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“All I know is it’s not over yet. We’ll have to go to court. I have to move back to the Lodge⁠—”

“No. You are not going back there. I have plenty of room here.”

“I can’t continue to live with you. I’ve put you out enough⁠—”

“You haven’t put me out and I like having you here. Like sharing my home with you.”

She studies me for a moment before saying, “Can we talk about what’s between us now?”

“Brooke.”

“No, don’t push me away again.” She pulls out of my arms and steps back. “I know both our emotions are running high with the life or death situation and I probably shouldn’t ask, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I understand your reasons for telling me no before, but one of us could have died today and we would have missed out on something I think, no, I know, is what we both want.”

“Brooke, I don’t want you to regret⁠—”

“Don’t you see? The only regret I’ll have is if we don’t move our relationship forward.”

Everything in me is screaming to take her up on her offer, but I don’t know if I can because the second I have her I’ll want to keep her, and I don’t think she’s ready for that. “If we cross the line, I won’t be able to go back.”

“I know.”

“Fuck. Okay, but I don’t think we should rush into anything.”

“I’m living with you.”

“Yes, but not the way I want.” I scrub a hand over my face and wrack my brain for a way to slow things down because she’s right—our emotions are high and neither of us are in the best mental state to make these life changing decisions right now. “Why don’t we clean up, board up the window, and make sure it’s weatherproof. After that we can have dinner. Maybe watch a movie.”

“That sounds kind of like a date.” A smile pulls at her mouth. A mouth I want to kiss.

“It does, doesn’t it?” I step back, away from the temptation of her mouth—of her. “What do you say? You want to help me clean up? When we’re done, we can get ready like we’re going on a date and meet back in the kitchen.”

Her smile finally reaches her eyes and the vibrant green sparkle has the pressure in my chest easing, the pressure in my groin increasing. “It’s a date.”

BROOKE

Stupid. Stupid. So, so stupid.

Not for agreeing to go on a date with Granger. No. That’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made. The stupid part was picking a romantic comedy to watch. It was fine for the first half but now the two main characters are giving in to the tension between them. And that means kissing. And sex.

The man and woman on the screen are currently rolling around on the floor of his apartment tearing each other clothes off and there’s a lot of skin. And that tension has migrated from the screen to the room.

I’m hot and fidgety and no amount of squeezing my thighs together is helping. Granger isn’t helping either. He’s stiff as a board beside me. He wasn’t before this sex scene started so I can only assume he’s feeling the same as me.

Gosh, I hope he’s feeling the same as me.

I don’t have a lot of experience with relationships, platonic or not, and I could be completely misreading the chemistry between us, but…

A moan echoes through the room and my legs clamp around the pulse of arousal throbbing in my sex. The couple on the screen are really going at it now. There’s gasping and moaning and groaning and thrusting hips and oh… Naked butt. A flash of boob complete with nipple.

Granger goes even more still if that’s possible. I don’t think he’s breathing. Meanwhile I’m breathing so hard, my chest is rising and falling in time with the man’s hips on the screen.

The room is warm but with the fine layer of sweat coating my skin, chills are racing down my limbs. I’m trembling on the outside, boiling on the inside. Is this what good sex feels like? I’ve enjoyed sex up until now except none of those encounters made me feel as though I was coming out of my skin.

Sitting next to Granger has me coming out of my skin.

I don’t know how long we sit, me twitching, Granger frozen, but when the couple on the screen reach their climax, it’s like a switch is flipped.

One second there’s a few inches of couch between us, the next I’m in Granger’s lap, our arms around each other, our mouths fused.