It’s harder than the one Ihad.
He could missit.
He draws back the cue, then slides it through hishand.
Smooth. Sure.Practiced.
My breath catches as I watch the ball roll across the felt, tap the two, and drop it right into thepocket.
Tyler straightens,slow.
My heart flutters in my chest. “I guess you want yourkiss.”
“No.” A hand on my waist has me turning back, catching myself against his chest. Too-knowing chocolate eyes bore into mine. “I want it on ourdate.”
“Our date?” I echo, a stepslow.
“Yeah. See, the last time I tried to date you, I fucked it up. We were too young. And I lived in your house. And I don’t know if there’s a right way to do this, but I want totry.”
I search his face, trying to understand the words coming from his lips. “But… dating is a thing people who have time and want to fall in love do. Not people on the edge of finally reaching their dreams after giving up so much to doit.”
His gaze sharpens. “You don’t think we can haveboth?”
Of all the things I wondered with Tyler, that he’d want to take me out never occurred to me. It’s a beautiful idea, but part of me says it’s impossible, that believing that is something the girl who got her heart broken last year would’ve done, something I’m too smart to donow.
“Tell you what,” he says when I don’t answer. “We’ll have this conversation after ouraudition.”
I nod, swallowing with relief. I take his cue and hang it up with mine. “We should get back to ourfriends.”
“Wait.” He catches my wrist before I can pass him. “I changed my mind about thatkiss.”
His voice is low, a sensual promise as he tugs me againsthim.
“You want it here?” I look aroundus.
He backs me against the pool table until my ass rests on theedge.
“I want it here,” heagrees.
My dress rides up indecently high, and he’s pressed between my thighs. Every inch of me lives for the feeling of his body onmine.
But it’sdangerous.
I’ve survived this long, kept myself focused, because I haven’t let myself give in to the desire to touch him, to have him touchme.
“Come on, Six. Don’t back out now.” His voice is a lowmurmur.
I take a breath and thread my fingers through his hair, tugging him closer. Our lips hover close enough to touch, and I’m aching for him, the need pulsing low in my stomach wanting to drop us out of this bar, out of this city, to a place where it’s him and me and everything we’ve neversaid.
I can’t close the last millimeter betweenus.
As if he knows, Tyler does it forme.
Oh,God.
I’d thought I remembered what it felt like to kiss him, but I waswrong.
He’s warm and firm, heat and desire, and the second he parts my mouth with his tongue, I sigh againsthim.