Fools (Licking Thicket 3)

He swallowed. “Is that what you want?”

I nodded vehemently. That was exactly what I wanted. It was what I’d wanted for years, even though I knew it was impossible.

Dunn moved half a step closer, so the toes of his boots touched the toes of my shoes, and angled himself so his body acted as a windbreak to protect me from the chilly breeze. “And you think this… this Carter person is the answer to that? He seems boring as fuck.”

I snorted out loud and clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound. “You’ve met him for ten minutes and heard him order a salad. You don’t know what his life’s like. And besides, I hate to break it to you, but I am boring as fuck. I do crossword puzzles to relax. I go fishing, an activity that requires me to sit without moving or speaking for long stretches of time. Your best best friend just might be the least lively human on the face of the planet.”

“You’re not.”

I grinned up at him. “Super am.”

“Not,” he insisted in that same soft voice. It felt like we were in a cocoon, right there in the parking lot, just him and me. Dunn and Tucker. In our own little world. “Know how I know?

I shook my head. “How?”

“Because every fucking second I’m with you, Tucker Wright, you make me feel… alive.” Dunn lifted his free hand to my cheek. His nostrils flared. He swallowed hard.

And then before I could ask him if he was okay, he bent his head and laid his soft lips on mine.

Holy… holy… just holy.

It was not the first time Dunn Johnson had kissed me, but it was the first time he’d kissed me like this, in the dark and quiet with just the two of us and the stars and the sign of twenty-five hundred yesses bearing witness. It was the first time his arm came around me to pull me against him, flattening our clasped hands between us, and it was sure as all fuck the first time his tongue ever licked at my lips, demanding entrance.

I gasped, just a little, because I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. My free hand fluttered in the air over his bicep, and I was weirdly afraid to touch him, afraid it would make him stop.

But then Dunn’s tongue slid against mine, and he groaned like he was really into it and… yeah, no lie, that was the last conscious thought I had in a while. After that, it was all just flashes of his cinnamon toothpaste taste and the way his fingers dented the skin of my lower back, the softness of cashmere over the flex of his muscles and the way he stroked into my mouth with the same confidence that he walked into my office, like he knew he was welcome.

Like he knew he belonged there.

8

Dunn

7-Across: Confused, perplexed or flustered (9 letters)

It wasn’t the first time I’d kissed Tucker, but it was hands down the hottest time.

I was brainless and stunned, like a newborn calf who’d just been spit out of his mom into a strange and dazzling new world. Tucker’s lips were like sweet candy, and the very air around us was permeated with his familiar scent.

I couldn’t get enough of him. Before I knew it, the kiss had turned from some kind of meek, experimental thing to something entirely out of my control. It was like heat and anger and begging and rejoicing all mixed up in the tangle of two tongues. No other kiss I’d ever had in my life had come anywhere close to this one. My brain filled with bright sparks and a jumble of mismatched thoughts.

Why did I hate sangria but love the taste of it on his tongue? Was my late-day scruff hurting his clean-shaven cheek? And why had he shaved for this Carter guy if it wasn’t a date? Also… no wonder my brother was gay. Men just plain kissed better.

What the fuck was I doing? My best friend had finally, finally gone out with an actual viable prospect, and I’d stormed in there like a terrier in a pissing contest.

“Gah!” I yanked myself off him and shoved him away. “Go back to your date. I should have never—”

“Don’t you dare say it!” Tucker’s voice was sharp with anger despite the rapid panting of his breaths. His fingers came up to touch his mouth, but I wasn’t sure if he was holding on to the kiss or wiping it away. I wished I could have said I didn’t care which it was, but that would have been a damned lie.

“Fine. I won’t. But I…” I wanted to say I never should have interrupted his date. I never should have screwed things up between the two of us. I never should have opened a Pandora’s box worth of shit I wasn’t going to be able to stuff back inside. “I need to get back to Jenn, and you need to get back to… Carter.”