The way she said it, the look in her eyes told me that she’d left off the most important part. The ‘except you’ part. My body decided that my brain was too stupid to stay in charge and I was in front of her before I even realized I was moving.
Her lashes lowered, her mouth parted in a small gasp as I pulled her against me and slowly lowered my head.
Just one kiss, I promised myself. One little kiss.
Chapter 9
Lucy
What was I thinking?
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Harris’s lips were on mine. His hot breath was breathing into me as he urged my lips apart. The taste of him was on my tongue. I could feel his body responding, hardening even more than it had when he’d just been pressed against me.
I was falling in over my head, the taste, smell, and feel of him dragging me under like a riptide. Drowning was scary, but it had never felt so good. My hands clung to him, wanting to be as closes as I possibly could. I’d been secretly dreaming of this moment, wanting him more and more with each passing day as our friendship had strengthened again.
Never would I have ever thought I’d get to actually experience this. To have the only guy I’d ever wanted to kiss me, touch me, to want me doing just that. This felt like a dream and I hoped that I never freaking woke up from it.
Big, strong hands cupped my ass, locking me against his big body. I felt him, the heat, the strength, the freaking power behind him there. His tongue skimmed across my bottom lip and when he lifted his head a fraction of an inch he was breathing just as raggedly as I was.
“I promised myself I wasn’t going to do that,” he murmured roughly as he pressed his forehead against mine.
“Why?” I whispered. “D-don’t you want me?”
Those big hands tightened on my ass. “Fuck, Lucy. I want you so damn bad I can’t think straight at times.” He pressed another quick hard kiss to my lips but didn’t linger. “I want you, and for the first time in my life I want so much more too. You are my best friend, but you’re my fucking soul, too.”
My heart clenched at his confession and I leaned into him, wanting his warmth to wrap around me and never let go. This was crazy. Here he was saying something that I felt, like my own soul had been trying to get me to understand for months. It felt surreal and if I hadn’t felt how hard he was against me, how hot his breath was on my cheek, I might have thought I was imagining all of this.
It wouldn’t have been the first time my imagination had gotten away from me like that.
“Let me kiss you one more time, Lucy. Just once more before I have to stop.” He brushed his lips over my cheek to my jaw. “I’m trying to be good here, sweetheart. But that is almost impossible with how good you feel against me.”
When his lips touched my ear I couldn’t help but shi
ver. Damn, he was driving me crazy. I was quickly losing control over all cognitive decision-making but for once in my life I didn’t care. Harris wanted me like I wanted him. That was terrifying yet thrilling all at the same time.
His mouth skimmed over mine, his tongue caressing over my top lip. I lifted up onto my tiptoes, silently begging him to deepen the kiss. With a deep growl he thrust his tongue back into my mouth, his hands tightening almost painfully on my ass. I held onto him just as tightly, not afraid that I would fall, but that he might disappear if I didn’t hold on.
The kiss could have lasted all night and I would have thought that it was over far too soon, so when he lifted his head after only a few seconds I whimpered in protest. Harris buried his face in my neck. His entire body seemed to hum with an energy that was invading my own.
“Fuck, babe.” His hands clenched and unclenched on my ass as if he were fighting with himself. “I have to let you go now or I’m not going to be able to walk straight for a week.”
“I don’t want you to let go,” I murmured honestly. “This feels too good. It feels right.”
“It does. It is.” I felt his tongue on my shoulder and my body decided it was going to take over. I felt my panties growing damp and my nipples hardening even more than they already had been.
Harris pulled back and put two steps between us. His chest was heaving with each breath he took, as if putting the distance between us physically exerted him. “But we can’t do this. Not here and not now.”
Everything inside of me that had been on fire just seconds before, turned to ice. I should have known this was too good to be real. What was this? Had he been playing a game to see if I wanted him just like every other chick in the world? I wanted to laugh and cry and smack his too handsome face.
Damn him.
And damn me, too.
As if he could read everything that was going through my head, Harris grabbed hold of my hands and jerked me against him again. “No,” he growled. “Fuck no, Lu. I’m stopping this before it gets out of hand, not because I don’t want you. We just need to wait, baby. I can’t do this with you when you’re only seventeen. It’s not right.”
My throat clogged with tears. “Wh-what’s not r-right about it?” If felt pretty damn right to me.
“You’re seventeen. I’m twenty-one.” His arms tightened around me. “I’ve been waiting for you to turn eighteen. When you do, I want to take this friendship further.” He lifted his head so that our eyes met. The seriousness in his aquamarine eyes was more intense than anything I’d ever seen there before. “If you’re willing to try, I want to see where we can go from here.”