I hoped she was saying. “What…? What do you mean, Amber?”
“I don’t want just friends, Kit. I want you.”
I searched her eyes. “You want me?”
As she squeezed my hand gently, she gave a breathy chuckle that had me fighting for control. “I’ve wanted you for years.”
I felt my eyebrow quirk and the corner of my mouth go with it. “Really?”
She nodded and her cheeks flushed slightly as she looked at my chest. “It’s not a new thing. Honestly, I’ve…” There was that confidence I loved. “I’ve always been awkward around you because I’ve always had a thing for you. The thing’s changed a little over the years, obviously. I wasn’t desperate for you to throw me on your bed at thirteen or anything. But…”
I took her cheek in my hand, and she stopped talking as she looked up at me again.
I’d felt it on Sunday as she’d been so confident that it was me she wanted. And I felt it again. Why me? How me? I didn’t want to question my luck, but I couldn’t help it.
“You didn’t hate me?” I asked.
“Hate you?” she spluttered, smiling. “No. I… I thought you had a terrible lack of morals through most of your teen years. But I never hated you, Kit. I was just a little embarrassed I was crushing on someone who’d never look at me twice.”
I felt like all my wildest dreams were coming true. I didn’t have to wait for the day I found out she really did hate me, because she never had. Not only did she not hate me, she wanted me as much as I wanted her. And the idea I’d never look at her twice?
“That’s not true,” I said softly. “I mean… It probably was true then, because you were fifteen last time I really saw you. But it’s not true now. Everything I want to do to you now is totally legal.”
Her eyes shone and she caught her bottom lip in her teeth. It wasn’t hesitance this time, it was desire. I watched her take a deep breath as a smile crept across her face. “What exactly do you want to do to me, Kit?”
Fuck. I shouldn’t have started this.
No. I wasn’t the only one who’d started it. She’d made the first move. Again. She wanted me as much as I wanted her – the way I wanted her – and I wasn’t going to keep making excuses to myself anymore. She was gorgeous, she was funny, she was tantalising, she was sweet. Hawk was going to be epically pissed, but we’d already crossed the line once. He could hardly get angrier.
I looked down at our joined hands and while I could picture every little thing I wanted to do to her, every touch I wanted to give her, every caress I wanted to draw out, every time I wanted to hear that breathy moan in my ear, again and again. But my lips wouldn’t make the words and there was only thing they wanted just then.
“To start with, this…” I said softly as I leant down and pressed my lips to hers.
Our fingers intertwined and she stepped closer. My heart hitched and, for one brief moment, everything felt perfect. For one moment, I honestly believed I could have that other life. And this time I wanted to stay with that feeling, with her, for as long as I could.
Her hand slid up my chest and I felt goose bumps break out across my skin. My arm wrapped around her waist, bringing her closer to me. As she rose up on her toes, she cupped my cheek. She leant her forehead against mine and let go a breathy laugh. Her eyes were still closed.
“To start?” she asked with a hint of cheek.
This was the Amber I wanted, the one with the confidence who always called Hawk out on his crap, the one who didn’t put up with my crap. Only now, she could look me in the eye while she wasn’t putting up with my crap. I wasn’t about to dismiss her demons, but it seemed they didn’t have quite such a hold on her anymore. And I wanted to do whatever it took to keep it that way.
I picked her up and put her on the kitchen bench, trailing kisses along her cheeks, her neck, her jaw. “To start. To finish. And everything in between.”
Her smile made her eyes shine with not just fire but life. “That’s an awful lot, Christopher,” she said.
I