“Shhh. Don’t screw this up by saying the wrong thing,” I warn. I don’t want him to throw cold water on my libido right now. “I don’t wanna overthink it. I just… if this goes no place, I just don’t want it to affect my job.”
“It will.”
I jerk back.
He grabs the back of my head. “It will go someplace, I mean.”
I breathe deep, my stomach does somersaults three or four times. I’m about to tumble down a rabbit hole. Do I want to allow myself to freefall?
He’s suggesting this isn’t just fooling around, that it’s the start of something. “You’re not finding another way to fuck me over, are you, Hot Sauce?”
“No,” he answers firmly. “I can see why you might think that, but no. Honest.”
“This isn’t next level of screwing me after Lingo or Twitter, or my email?”
His eyes light up. “You’re a smart girl. Figured all that out. What do you think?”
“I think you’ve got a lot going on right now, and…”
He swallows. “And you’re real. You’re real and three dimensional and I really want this. You. You don’t want me to fuck you yet, okay. Let’s try things on, though. When we get home, come to dinner with me. Get to know me. I warn you, I can be a dick, but you already know that and for some reason, I’ve met this girl who makes me have more good moods than I’ve had in a while. Makes me laugh. Gives me this feeling in my belly.”
I smile.
“And when I do dick things and see her hurting or sad or disappointed in me, it makes these other not nice feelings in my belly happen. So, let me make out with you a little bit longer, yeah? Then when we get home, let’s go out. Have some fun. See where things go.”
I chew my lip thoughtfully.
“Never gave a shit what someone thought of me. No one other than my father, my brother and sister. Braed. Now, you. You thinkin’ I’m a piece of shit has kept me up at night.”
I blink at him, stunned, lost for words.
He lets go of my head and runs his thumb across my bottom lip.
He then leans in and starts to kiss my throat. And it makes me woozy. In a good way.
“Your mother gonna come down here or anything?” he asks.
“Give me one sec,” I say, and he rolls. I jump up and go to the top of the stairs and listen.
I dash back down.
He’s sitting up now.
“She’s got her noise machine on. It’s low. She’s probably keeping it low in case the hospital calls. But she’s asleep. She’s a deep sleeper. She won’t come down here. She made it a point of saying she wouldn’t see us until the morning so in Mom-speak, she just gave us permission to fool around if we want to. She wants us to. She’s probably hoping we’re down here making grandbabies right now, in fact. No way will she come down and ruin the chance of that coming to fruition.”
He chuckles and then his expression darkens. “Fool around? Since I have your mom’s permission…”
He grabs me and yanks me onto his lap so I’m straddling him, then he gathers my hair into a ponytail and attacks my throat with his mouth, holding my hair.
My arms wrap around him. He’s hard under me, against me. My knees are digging into the mattress and I can kind of feel the springs, so I adjust, and his grip tightens. He’s got my ass in his hands and then he leans in and kisses between my boobs.
“I can’t believe I’m making out with Aiden Carmichael in my parents’ basement,” I say with a giggle. “Ow, my knee.”
He stands and puts me on my back and then he’s on top again.
I grab his jaw with both hands and drag his mouth to mine. Tasting him. His expression is hot. Molten.
He tenderly kisses the tip of my nose. “Gonna stop now. Let’s start this episode over.” He backs off and reaches for the remote.