She tilts her head. “I thought you never noticed anything about me.”
I almost laugh. I could describe her to a sketch artist in perfect detail, every distinct color shade, every shape, every freckle on her skin.
I frown instead, tracing my hand up her side. She inhales as my touch gets closer to her chest. She’s not wearing a bra.
“Are you nervous?” I start playing my favorite game from high school, the one where I got an excuse to touch her.
She closes her eyes, sighing. “I know this is all a game to you, Dayton. I just don’t know why you like to play it with me so much.”
I set my margarita down so I have full use of both my hands. I take her glass of water and set it on the nightstand. My fingers wrap around the side of her neck, and her eyes shoot open. I feel her pulse jump under my fingertips. She blinks up at me, not with fear, but with something like … awe.
“What are you doing?” she whispers.
My other thumb brushes over the side of her breast. Goose bumps prickle her skin. Her eyes stay locked on mine as I bury my fist in her hair and grip the base of her scalp. My half-mast dick hardens fully, poking up in my sweatpants.
“I’m touching you.”
She gulps. “Why?”
“Because it’s all I can think about,” I say, honest for once.
Her breath hitches. The hard peaks of her nipples poke up against her thin sweater. The urge to kiss her pink lips feels like a physical force inside me. I know she’s had too much to drink, so I won’t let myself do something she could regret in the morning.
“Are you going to kiss me, Dayton?”
I lick my lips, pulling her closer. “I was thinking about it.”
I feel her arch her back and lean into me.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to just do it, to press my lips against hers and sink into that feeling, that sensation I’ve been chasing for thirteen years. My grip in her hair tightens.
“You should get some sleep.”
With Herculean strength, I release her, standing up andtaking a step back from the bed. My body feels like it’s on fire, and I’m fully aware that my erection is tenting my pants.
She peers up at me, eyes half lidded and cheeks pink. “You don’t want to?”
I turn away. “Go to sleep, Cupcake.”
I walk outside, shutting the door behind me and resting my head back against it. My body is vibrating with desire and the willpower it took to deny her.
If I’d kissed her, I wouldn’t have been able to stop there. I can’t let her make that decision when she’s been drinking and risk her waking up and wishing it hadn’t happened.
chapter twenty-two
Summer
Ijerk awake in the middle of the night. My throat is parched, so I reach over for my glass of water and gulp down half of it. The AC vent on the wall is blasting cold air right over the bed, dragging the temperature down.
I can sense his warm presence in bed next to me. I lean back, pushing my body up against his. I sigh into him, my back pressed to his chest. He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me tighter against him as I drift back to sleep.
Something thick and hard is poking me in the ass. Arousal pools in my belly as I grind into him. I’m still half asleep, wondering if this is another spicy dream or reality.
He groans into my ear. Shivers run up and down my body like raindrops on water.
Not a dream …
