“Ollie, wait,” he says. “Don’t go.”
He manages to grab my hand, and I lose my balance, slipping backwards. He catches me, pulling me upright and against him, and I still can’t breathe and now it’s for an entirely different reason. Adam has his arms around me, hands against the bare skin of my back and I feel like I’m back in high school because it’s all I’ve ever wanted.
Being pressed up against him, I feel the body that I saw in that photo through his clothes. Hard and strong and absolutely overwhelming. It’s not only his muscles that are hard right now, and… oh my god. It’s because of me. It really shouldn’t take a man’s hard-on to be convinced that he wants me, but it suddenly clicks.
I feel like I’ve got emotional whiplash from the last three minutes.
“You okay?” His voice is lower, rougher than before.
I look up into his face and we’re so close now. “Yeah,” I say. And I mean it. I’m okay. I can’t believe that this is happening. Is it going to happen? I don’t know. I don’t want to force it. I don’t think that I could take that rejection. “You can let me go now.”
“Why would I ever do that?”
He leans down and presses his lips against mine and oh…
My whole body feels like champagne, light and bubbly and drunk and it’s barely a kiss. I gasp when he pulls back. Our mouths were closed and it was nothing more than lips and I still feel like I’ve run a marathon—breathless and filled with endorphins and just happy.
His hands roam up and down my back, and I’m very aware of the fact that I’m not wearing any underwear under this dress. I can feel my nipples harden against the silk, and I wonder if he can feel them too. I don’t know what to say right now. What do you say in this moment? Where the barest of kisses is better than you ever thought that it could be?
I’m saved from answering that question because we’re both staring at each other, and I can feel the smile on my face. It matches the one that’s on his that’s making me feel like the sun is shining at midnight in Manhattan.
“May I kiss you again?”
“Please do.”
He chuckles as he closes the distance, and this time it’s not just lips. His tongue is there, gently asking permission and I open for him, and everything feels like it expands. This is so much more than I thought, so much better. I feel like I’m flying, joy and air and pleasure filling me up until I can’t contain it and I kiss him back.
I wrap my arms around his neck and try to pull him closer. I’ve never had a first kiss like this. I guess it’s technically a second kiss. Who cares, I’m kissing Adam Carlisle! My body heats up as our tongues dance and I think I could stay in this moment forever.
I have to catch my breath when we separate. He’s stolen all my breath from me. I’d happily let him do it again. “Wow.” Is the only word I can say.
He chuckles softly. “I wasn’t expecting that.” His fingers tighten on my spine. “I didn’t want you to run. I was just surprised and wasn’t expecting you to forgive me or willing to be near me.”
“Better late than never. I’ve thought about you too. I actually have a confession to make.”
“Oh?” he smiles. “Are you keeping a dark secret?”
I laugh. “Not dark, no. I wasn’t going to come. I was convinced that I never wanted to see any of our class again. But Lorraine knows me too well—she knows that I never really got over my crush.”
“On me?” He’s grinning like I’ve just said I think unicorns are real.
“Yeah, on you.” I’m glad it’s dim here under these trees because I’m blushing again. “I had said no, and then she showed me your pictures. Once I saw them, I realized that you were the only person that I wanted to see. Even if it was only from across the room.”
“This is much better than from across the room,” he says, and then he kisses me again.
My heart is going to pound itself out of my chest. God, I’ll never be able to thank Lorraine enough for forcing me to come to this reunion. If I had known that this would happen, I never would have fought her on it. I need to buy her the biggest box of her favorite chocolate that I can find.
The energy of this kiss shifts, and I can feel it turn hungry in both of us. I slide my hands inside the jacket of his tuxedo, feeling more of his body, and I’m acutely aware of the fact that his hand is sliding down my back to the low dip of my dress. A few more inches and he’s about to realize that there’s absolutely nothing separating him from my skin.
I hear the click of high heels a second before I hear her voice. “Ollie?”
Lorraine comes around the corner of the path and I try to jump back from Adam, unsuccessfully. He doesn’t let me go, and we’re still entwined together. Adam raises an eyebrow. “Embarrassed?”
“No,” I say, blushing. “Though I love getting caught mid-make-out by my best friend.” He chuckles, and I turn to face Lor. “Hi.”
