Page 73 of Flirting with Forever

John was twenty feet away, ten, five, one. He stepped around Beth and into Mary’s side. She twisted on the barstool to face him as one of John’s hands went around to her lower back. His other hand slid up to her cheek, her chin resting on the pad of his thumb. Her eyes swallowed him alive as, stars in his bloodstream, John leaned forward and planted a good, hard kiss on her cheek.

It didn’t last for more than a few seconds, and if it had been between two different people, it might have even been platonic. But because it was Mary, John shivered against her. As brief as it had been, the corner of his mouth had touched the corner of hers. She wore mint ChapStick that he hoped he’d taste on his lips in the few moments before Gabriel led him through the pearly gates one day. He knew he’d surprised her because she was breathless when he pulled away, her eyes wide, her fingers tangled in the collar of his shirt.

“Hi,” he said, six inches from her mouth. The very same mouth his body was begging for him to lean down and taste.

“Hi,” she whispered, more air than word. Her thumb drew a circle in the stubble just under his chin and there was nothing in this entire bar but for Mary’s eyes. There might not have been anything in this entireworldbut for Mary’s eyes.

“Whoa,” he heard Richie say behind him.

He tore his eyes from Mary’s and acknowledged his friend.

“I take it you won your case,” Richie said.

“That I did.”

“Really? Is that the good news? Tell me about it!” Mary’s hand, still tangled in his collar, relaxed and slid down over his chest. She smoothed it around to his back, pulling him against where she sat on her barstool as the crowd behind him bore down on them. “Want some of my beer? Or should we get you one?”

John’s heart led a six-mile parade down the streets of Brooklyn. Because Mary was pulling him into her side, waving down Marissa to make sure he got a drink. And then she was gasping in joy and excitement as he explained about the case he’d just won. Richie bought another round, and they all toasted Hang Nguyen and her bright future. The bar got even more crowded, and John was practically pasted into Mary’s side.

“Save my seat,” she said to him, her lips at his ear as she slid down to go to the bathroom. John parked himself onto her barstool and swallowed down half his beer in one go as she evaporated into the crowd. Both Richie and Marissa made wide, pointed eye contact with John. Beth tactfully looked away, sipping from her beer innocently.

A few weeks ago, John might have been uncomfortable about the fact that his friends were watching him cuddle and flirt with Mary. But tonight? Nothing mattered tonight but making Mary smile. Nothing mattered but fanning the burning, liquid electricity in his gut. Regrets were not a concept he even vaguely understood right now.

He just shrugged at his friends, impulsively ordered another round for the group and laughed.

A moment later, there was a hand on his shoulder, but before John could stand to give Mary her seat back, she was gracefully sliding against him, planting herself onto the triangle of barstool between his legs.

“Let’s just share,” she suggested over her shoulder, her hair brushing his chin as he leaned down to hear her.

John scooted back an inch on the stool, braced a forearm across the front of her hips and hoisted her more securely against him.

He knew, that with her plush ass firmly planted between his spread legs, there was going to be no hiding how much he wanted her. But, he wondered, what was the alternative?Nothaving Mary wiggle herself into his lap? Hard pass.

She didn’t protest at having his arm around her waist, so he left it there, reveling when she leaned her weight into him, her back against his chest. He was lost in the slip of her dress off her perfect shoulder. He was wholly engrossed in the mystery of where the hell her bra strap was. Was she wearing some contraption under the pink dress that didn’t require straps? Was she bare? Her shoulder was certainly bare, and it took every ounce of fortitude in John’s being not to nuzzle her there.

She kept the conversation lively with Beth and Richie, and he could feel her voice reverberate through her chest and into him. Every laugh, every movement of her hands pushed her against him until John felt like he might go insane. He was more aroused than he could ever remember being. This erotic dance she was doing against him was so different, so much more intense, than anything he’d ever done on a dance floor. This wasn’t an intentional grinding of two bodies against one another, the promise of a make out in a cab on the frantic ride back to one of their places. No, this was so much more exquisitely torturous than that.

He had the soft scent of her skin filling up every lungful of air he took, the gentle tickle of her hair under his chin, the intoxicating tug of her fingers at the wrist of his sleeve as she absently played with the button there.

Beth and Richie started laughing about something together, and Mary took the opportunity to tip her head back and catch John’s eye. “You’re awfully quiet back there,” she said with a sly smile on her lips.

It hit him all at once. She was doing this on purpose. The little minx! She knew exactly how every minuscule press and lean and jiggle was affecting him.

Well. Two could definitely play that game. He felt his eyelids lower in both competition and satisfaction.

John cleared his throat and adjusted his arm across her hip bones, bringing her infinitesimally closer to him.

With his free hand, he brushed her hair back under the guise of clearing the way for him to whisper in her ear. But he took the opportunity to let the pad of his thumb linger at the back of her neck. He held her gently, firmly in place while his nose just barely skimmed the upper shell of her ear.

“Guess I’m just enjoying the company.”

He was obliged to watch her pupils dilate as she licked her lips.

“Another round?” Marissa shouted over the noise of the crowd.

Richie made a face at them, testing the waters to see if they were going to stick around for that long. Maybe if Mary had been a different, less earthquaking woman, John would have been anxious to get out of the bar with her and get on with their night. But right now, with her warm and vibrating in his lap, there was nowhere else in the solar system that he wanted to be.

“Sure!” Mary shouted back.

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