Page 43 of The Stand-In Boyfriend

Her teeth are grazing against her lower lip, drawing my attention to her mouth.

“What are you doing?” she whispers instead of asking whatever she asked in the first place.

I lick my lips, my eyes still zeroing in on her mouth.

“Trying to figure out how much it would take to wipe that lipstick off your lips.”

She gulps loudly, her delicate throat moving as she swallows. My hand reaches forward, pushing her hair back, fingers sliding over the sensitive skin of her neck and collarbone.

“Noah?”

“Yeah?” I ask, but it sounds low and raspy.

“You can’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you want to kiss me.” Her voice is barely audible, so nobody but me can hear it. “No kissing, remember?”

I lift my hand, sliding my thumb over her mouth. “I remember no such thing. Besides, we already broke that rule.”

“Noah…”

Is it just my imagination, or does my name on her lips sound breathier than it did just moments before?

Closing the distance between us, we’re so close our lips brush if only slightly. “You can pull away,” I say, needing her to know she has a choice. Needing her to choose this. Choose me. “All you have to do is pull back and this will be it.”

But she doesn’t pull away. Her hands land on my chest and slide to my back, fingers threading through the hair at the nape of my neck as my mouth captures hers in a kiss.

Her eyes fall shut as a breathy sigh parts her lips. A sight that sounds almost like relief. I cup her cheeks, tilting her head just slightly. My fingers tangle in her hair as I deepen the kiss. She tastes like chocolate, tequila and sunshine, unlike anything I tried before and everything my body seems to need.

Her tongue tangles with mine, fingers digging into my scalp. She shifts on my lap to get into a better position, but the only thing it does is make me more turned on than I already was.

I let go of her face, grabbing her hips and stopping her from wiggling any more.

We break the kiss, both of us panting hard. Her eyelids flutter, and she looks at me, confused.

“Noah?”

That breathy rasp of hers will be my undoing. I press my forehead into hers, giving myself a moment to catch my breath and steady my rapidly beating heart.

“If you don’t stop wiggling so much, you can’t hold me responsible for what I do next, Sunshine.”

It takes a second for the words to sink in but when they do her mouth opens in a surprised O.

I chuckle humorlessly. “I figured as much.”

The tension is back, but not for long thanks to Elliott. “Are you two done making out, or do I need to bring the fire extinguisher?”

Chapter Sixteen

JESSICA

“So what did you and Liam end up doing the other night? I didn’t see you,” I ask, as I pour a packet of sugar into my chai latte, stirring the contents of the cup.

Instead of meeting at one of our houses and risking somebody overhearing us, we decided to meet in the local coffee shop instead.

“Oh, we were there, but you didn’t see us because you were otherwise,” she coughs exaggeratedly, “occupied.”

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