“What if everything changes?”
“I fucking hope it does.” And just like that, his mouth found her again.
His kiss was soft at first, then harder, deeper, and before long his tongue coaxed her mouth open so that he could taste her further, so he could push and pull along with her until she whimpered for more.
Whether she was shaking from anxiety or pleasure she didn’t know. All she could say for certain was that she didn’t want it to stop. That this man, who was her friend—her best friend—was making her feel like no man had ever made her feel before.
And it was pure, unadulterated bliss.
Before long his mouth found her neck and he sucked the hollow below her ear until she arched into him, wrapping her arms around his back and dragging her nails lower so he could feel her pleasure.
He groaned softly, kissing her deeper and licking his way down to her collarbone and back again.
Come on, she wanted to say. I want you. Please.
But she couldn’t bring herself to end the foreplay, either. Convinced somewhere in the back of her mind that the second she pulled away their senses would return to them and she’d be forced to turn him down. To never feel his thick need inside of her.
Still, the urge to feel his skin was too strong to ignore. With a quick pull, she tugged his shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. Then, just as quickly, she wished she hadn’t.
How had she never noticed that Derrick had a body like that before? How on Earth had she been walking around side by side with this man who looked like he’d been chiseled from marble?
His rippled muscles shone in the dim light and as he bore down on her again, she had to fight the urge to push him back so that she could stare at his impressive form.
“Jesus,” she whispered, but he didn’t hear her. He was too busy burying his head in her hair, trailing another row of kisses all the way down her neck until he reached the top of her cleavage.
He kissed the small space just above her breasts, then looked down at the clasp of her front-closing bra and up at her face. Heat rose to her cheeks and she knew what he was thinking, what he was asking.
Shakily, she gave him a single nod.
Then, just like that, his teeth were on the clasp pulling it down over her breasts, her stomach, until it snapped and she was laid bare to him, the thin scrap of her panties the only thing keeping her from complete nudity.
Derrick reared back, then in a throaty voice, he said, “You’re fucking gorgeous. Nobody deserves to see you like that. Nobody but me.”
She blinked, not sure what to say, but just as quickly the moment had passed and his hands were on her chest, tweaking one nipple between thumb and forefinger while he took the other into his mouth and sucked.
His teeth scraped over her sensitive cherry tip, and she shivered, arching into his chest, willing him to travel lower or, at the very least, to pull his pants away and let her see what she was longing for.
But no. Instead he focused on pleasuring her chest, massaging her breasts with his palms and flicking her stiff pink peaks until she wondered if a woman might be capable of coming without a man going anywhere near her vagina.
But no, it wasn't enough. She needed more. Needed him to feel the raising ache between her thighs, to quell the need that was quickly becoming rapturously insistent.
"Derrick," she gasped, and he looked up at her, one dusky nipple still between his lips, and smiled.
Just like that, her heart melted and she writhed beneath him, giving over the last shreds of doubt until her hands were buried in his hair, following him as he moved lower still, to the space she was longing for him to explore.
“Yes,” she breathed, her eyes rolling back in her head as his rough fingertips caressed the insides of her thighs.
"Derrick, she rasped his name again, and then the thin fabric was sliding down her thighs, past her knees, past her calves, and a cool rush of air filled the space between her legs.
She parted her legs easily, and though she waited for the warmth of his touch to consume her again, it didn't.
Instead, he paused, gazing down at her like she was the most beautiful piece of art he'd ever seen.
"Is everything okay? If it's too fast we can--"
He held up his hand. "Everything is perfect," he said. "I just have no idea how you were in front of me this entire time and I never saw you. I must be the biggest idiot in the entire world."
Heat rose to her cheeks, and then his fingers were trailing along the inside of her thigh, back and forth from her knee to the space she longed for him to touch. With every stroke, he got closer, teasing her until she rocked into his hand, begging for him to make his move.