do one of two things: take a freezing cold shower and hate myself for how much I wanted her, or take my dick in my hand and hate myself for how much I wanted her.
“This should be a drinking game,” Addie said. “You’d totally be winning. You called that exactly!”
“You want a drink?” I asked her, thinking that maybe getting completely drunk would help cut some of the constant tension I felt around her now.
“Um, sure,” she said, swinging her feet off my lap and pulling the blanket up over her lap.
“We’ve got a bottle of Half Cat.”
“Do we have club soda?”
“Think so.” I shuffled off to the kitchen, which was in the midst of being completely renovated, to check, and returned after a few minutes with two glasses, a couple bottles of club soda, and the Half Cat.
Addison had paused the movie and waited for me, and in the low light of the parlor, her cheeks glowed ruddy and her eyes danced in a way that pretty nearly killed me.
Whiskey. Immediately.
“Here you go.” I handed her the drink.
“Okay, so when do we drink?”
Right fucking now. “Ah, how about any time he calls her the wrong name?”
“Yes, good. And also whenever one of the parents walks into a room where they’re about to kiss.”
“Okay, and also any time she does that sighing hair flip thing.”
“Then I’m going to get hammered.”
“The movie’s half over.”
“You hope,” she laughed as I settled back onto the couch, scooting over a bit so Addie’s feet could come back into my lap but she could still sit up enough to drink.
An hour later, the credits were rolling and my plan had completely backfired. Addie was tipsy and adorable, and was now snuggled into my side with her hands on my chest under the blanket. And I was as hard as an iron rod and in the midst of the most difficult struggle I’d ever faced as everything in me demanded I take her into my arms, kiss her senseless, and then haul her upstairs to my newly installed bed.
I was this close to doing it. But I couldn’t make the first move here. If Addie did, however, all bets were off.
“That was fun,” she said, her head just beneath my chin as I switched the television off. Her hair smelled like heaven, and having my arm around her was practically killing me, but I wouldn’t have removed it for the world. “I like the part where—”
Addie was interrupted by a screech so loud and otherworldly that we both stiffened and leapt from the couch. Addie hit the coffee table with her shin as she leapt up, and started to topple over it sideways, so I grabbed for her arm and pulled her to me again. This put us chest to chest, and resulted in her body being essentially pressed up against the length of mine.
I knew it the exact second she registered the length of iron in my sweat pants. Her whole body stiffened against me, and I realized how inappropriate it was. She was staring up at me, her eyes widening as my erection pressed shamelessly against her belly, and just as I was opening my mouth to apologize, she pressed herself against me—against it—harder, rolling gently.
The sensation was sheer torture. “Addie, I’m—“
I had no idea what I was planning to say. But it didn’t matter, because she didn’t give me a chance. Addie pressed herself against me and raised herself up until we were nearly eye to eye. Then she tipped her head back, her mouth opening as a little sigh escaped her.
I inclined my head, my body finally having had enough with my restraint and taking charge, leaving my logic and reason on the couch behind us. We were centimeters apart, but I couldn’t let myself do it, couldn’t allow myself to take her mouth with mine, no matter how many times I’d dreamed it.
And I didn’t have to. She closed the distance, her mouth slamming into mine roughly at first, and then settling into a firm pressure of her lips over mine, and then—oh holy mother of fuck—she opened her mouth and took my bottom lip between her teeth, letting out a little moan as she did it.
Whatever was left of my reserve snapped—there was that first move, after all—and I kissed her then, my mouth claiming hers and my tongue tasting every bit of her that I had access to. For long, delicious moments, we kissed, our mouths confirming that every