Page 59 of Best Friends for Never

She shakes her head. “It’s fine. It’s ... fine.”

“It’s not,” I tell her, stepping closer. “It’s not fine. I didn’t mean to stay gone. It’s just ... We stopped talking, and I thought ...”

“You thought what? That I just forgot about you, like you forgot about me?”

My heart sinks. How could she even think that? There’s no way I could forget her. She’s Parker. She’s ... well, she’s everything goodabout my life here. She’s all my happy memories in one place. She’s the greatest thing to ever happen to me. And yes, even despite the years, she’s still the person who knows me the absolute best.

“You ... think I forgot about you? I didn’t. I could never forget you, Parker. Never.”

“What else was I supposed to think?” She huffs disdainfully. “I’ve seen the tabloids. You were off in Hollywood, going to parties and falling into bed with actresses and stepping out of clubs at two in the morning and—”

I kiss her.

I step right into her, and I press my lips against hers.

It takes her about three seconds to realize what’s happening, then suddenly, she’s kissing me back.

She grabs the lapels on my jacket, holding me to her like she’s afraid to let go, and I get it because I’m fucking scared too. I press her against the wall, cradling the back of her neck with one hand and her waist with the other as I explore her mouth with my tongue.

This kiss is different from our last one, not just because we both know what we’re doing now.

It’s different because this kiss is the culmination of years of pent-up anger and frustration and longing and missing someone so much your heart literally aches.

It’sthatkind of kiss.

I bunch the material of her dress up because I need to touch her more than I’m already touching her. I need tofeelher. When my fingers brush bare skin, she tugs me closer, and I take it as a sign to keep going. I push the material up until it sits around her hips, then run the inside of my pinkie where her thighs meet.

She gasps into my mouth at the soft touch, and I pull away.

She looks gorgeous like this—her hair is disheveled from being pinned against the wall, her lips swollen from my kisses, and her eyes glassy with lust.

“Tell me to stop, Parker.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t.”

“Then I won’t.”

It’s all the warning I give her before I slide my hand into her silky underwear and take what I’ve wanted for so long—her.

She gasps as I glide my fingers through her folds and over her clit, then whines when I push just the tip of one inside her.

Fuck, she’s tight. So damn tight. So warm. And so fucking perfect.

“Noel,” she moans into my neck when I push in more and begin working her over with a single digit. She hooks her leg around my waist, pushing me deeper. I love the bite of her heel digging into my ass. “Please.”

“Please what, Parker? Tell me what you want.”

“You. I want you.”

It’s the same thing she said to me last week. The exact four words that have been stuck in my head since. But now ... now they’re so much more.

Our tongues collide in a fervent kiss as I fuck her with my finger, andgod, she tastes so good. Like peppermint and home and all mine.

She bucks her hips against me, riding my hand like she can’t get enough, and when I press my thumb against her clit, she gasps, wrenching her mouth from mine.

“Ohgodohgodohgod.”

Sure, they’re technically separate words, but they all sound like one.

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