Her face softens. “Aw, you used to call me that all the time. I don’t know, I just wanted to talk to you without the others.”
“About what?”
She leans in close to me, and I know without a shadow of a doubt, that she’s going to kiss me.
So, I press my fingertips to her lips, and she scowls at me.
“Hey,” she says against my fingers.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Her eyes flash. “In case you missed it, I’ve been flirting with you all damn night.”
“I didn’t miss it.” Now there’s hurt there, and I feel like a complete moron. “Sarah, you’ve been drinking, and we’re friends, and—”
“Forget it,” she says and yanks herself away from me. “You seem to think that I don’t know my own mind when I’ve had a little liquor. I’ve hadtwodrinks, Tanner, just enough to loosen up a bit, but definitely not enough to lose control. I know what I’m doing, but I’ll gladly go find someone else whowantsto kiss me andwantsmy attention.”
She turns to walk away, but I catch her by the elbow, whirl her around, and pin her to the wall.
“You think I don’t fucking want you?” I press against her and brush my lips against her ear. “You have no idea how badly I want you, what I want to do to you. But goddamn it, I promised you that I’d be a gentleman. Not to mention that once I start with you, I won’t be able to stop, and I refuse to be anything but mindful where you’re concerned.”
“No one’s asking you to stop,” she says. Her chest heaves as she breathes heavily and clings to me, her hands fisted in the T-shirt at my sides. “Damn it, Tanner, no one is asking you to stop.”
ChapterFive
Sarah
Ican’t stop staring at his lips. All I’ve wanted all freaking night is for Tanner to kiss me. He was a grade A kisser when we were teenagers, fumbling around in the few moments we could steal away here and there.
I bet he’s out of the stratosphere now.
“I can’t do this here,” he whispers and swallows hard, as if telling me no is killing him, which is good because it’s absolutely destroying me. “Not here, not now, Sarah. Not like this after all this time.”
“So, you’re not turning me down because I repulse you?”
His eyes widen, he furrows his brows, and then helaughs.
Just tips his head forward and laughs.
“Repulse,” he mutters. “Sarah, I’ve wanted you since I was sixteen fucking years old, and that hasn’t changed for one minute. But honey, we’re in a public place with our friends, and what I want to do to you is absolutelynobody’sbusiness.”
I bite my lip at the idea of what he might want to do to me.
I can’t help it. I haven’t had sex in a really,reallylong time.
And even when it was new, and neither of us knew what in the hell we were doing, having sex with Tanner was alwaysincredible.
“Don’t look at me like that.” His eyes have narrowed on me.
“Like what?”
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
I offer him a shy smile and shrug a shoulder. “Idowant to eat you alive. And I decided to throw the idea of awkwardness out the window because it’s only weird if we make it that way, and I’m done with it. I’ve spoken it into the universe.”
He boops my nose with the tip of his finger.
“I’m glad because I definitely don’t feel awkward with you right now.”