want to drag from the shadows, live in the light with.
I shift up onto an elbow. Why does he have to be so beautiful?
I lean over him and run a hand through his hair, soaking in every part of his face.
That’s nowhere near enough to satisfy me, so I bend closer, inhaling his scent. My lips brush his jaw, the stubble decadently rough against my skin.
“Stop that.” His voice is a sleepy groan that vibrates through me, settling between my thighs.
I grin. “No.”
I continue the exploration, moving down his neck, his collarbone, the curve of his shoulder.
My hand brushes his cut stomach where his undershirt’s ridden up, and a tug of desire pulls between my thighs.
Biting my lip, I press my palm to that skin, slide it up an inch under the hem of his shirt. I curl closer into him, taking a deep inhale at his neck, memorizing his scent.
“I mean it.”
There’s a warning edge this time.
I like Warning Edge Tyler, especially when he’s in my bed.
“Why?”
He rolls me over so he’s on top, and my heart thuds in my chest as he stares down at me.
He might be half-awake, but he’s all man, all power, all strength.
All sexy.
“Because then I’m gonna have to get you back.”
I want that so bad.
“I’m still mad at you,” I breathe.
“I’d be disappointed if you weren’t.”
His touch skims down my side. Then his mouth lowers to mine.
We’re so close to kissing when he pulls back. “We can’t keep this up,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Yes, we can.” I tip my face up, straining, and he covers my mouth with a hand.
I glare at him.
“Your dad and Haley are down the hall. We’re lucky we didn’t get caught.”
I press my lips to his palm, the same palm I read at that carnival three years ago.
His grip loosens, and I take advantage, kissing down his fingers.
“I don’t care,” I say when there’s enough room to speak, “I’d tell them it wasn’t your fault. That since the moment I walked in on you naked, I was lost to the world.”
I pull the tip of his finger into my mouth.
Tyler’s jaw clenches, and he lets out the most delicious groan.
I suck harder, and his hips shift over mine until I feel him between my legs.
Oh, shit. Yes, please.
I felt him against my ass last night, but it wasn’t enough.
Nowhere near.
“You want me to make you scream under your Dad’s roof,” he rasps.
I release his finger with a pop, my head swimming. “Or the pool house. I’m not picky.”
He tosses a pillow at me, and I laugh.
“I’m serious,” he presses, a look of fascination on his face. “Tell me what you think it’d be like.”
I stare at him. “Beautiful. Reckless. Undeniable. Painful, not because it’s my first time, but because everything with us seems to—“
“We’re done here.” He shifts off the bed, reaching for his tux pants on the floor.
I shoot up in bed. “Because I’m a virgin?” I try to sound dismissive but can’t quite hide the vulnerability underneath. “That’s discrimination on the basis of sexual experience.”
He rounds on me, and I’m pressed back against the sheets.
“Because no matter how long we’ve been friends, when we fuck…” His voice is a dangerous promise. “I will take you apart. And when I’m done, you’ll beg for me to do it again.”
His wolfish smile is feral. His finger hooks in the waistband of my pajama pants and tugs it for a brief, beautiful moment of possibility before releasing it to snap back against my stomach.
I’m speechless.
I’m never speechless, but I am now, and Tyler seems to think it’s cute because he drops a smug kiss at the corner of my mouth before rising again.
My phone buzzes on the dresser, and I jump.
Pen: Are we still meeting to study?
Shit. I forgot.
Movement by the window has me dropping the phone. “What are you doing?”
“Leaving.” Tyler lifts the window frame.
I trip across the room. “You’re not going out that way.”
He swings one leg out before pausing to cock a dark brow at me. “You want me to walk out of your room and through the house? Past your dad and Haley?” Each word is said matter-of-factly, but I’m starting to catch on. “We’re cool, but we’re not that cool.”
I stick my head out the window, looking down nervously at the garden one level down.
“Good thing there aren’t roses on this side of the house,“ he says.
“I was thinking I hope there aren’t any music box pieces.”
Tyler swings the other leg out, chuckling.