Not the way her tongue shyly brushes against mine as her hands settle on my waist, tentative at first, then her fingers clenching the fabric in greedy handfuls, tugging me closer.
She’s too late though. I’m already closer, one arm wrapped around her back, plastering her body to mine, seeming to promise that if I can just bring her near enough, she won’t be able to leave me lonely again.
Just like with that kiss in the rain, her mouth is perfect. Familiar and new all at the same time. A part of me’s terrified kissing Lucy will always be this way—that strange sense of coming home for the first time, every time.
When I’d knocked on her door, I’d intended only this. Just the kiss to punish her for being so damn gorgeous.
Then Lucy’s nails dig into my sides, the shyness in her kiss replaced by a hunger to match my own, and I know I have a choice. Another crossroads.
I can pull away now, save us both from the agony of tomorrow, or…
Or, I can shut the door behind us, and give in to the ecstasy of tonight, tomorrow be damned.
Lucy pulls away slightly, her lips grazing the underside of my jaw. Then her hips move against mine, not a lot, but just enough for her to know that I’m hard, and me to know that she wants this every bit as much as I do.
Sorry, tomorrow. I need tonight too damned badly.
Chapter 28
LUCY, EIGHTEEN, REECE, NINETEEN
Lucy’s hands trembled as they came up to frame Reece’s face above hers. “Why’d you stop?”
Reece’s blue eyes blazed down into hers. “We shouldn’t do this, Lucy.”
Her stomach flipped, the hurt tearing through her. “You’re telling me that now.”
“Shh, no,” he whispered, silencing her with a kiss. “That’s not what I meant. I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything. But like this? You deserve more….”
Lucy bit her lips and parted her legs further, feeling the hard press of his erection against her naked body. “I have everything I want.”
“Oh God,” he whispered, face dropping to her neck. “I can’t…I can’t resist you.”
“So don’t,” she whispered.
He kissed the column of her throat before lifting his head again, searching her face. “You’re sure? I need you to be sure, Lucy. All the way.”
She met his gaze boldly, the nervousness of her first time edged out by the rightness of doing it with Reece. “You brought a condom, right?”
Reece blew out a breath, then kissed her soft and deep before reaching down to his discarded jeans beside her bed.
A moment later, she heard the tear of a wrapper, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Hey,” he whispered, palms cupping her head as he waited for her to open her eyes. “You are the best thing to ever happen to me. You know that, right?”
Lucy nodded, telling him with her eyes that he was the best thing that ever happened to her too, even as they both avoided the heartache that lay just a couple weeks away. When she would go away to college, leaving him behind, and there’d be none of this intimacy, no more of him sneaking into her bedroom.
Tell him how you feel. Ask him to wait. Ask him to come with you. Tell him you love him enough to find a way to make this work.
Lucy reached up, gripping his wrists. “Reece. Reece, I need to tell you. I think I—”
His eyes flickered in panic. “Don’t, Lucy. Don’t think.”
She knew what he was really saying. Don’t say it. Don’t tell me you love me.
Her heart ached for the broken boy in him that hadn’t heard it nearly enough. But she could wait to say the words until he was ready. She’d waited for years.
So instead of telling him the words of her heart, she smiled slow and hopefully sultry, tilting her hips up. “Please. Now.”