I open my eyes so I can level an accusatory look at her. "Because you're Remy's—"
"I love my sister, but she doesn't get to say who I can and can't be with," she interrupts, and I hear the conviction in her words. "I've had enough of people trying to dictate my life."
Now my gaze turns pleading. "Hailey, you're like a little sister—"
"Don’t," she cuts me off again. Only now she's angry. "You don't get to do that. You don't get to use that as a cop-out, because you know that's not true.Remymay feel like a sister to you, but I've always been something different. You know that. So don't you dare try to lie to yourself about that."
A muffled sound of pain whooshes out of my chest. I'm hanging on by a thread here, and I am one reason away from surrendering completely and giving her everything she wants because fuck knows I want it too.
I feel an intense urge to cup her face and pull her to me but that would draw me further in, so instead I place my hands on her shoulders and gently run them up and down her arms. When I brush her wet hair over her shoulder, a shiver runs through her.
"Hailey, I care about you," I mumble. "If this hurts our friendship, or if, God forbid, I accidentally hurt you, I would never forgive myself. I don't—"
She slides her hands from my chest to the sides of my face, gently cupping my face the same way I crave to do with hers.
"You could never hurt me," she whispers, tenderly brushing my cheeks with her thumbs. "I know you. And it'sbecauseI know you that I want this. I trust you, I care about you, and I know you feel this spark between us. And I want it. Whatever it is. I wantyou."
She stares at me with such trust, such longing, that I feel the last shred of my resolve crumble. In this moment, I decide I'll give this girl whatever the fuck she wants: my body, my heart, the moon, the stars, anything. It's hers.
There's not enough air in my lungs to breathe. She wants an answer, but I can't even formulate a thought, let alone words. I'm too far gone in this girl's eyes to do anything but stare at her in wonder.
After a few moments where I still haven’t said anything, Hailey stiffens and looks away, annoyance and hurt flashing across her face. The sight of it is enough to shake me out of my stupor, but before I can say anything, she straightens her spine and lifts her gaze to mine again. "But I'm not interested in convincing anyone to want me back, so if I have to push for this, then let's just forget it." She starts to turn away.
I grab her arm before she can walk away from me.
"Don't," I growl.
I hear her sharp intake of breath as she turns back to me. Her eyes widen, the pain in them disintegrating to reveal her tentative hope.
I step forward to do what I've been dying to do since that night at the bar. I cup her face, my fingers tangling in her wet hair, and I fuckingrevelin the feeling of finally touching her like this. My breath catches in my lungs at the look on her face, at the hunger. Forme.
I don’t rush into kissing her. I just hold her, trying with everything in me to memorize this moment, memorize how she looks. My gaze drops down to her pink, plush lips, and then I’m lost.
The second her lips touch mine, I feel an electric charge run between us, restarting my heart and making it beat just for her. I devour her, claim her as mine. My lips part on a groan.
When our tongues touch, I feel Hailey whimper and fist her hands in my shirt.Fuck, she's so much smaller than me, so fragile. I want to tuck her against my chest and protect her so no one can ever hurt her again.
But Hailey doesn't kiss like she's fragile. She meets my aggression with her own brand of fire, tightly pressing her body against mine and tugging down on my shirt so she can better reach my mouth. Her tongue spars with mine, her moans getting louder. Hearing them come fromHaileyis enough to set my heart racing. And when she takes my bottom lip between her teeth and bites down, the act pulls a tortured groan from my throat.
That bite is the reason I force myself to pause for a moment. Before I take this too far too quickly.
I pull back, leaving my hands in her hair and my forehead resting against hers. We're both breathing heavily, both vibrating with the urgency to keep going.
I try to sort through my jumbled mess of thoughts that Hailey’s kiss just completely obliterated. I have no resolve left to fight against this, nor do I want to, but something is nagging at the back of my mind to make sure Hailey knows this isn’t just sex. It can’t be. It’sHailey.
I take a shaky breath and force myself to say, "If we do this, I'm not just going to fuck you, Hailey. You can't just be a girl in my bed. I'm not saying you have to call me your boyfriend, but this has to be exclusive. I care about you too much not to value our friendship and treat you with respect."
She nods quickly, eager for more.
But then she glances away. She opens her mouth to say something, but it takes another try before any sound comes out.
"Okay," she whispers hesitantly. "I want that too. But—umm, I also want..."
I know exactly what she wants. It’s the same fantasy I haven’t been able to get out of my head since that day at the gym I offered to put her on her knees.
I straighten and pull my fingers out of her hair, gently brushing the wet strands over her shoulder to lie along her back. I straighten her shirt too, smoothing it down her waist. I give her an opportunity to take her fantasy by the reins and own it. To say it out loud.
But she doesn’t seem to be ready for that yet. She stays quiet, too shy about her request to actually vocalize it.