Love Under Construction (Love By Design 1)

Taylor Jane sat down on the step next to me, flipping through her book. “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for agreeing to this project.”

“No, no, you didn’t. Hey, that’s what friends do and when I need my house redecorated I’ll call you in for a favor.”

“Of course. I was thinking maybe we could cover up some of the exposed wood in the living room and paint the—”

I put my finger over her lips. Shit, lips that felt way too soft for my finger to be touching. “Shhhh. There will be no talk of covering those planks or painting. I’m going to call in this debt years from now.”

“Right.” She scoffed, pushing my hand away. “I’m sure your wife by then will appreciate your friend redecorating.” And there it was, that crazy undeniable tension between us.

“Do you want to go—” I almost said for drinks. “Never mind.”

“No, what were you going to say?”

“It’s not important.” Don’t go there, buddy. Friend zone, remember? That happy, safe place where no one gets hurt and you can live in limbo for years. Yeah, let’s stay right there.

“Fine.” Taylor Jane husked herself up and off the steps, ready to walk away, and I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it and something primal snapped.

I grabbed her hand, muttering, “Fuck i

t.” I pulled her in to my chest, grabbed that stupid planner, and tossed it to the ground. Blue eyes met hazel in a storm that no longer had the useless buffers to kill it before it raged on crashing the shore. No wildlife, no nosey friends, and no weird circumstances of own making about to interfere.

“Hey!” Thin arms hit me once, twice before succeeding the battle.

“Stop talking.” It sounded like an order. Maybe it was one. Her shocked face made an O shape and opened her mouth enough for me to kiss. Grabbing her face in my hands, I squared my legs off, ready in the event she bolted, and slipped my tongue inside her sweet mouth, locking us together. I stroked the inside of her mouth tasting a dessert I never knew I had been missing. Her kiss was better than skydiving from a plane. It was the purest rush, the finest drug ever made, and it was finally mine.

Once she warmed up to my touch her tongue matched mine in a duel that increased in intensity, quickly followed by moans and our bodies melting into a grinding rotation of hips and a seductive dance. My hands left the anchor of her hips to travel north pulling her shirt with it and finding breasts that fit my hands like a key to a lock. Taylor Jane Bryant had always affected me so and I was terrified to let her go now that I had come to my senses.

I didn’t care if her eighty-five-year-old neighbor Gloria saw us in the dying daylight. Our kiss had the kind of energy that could rejuvenate an old spirit. Her hands twisted up, tugging the tuft of shaved hair on the back of my neck. Her short nails grazed my skin and I wanted more. I wanted whatever she was willing to give me because, fuck it, I’d waited so long.

Ten years to damn long.

We slowed down, gasping for breath, and her forehead rested against my chest. I was almost afraid my heart was beating so violently it might launch her off my chest.

“Hunter, what the...?”

“I don’t know, but you feel it too?”

“I’ve had years of feeling it. I never thought you would give it a chance.” Her words made me smile.

“Then I was an idiot.” All this time I’d tried to be the good guy, but she’d wanted me just as I was all scars and baggage. How wrong I had been.

“Yes, you were, but friends forgive friends.”

“Don’t tell Damien, all right? He’s the only idiot we keep around here.” We shared the laugh like we shared our breath, one continuous wave I refused to let go of now that I had it in my grasp.

“Are we really going to do this?” she whispered.

“I can’t imagine going back to fighting it every day.”

21

Taylor Jane

“So now that we’ve decided to try this thing out, how do we start?” Nervous didn’t remotely encapsulate how I felt right now. We were standing six feet in front of each other and it was as if we were seeing each other for the first time. How did your best friend and a decade of history suddenly become a stranger? You throw sex at it, that’s how.

I noticed how short he kept his hair and I knew already how soft it would be if I brushed my fingers through it. His broad chest held his heart, his beautiful big lion heart beating strong under thick ribs. I felt like I finally had the permission I needed to look him over, to see what I was about to get myself into. His ribs were countable through his tight-fitting T-shirt. He was safe and he was a tempest, but I wanted to ride the wave until we drifted out to nothingness and back again.

Hunter and me.