can’t remember the last time I just kissed someone, making out like we’re teenagers, but suddenly I’m in no hurry to do anything else.
When his lips move from mine to trail kisses along my jaw and down to my neck, I forget my own name. Letting out a soft hum, I suddenly get hungry to have him touch me. For the first time in almost a year, my body is warm, but the arousal hasn’t quite reached my panties yet. It’s like my heart and body is warmed up but nothing is going on down there.
“Let’s go to the bedroom,” I pant.
And just like that he stops kissing me.
“I’m not going to fuck you.” His words are like ice. I pull away in a rush.
“What? Why?”
He touches my cheek softly. “Patience, Hanna.”
“Fuck patience.”
“Why the hurry?”
“I can feel your cock against my leg and it’s rock hard. Why on earth would we wait?”
He laughs, actually fucking laughs, and I want to scream. Then, he puts his hands on my hips and presses me against his erection, grinding me on him with a groan. “Trust me, I want it too, but you are worth the wait.”
I freeze, looking into his eyes. After last night with Nash, this feels like a cruel joke. One man has no patience. The other has too much.
“Tell me what happened between you and Nash,” he whispers, tucking a strand of curls behind my ear as I shift off of his lap to put a little distance between us. If he’s not going to fuck me, being so close to him feels like a tease…and too intimate.
“You first,” I reply, and this time it’s his turn to flinch.
“What makes you think there’s anything between us?” he asks.
“I’m not blind. He hates you, and Nash only bothers to hate people he cares about.”
There’s a deep rumble of short laughter from his chest. “That’s a good way to put it.”
“So, tell me.”
“Just old friends, that’s all.”
“And why does he hate you?”
He strokes my fingers in his hand. “Nash is jealous and hot-tempered. You can figure out the rest.” Then he kisses my knuckles, and I melt. Looking up at me, he adds, “So Nash told me you were off limits, but what I heard last night says something else.”
Oh great. I was worried he heard everything that happened before he found me crawling out of the pool without underwear on. “You heard that? It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.” My voice trails. What do I say? There is no word for what happened between us. It wasn’t quite consensual enough to be sex, but it wasn’t anything worse than that. I just wish it had been on better terms.
And now talking about it with the guy I’m currently trying to have very consensual sex with feels wrong, and well, it’s not making me feel very good about myself.
“Have you two slept together?” he asks.
“No,” I answer, assuming him assaulting me with his mouth doesn’t count. “Zara is my best friend…and we really shouldn’t have…”
He lets out a sigh, as my gaze drifts across the room, focusing on nothing at all. The moonlight streaming through the window, soft sound of the air conditioner, the feel of Ellis’s soft hands on my fingers.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, and my gaze jolts back to his face.
“Oh, nothing. I was just…zoning out, I guess.”
Gently reclining on the couch, I pull my feet up to the couch, and he takes them into his lap, looking down at me as if there is a sudden intimacy between us. It’s easy comfort, and I’m almost glad we didn’t immediately have sex. It’d probably be over by now and he’d be wanting to leave, or I’d be wishing I hadn’t rushed things.
But him looking at me, actually looking at me, it’s better than sex.
“So, about Zara…” he says, and my attention perks again.
“You both seem to be protecting her feelings so much. I can understand she’s your best friend, but Nash…why does he care so much?”
“How much of that story do you know?” I ask, squinting at him before I continue.
“All of it.”
“Okay, good. Then, you know for a while, he was a part of that relationship. And then…he wasn’t anymore. So, I almost wonder if it’s Zara he’s still stuck on, but the bond between them. All of them.”
“A little strange, don’t you think?”
Feeling suddenly sleepy, I rest my head against the arm of the couch, and focus on the feel of his