Hardwood - K.M. Neuhold Page 0,37

some water and another couple of hours of company won’t hurt,” I decide.

“Cool,” she says, still looking up at the stars overhead. “How about a few more minutes to enjoy the quiet before we head back into the fray?”

I shoot her a relieved smile. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Chapter 11

Watson

I glance toward the back door for what has to be the hundredth time in the last ten minutes. I can still feel Ev’s lips against mine, and I’m trying to remember why exactly I didn’t take him up on his offer to go home and get naked together.

Oh right, because of the whole not wanting to be his first and the thing about the oats. But fuck, that kiss. Ungh.

I’ve never been kissed with so much passion, so much intensity. I drag my fingertips over my tingling lips, my heart still pounding violently.

“You don’t think he took off, do you?” I ask Jordy. He seemed okay, but what if my rejection hurt him? He worked up the nerve to kiss another man for the first time, and I told him I needed time to think? What the fuck is wrong with me? I could’ve let him down more gently, or I could’ve stopped being such a coward and taken him up on his offer to go home together. What’s a little broken heart, after all? I’ve certainly had more than my fair share. I could survive one more.

“Didn’t you drive him?” Jordy asks.

“Oh yeah.” I give my head a shake in an attempt to organize some of my thoughts. “But he could’ve called an Uber or something.”

“Yeah, he could’ve,” Jordy agrees. “You could go check on him.”

“He said he needed a few minutes,” I say, chewing my lip as I keep my eyes fixed on the door.

Maybe Jordy’s right. I shouldn’t have left him alone like that while he was still processing the kiss. I’m about to hop off my stool and go back out there when the back door swings open, and Ev steps through, followed by Mia. When did she go out there? They stop by the bar before making their way back over to us.

Ev looks relaxed and somehow even hotter than he did ten minutes ago. How is that possible? The man must be some kind of physical anomaly, getting more attractive every second until eventually, he’ll be so beautiful, everyone will be forced to either look away or risk burning their eyes from his perfection. Or maybe it’s that I know what his mouth tastes like now that’s making him almost too gorgeous to exist.

Honestly, what the fuck was he even thinking picking me as his first kiss? My confidence isn’t at all in short supply, but I do own a mirror and a pair of eyes. He could’ve had literally any man in here tonight, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. There are guys I know for a fact are in committed relationships who I’ve caught drooling over him.

We stay a little while longer, finishing our drinks and avoiding the dance floor. If I spend another second grinding with Ev tonight, I’m bound to throw all of my common sense out the window and go home with him. Stupid, cock blocking common sense.

“Ready to go home?” I ask him, leaning close enough so he can hear me, but being careful not to get too close this time. I only have so much self-control, and I’m on my last thread…my last frayed, weak thread.

He nods, and we both say quick goodbyes to Mia and Jordy and then fight our way back through the crowd and out to the parking lot.

“You were right. That was a pretty epic Halloween party,” he says.

My ears are ringing from the drastic change in noise level, and my entire body is suddenly very aware that the two of us are completely alone again.

“I made things weird by kissing you, didn’t I?” he asks when we reach my car. I stop, looking at him over the roof of the car. It’s dark out, but I can see the uncertainty on his face, his eyebrows scrunched in concern and his jaw set tightly.

“No,” I assure him. “Unless it’s weird that I’m still hard from a kiss that happened an hour ago,” I joke.

He huffs out the approximation of a laugh. “Me too,” he confesses.

“Ugh,” I groan. “You’re not making this easy.”

He cocks his head. “What exactly am I supposed to be making easy?”

“Resisting you.”

He puts his elbows on the hood of the