heard the tremor in it. Any other person wouldn’t have thought Simon wasevernervous about anything. Any other person would only have seen the larger-than-life extrovert he showed the world.
I knew him better. I heard the tremor.
The thought made something warm and soft flood the pit of my stomach. I groped for his hand without moving my face, gripping it tight when I covered it with my own.
“Is that offer to sneak inside still open?”
15
SIMON
I couldn’t help laughingas Theo slammed me against the bedroom door, dissolving into giggles as we tried and largely failed to kiss because Theo was laughing, too. Both of his hands were on me, but not settled in any one place—roaming as though he couldn’t decide where to put them.
I could hardly believe this was happening, even with the evidence of his bony fingers poking one of the bigger bruises under my ribs. I hissed against his mouth, and he snatched his hand away, pulling back to stare wide-eyed at me.
Holding his gaze, I tossed the shoes I was carrying aside, found his hand, grabbed hold of it, and pushed it hard into the same spot. Dull pain bloomed under the pressure, radiating out in a hot pulse.
Theo glanced at our joined hands, then looked at me again, uncertainty in his eyes.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
I snorted. Now that I’d finally stopped laughing for a second, I took advantage of the opportunity to catch his mouth, just hard enough to tip it over the edge from sweet to sexy—I hoped—nipping at the plush bottom lip I’d always wanted to bite before drawing back.
“I don’t care if you leave twice as many bruises on me,” I said, voice threatening to catch in my throat. This was toomuch, and I didn’t really understand why it was happening, but I wasn’t about to question it. I’d wanted it too long to risk making it stop. “Because it’syou.”
Theo’s throat worked as he swallowed. A dozen things flashed over his face, one microexpression after another. Some of them looked like nerves, some lust, some passed too quickly for me to figure out.
I wanted the nerves to go away, at least.
When I kissed him this time, it was softer, more deliberate. My glasses were a little in the way, but I didn’t want to stop and take them off.
“It’s just me,” I murmured, curling a hand over his hip and squeezing. My heart was racing, hammering against my ribs, but I could ignore that. Whenever I’d guiltily let myself imagine this, it’d been all about Theo. About how badly I wanted to take care of him, to bebetterthan everyone else he’d been with. I couldn’t compete on glamour, but I could on actually caring about him.
Loving him. More than anything in the world.
Theo’s lips twitched, the nerves melting away from his face. “You’re notjustanything.”
I huffed, squeezing his hip again, unsure how to continue. I knew Theo so,sowell in every other way, but I had very little idea what he liked in bed. It was the one thing we’d never talked about.
The tip of his finger touched the left hinge of my glasses, trailing along the arm. “Can I take these off?”
I nodded. I’d be able to see the only thing I cared about seeing right now—Theo—without them.
His fingers were gentle as he took the glasses off, setting them down on the weird little, narrow little sideboard by the door that made the place feel even more like a hotel room. “I’ll get them for you later,” he promised.
I drew a breath to respond, but whatever I’d been going to say was swallowed up by his lips sealing over mine. Theo’s fingers threaded into my hair, tight enough to sting. His body pressed against me, pinning me to the door again. I gasped as his tongue slipped past my lips, a shiver of arousal rippling down my spine at the brush of it against my own.
“Tell me you top,” Theo breathed into my mouth, fingers still tight in my hair.
I did, but I would’ve told him anything he wanted to hear.