She smirks. “Hi. I came to get you to dance! The party is finally going, and it’s really fun.” She looks Adam up and down. “You should come too.”
“I’ll be right there,” I say.
“Sure,” she says.
“How did you find us?”
“I followed the sound of your ovaries screaming in ecstasy.”
“Lor!” I flush bright red as Adam bursts out laughing.
She waves a hand. “Kidding. The doorman said he saw you guys come this way when I described you.”
“Okay then,” I say. “Bye.”
“See you!”
She flounces off, and I turn back to Adam, hiding my face in his shirt. “Now I’m embarrassed.”
“Don’t be,” he says, still laughing a little. “If my best friend were here it might have been worse.”
“Is he here?” I ask, not wanting to walk into that particular situation.
Adam shakes his head. “No, he’s a friend from med school. I’m sure you’ll meet him at some point.”
“I’d like to, but I’m glad I don’t have to worry about something more embarrassing than that.”
He tilts his head to the side. “I think I’d risk it so I could do this again.”
There’s something in the way that he kisses me that makes New York fall away. I’m standing in the middle of the sky with Adam, nothing exists but the two of us, and I’m prepared for it to stay that way. He pulls away too soon. “Will you dance with me?”
“Hell yeah.”
Taking my hand in his again, we walk back into the hotel together, and I ignore the pointedly amused look that the doorman gives us when we pass. God knows what Lorraine said to him when she came back inside.
Lor wasn’t kidding, the ballroom is an entirely different place when we walk into it. The lights are low now, with roving streaks of colored light highlighting the dance floor, and it seems more like a club than a ballroom. The benefit of that is no one even notices that Adam and I walk in hand in hand. There’s a crush of people on the dance floor and Lorraine is right in the center.
Dancing has never been my thing, but I’ll do it for Lor. And the thought of dancing with Adam leads me to dirty places in my mind. Places I definitely shouldn’t be dwelling on in public. “Ready?” he asks.
I nod and he pulls me into the crowd, helping maneuver us to where Lor is already completely one with the music. Her smile is brilliant, and she cheers when we reach her, pulling me into a hug and then spinning me back to Adam. “I don’t know how to do this!” I shout at him so he can hear me.
“Don’t worry,” he shouts back, and then he leans down so his voice is in my ear. “I’ve got you.”
Gr
abbing my hand, he spins me out and pulls me back so that my back is against his chest. The way he’s moving with the rhythm is smooth and easy, and his confidence makes it feel easy for me too. One of his hands holds mine, and the other is wrapped around my waist, holding us close so that we move together.
I like the way I can feel the fabric of his clothes against the bare skin of my back, and I like the way his fingers spread across my stomach, confident and a little possessive. I can feel that he’s still hard, and the thought that he’s hard because of me makes my heart beat faster.
Adam’s lips find my neck and god I’m glad that it’s so loud because I moan. His mouth feels like fire and pleasure and now I’m wondering what his lips will feel like everywhere. Everywhere. His hand slips lower on my dress, and it’s like every little inch of me he touches is shooting need straight into my gut. I’m going to get lost and forget where I am.
“Adam,” I say, but my voice is lost in the music. I turn to face him, and our movement takes on an entirely different feeling. Face to face, hips locked together, and I’m so aroused now that I can’t really move. He’s the one who’s moving both of us.
I lean forward to whisper in his ear, “I don’t want to stop.”
“We don’t have to.”
“If we don’t,” I say, “I’m going to have a moment more embarrassing than prom.”
I watch his eyes go dark and everything about him hardens more, and he holds me more tightly against his body. It doesn’t help the problem. The music changes then, to a slower song, and it’s like high school all over again. People who haven’t paired off suddenly do, and Adam and I blend in perfectly with the other couples. I glance to my left and see Lorraine with Joey Lancaster—honestly I should have seen that coming.
Adam’s hand falls on my lower back, and he takes my other hand in the traditional waltz pose. “I wanted to dance with you that night, you know.”
“Did you?”
“I was as surprised as you were that night, and when it seemed like you had won, it was too perfect. But I should have realized something was wrong earlier. I had just told Sasha that I liked you. But I was so happy…” Adam looks embarrassed now. “I’m glad I have the chance to do this now.”