“Hudson’s dad lives here.”
She shakes her head and then drops under the surface, swimming several feet away. When she pops back up, I’m already beside her, grabbing her arm to turn her back to me. “You almost had me. I actually thought you wanted to casually date—” Embarrassment tinges her face and has her avoiding my gaze, and I realize she thinks this was another prank.
I sweep a hand around her, pulling her against me, and seal my lips over hers.
She doesn’t kiss me back at first, her lips pursed and firm. I grab her thighs in my hands and lift her, coaxing her to wrap her legs around my waist. She does, but her body is stiff, unsure.
“This wasn’t a prank, Cutlass. I want you.” I press my erection against her as proof.
Her eyes blaze with the same brand of desire consuming me but she doesn’t say anything, remaining still as a statue.
With my hands bracketing her waist, I lean into her, kissing the column of her neck where her pulse drums against my mouth. I nip and kiss my way to her ear. “We can do this however you want. It’s your call.”
She leans forward, her breasts pressing against my chest, and then she kisses me. Desperation and desire enflame me as her lips part, inviting me to slide my tongue into her mouth. She releases a soft sigh and flexes her fingers against my shoulders. The sound is my undoing, kissing her harder with a level of desperation I’ve never experienced as I move one hand to her backside, urging her closer, wanting to feel her against me knowing how damn perfect she’s going to fit before she confirms the fact.
Her core rubs against me, the slight friction so damn good I groan into her mouth. We kiss until we’re breathless, until we know we won’t be able to stop if we don’t stop now.
“We get tested tomorrow,” she says, eyes dilated, and lips swollen.
Chapter20
Hadley
The ache between my legs has kept me from thinking about nearly anything except for Nolan’s proposal for the past seventeen hours. We were the first to arrive at Camden’s Health Center this morning, bright and early where we filled out questionnaires and background information before being taken back to separate rooms to have blood drawn.
My phone beeps with a notification of a text as I sit in my marketing class, and I find Nolan’s name. The text includes an attached email: a copy of his results. My hands are shaking, and my nerves are so great it takes going over the information a dozen times to take in his clean results. I instantly close the message and open my email, finding my test results have arrived as well. I don’t need to look at them to know I’m clean, but still review them before forwarding them to Nolan.
Nolan: What time are you going to be home?
Me: Before you’re done with practice.
Nolan: I’ll meet you in the basement at 8.
The afternoon crawls by, and though traffic is dead by the time my second class ends, even the drive home feels exceptionally long.
“Hey,” Katie says from where she’s sitting on the couch, a textbook spread open over her lap, making me jump and then my heart race in an uneven beat.
“Hey. What are you doing?”
She looks at me like I’m asking her if the sun is hot—clearly, she’s studying.
“I mean, I thought you were hanging out with Carsen tonight.”
Katie pulls off a sticky note, stabbing it to a page of her textbook. “We were supposed to but then his friend called and teased him for being ‘pussy whipped,’” she raises her fingers to make quotes, “and he decided to go out with them because apparently manipulation holds more of a candle than loyalty.”
I wince. “Guys can suck.”
“Exponentially worse when their friends are involved.” She slams the textbook shut. “Do you want to go out? We can gorge ourselves on chicken nuggets and waffle fries and pick up some pumpkins. I’m starting to feel like a Scrooge being the only house in the neighborhood without any decorations.”
I glance at the clock, reminding me Nolan’s going to be home any minute and that I was planning to change and brush my teeth before slipping down to the basement for our first sexcapade.
Socked feet on the stairs allow me to stall as Hannah appears, wearing a light blue mini dress and pigtails.
“Wizard of Oz?” I ask
“Beauty and the Beast,” she says.
I nod.