She was sure she hadn’t heard him right. “Wind buffets?”
“Uh. No.” He put the glass back down. “I said, ‘with benefits.’”
Chris sat there stupidly for two seconds until a fluttery little dance started in her chest. But...this was exactly what she wanted. She and Zac were on the same page for probably the first time in their entire friendship.
Still, hadn’t she decided she wouldn’t have a fling with him until she was sober? Her chest tightened. Her stomach went back to sick. Yes, she had. “Zac, I...think I need time to process that one.”
“Understood.” He leaned in so his shoulder pressed against hers. Even that innocent a touch was sexy when it was Zac. When Bodie had squashed her against the front door, she’d felt a whole lot of nothing. “Unless we’re both sure that’s what we want, we shouldn’t agree to anything.”
Chris nodded, relieved at how sweet and understanding he was being, and miserably disappointed because she was ridiculously hot for him and wanted his body immediately.
There wasn’t a single other person in her life who managed to elicit opposing reactions in her time after time. She turned toward him and found herself staring at his beautiful mouth. “That sounds very sensible.”
Sensible.
God, she was heartily sick of sensible. Her entire focus of the past two months had been on trying to escape the evil clutches of sensibleness. Look how she felt now that she’d decided to ignore her pom-pom–brandishing inner voice and keep from jumping Zac’s delicious bones tonight because it was more sensible to wait. Sick! Tense! Miserable! How much more proof did she need?
“It does sound sensible, doesn’t it.” Now he was staring at her mouth, which was practically buzzing with the need for him to kiss her. “So...I better go before I do something I won’t regret.”
She giggled. “You think you wouldn’t?”
“I know I wouldn’t.”
Eva’s clock ticked off a whole bunch of seconds. A breeze fluttered the curtains.
“Chris.” He leaned in a couple of inches closer.
“Mmm?”
“I’m not moving away from you, am I?”
“Let me check.” She pretended to inspect, moving closer herself. “Hmm, nope.”
“I don’t think I can. So it’s up to you to move away if you want. Because I’m going to kiss you.”
“Oh, my.” Chris stared at his spectacular mouth. She could practically taste it again. “That sounds like a terrible idea.”
“It gets worse.” He leaned toward her until his amazing lips were mere centimeters away, and his warm, nongarlicky breath was brushing her skin, turning her slowly molten. “Because if I kiss you, I’m not going to want to stop there.”
“Oh! That is worse. Much worse.” She was imagining his hands on her naked body, his warm torso lowering over hers. Or under hers. Or behind hers. Or—
His mouth tasted just as wonderful as it had the other night, and the pressure of his lips ignited a fierce and primal response in her, just as it had the other night.
But unlike the other night, they were on a nice soft couch, and unlike the other night, her defenses were somewhere down around her ankles. Chris wanted this. She’d invited this. She didn’t need defenses.
He pushed her back on the couch—or had she moved there herself, inviting him along? She didn’t know. But the passion that came to life between them, her legs locking around his, their hips straining toward each other, that was definitely mutual.
Also unlike the other night was the...the...
She struggled under the haze of passion to recognize what it was she was hearing.
The doorbell! Again!
Zac’s eyebrows flew up, then immediately crashed down. “Expecting someone?”
“No.” She held his eyes, breathless, not wanting him to move off her. “No one.”
The bell rang again, followed by aggressive knocking. A man’s voice.
Zac got up and headed toward the door, body tense, face grim.
Uh-oh. Chris followed him anxiously. If either Bodie or Gus were outside, she felt really, really sorry for them, and really hoped that whoever it was, he hadn’t brought his surfboard.