More than Friends

Awkward.

“We’re friends,” Dean tells him, throwing the key back to him.

He catches the key and throws it right back, and this time it lands on my leg. I lift it, feeling the dull ridges with my fingers, and lean into Dean.

“Let’s just finish our dare and come back.”

Dean narrows his eyes at me. “Kitten, you cannot be serious. I’m not going to fuck you in some nasty room in a frat house.”

“We can pretend,” I breathe against the shell of his ear.

He catches on to what I’m putting down and helps me up from the couch. While Dean doesn’t even closely live up to his reputation on campus, the people in the room with us expect more from him. I could care less what any of them think about me. I never turned down a dare before, and I don’t plan to start now, not with everyone watching us. Kat Baldwin is no punk.

Dean leads me by the hand up the basement stairs and to the top floor of the old Victorian. We’re doing this for appearance sake. No one will even notice how long we’re gone or if we bother to come back.

Once inside the room, Dean shuts the door behind us and locks it. I was expecting a bed, but instead, there are two couches, a coffee table, and a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. I sit down and grab the remote from the table to turn on the TV. If we have to pretend, we might as well keep ourselves entertained.

“I’m sorry about this, Kitten.” Dean places his big hand on my knee and squeezes it. “I should have known better than to bring you into the basement. That’s where all the weird shit happens in this house.”

I shrug against the cushion and lean into his bulky frame. “Don’t worry about it. They have no idea what we’re doing up here. No one will know if we kiss or not. Let’s hang out here for about twenty minutes, return the key, and get out of here.”

“I should have brought some beer with us,” he says, leaning his head back on the cushion.

“Fuck it.” I climb onto his lap and straddle him, pressing my palms down on his shoulders. “What’s one kiss between friends?”

He reaches up to run his calloused thumb along my jaw and traces his way to my lips. “You’re beautiful, Kat, but I don’t want you to do this because some asshole dared us to come up here together.”

I dip down to brush my lips against his. “We can kiss and still be friends.”

He slides his hands down to my waist and holds me tight. “Once we do this, we can’t go back.”

“It’s just a kiss, Dean.”

“You say that now, but what if everything between us changes tomorrow? I can’t afford to lose you, Kitten. You mean too much to me.”

“Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like?” I move his hands from my hips to my ass, staring into his eyes. “Shouldn’t we see if there’s something more between us?”

“Where is all this coming from? Don’t let those idiots get under your skin.”

“They’re not.” I take his bottom lip in my mouth and suck on it. “I thought you were asking me out the day we met.”

“Would you have said yes?” He breathes the words against my lips.

“In a heartbeat,” I confess.

With that, Dean cups my ass in his hands, gripping me with so much force that I let out a soft moan. “Is this what you want, Kitten?”

“Uh-huh.” I grind on him, feeling him grow beneath me. “I know you do, too.”

“You’re drunk,” he grunts. “I feel like I am taking advantage of you. I made a promise to Theo and Tucker that I would take care of you. I’m violating their trust and abusing the situation.”

“You can’t take advantage if I want it to happen, Dean. Now, shut up and kiss me. Stop overthinking the dare. We won’t even remember this in the morning.”

Once our lips collide, Dean slips his tongue into my mouth, taking his time at first. It shouldn’t feel this good to kiss my best friend. But damn me for wanting more of him. I want all of him. If we weren’t in this room, I would allow Dean to wander more.

Heat spreads from my cheeks and down to my chest, warming my insides. As Dean navigates my body with his strong hands, he commands his dominance over me, my sex clenching from each touch. His soft kisses turn more passionate and rough with each flick of his tongue. He palms the back of my head, threading his fingers through my hair to deepen the kiss.

Neither of us wants to stop. The Dirty Dean that I know would have come out to play. Instead, I have to watch him with other girls and pretend as though I do not secretly wish I was them.