Page 85 of Crash & Burn

I shake my head.

Can’t we stay in this in-between a little longer? Can’t we stay in this place we both agreed on? It feels like I’m on a cliff, seconds away from falling, knowing how scary the fall will feel but how long I’ve been waiting to jump.

“How did you do it?” I ask.

“Do what?”

“How did you take a song from my head? How did you write a song that I have been trying to remember for years? How did you write lyrics as if you read my deepest, darkest thoughts?” I take a step closer to him. “How did you do it?”

“Mia, the second I saw you in the hallway of your apartment, I knew that I would never not be able to look at you again. That’s how I did it. I can’t help but watch you because you are my favorite thing to look at.

“When you’re happy, your smile is so big that you squint those pretty brown eyes in the cutest way known to man. When you find something funny, you tilt your head back and let out a laugh that makes my world go ‘round. When you’re flustered, your chest turns red, which makes you wearing anything that covers it absolutely infuriating because I love seeing the effect I have on you. When you’re focused, you bite your bottom lip and hum a tune that has gotten stuck in my head, and the only way to get it out was to write it.

“You are my biggest distraction and pain in my ass because you have me wrapped around your finger and begging on my knees all at the same time. I know we agreed to be friends, and I know everything coming out of my mouth makes what should be simple very complicated, but these past months, you have become my inspiration, my muse, and you have shown me what it means to go to hell and come back stronger. And now that you’re in my life, I never want to know what life is without you.”

My brain short circuits because there is so much Eddie just said, and I don’t know how to process it. Starting with how he wrote the song, to having him begging on his knees, and everything in between.

There are a million and one thoughts running through my head, and I want to tell him every single one, but my one and only priority right now is crossing that line between us and free-falling past the point of no return.

I grab Eddie’s T-shirt that he,unfortunately, put back on after the show, and I pull him into me, needing to feel his lips on mine. I hear a catch in his breath as my lips crash into his, and it is nothing like our first kiss.

It is desperate and passionate, like neither of us can get enough. Eddie’s hands grip my hips like he is holding on for dear life. His mouth moves against mine, finding a rhythm that makes my legs feel like they are about to give out. His tongue swipes across my bottom lip, asking for access, and I impatiently grant it.

My tongue tangles with his, and a pressure in my lower stomach builds.

I need more of him.

I snake my hands up his chest to find his neck, and I feel his fingers dig into my hips hard enough to leave a mark. My fingers wrap themselves in his hair, and a groan escapes his throat, heeding as my only warning before he lifts me up off the floor. My legs instinctively wrap around his waist, and he turns us so I’m pressed against the door. His body pressing against me is the perfect pressure, and I never want this moment to cease.

His teeth bite down on my lower lip before his lips meet my jaw, leaving kisses along my jawline and down my neck where his teeth lightly graze the sensitive skin before his tongue smooths over. I’m in the middle of a sensory overload, basking in the feeling that Eddie can’t get enough of me as much as I can’t get enough of him.

His lips are back on mine as he sets me down, my back against the door now, and if he wasn’t so close there is no way I would be able to stand. His hands move down my backside, pulling me into him again.

“More,” I moan against his lips, not even entirely sure what I mean but knowing that this isn’t enough.

His mouth moves from my lips, back to my neck. “More what, sunshine?” I hear in my ear. He squeezes my ass between his palms. “Be a good girl and use your words.”

“I wantyou,” I half-whisper and half-whine, again, not entirely sure what I mean, but too blind by lust to further explain or care that I’m moments away from begging this man for more.

“What do you want from me?” He asks between the kisses he leaves all over my neck, and I can’t hold back a moan as his hands slip from my ass, one lining the skin just above my pants, and the other hand pressing against the door just above my head.

“Touch me,” I beg. My hands are on his chest, fisting the fabric of his shirt.

“I think you need to be a little more specific, sunshine.” I hear in my ear. “Should I keep touching you here?” His finger continues to trace the skin of my stomach peeking out from my shirt as he kisses my neck, his tongue against the sensitive skin making me go mad.

“Lower,” I whine.

“Here?” He asks as his fingers dip into the front of my jeans. He uses one hand to undo the button, moving so slow that I’m tempted to do it myself.

I let go of his shirt and go to unzip my pants, but Eddie stops and grabs my wrists, holding my hands between us.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re being a tease.” I say, my chest hot, my head dizzy, my heart racing, my skin so sensitive it is almost painful.

“Says the biggest tease of all” he argues, still gently holding my wrists with enough strength for me to not be able to easily move them but not enough to hurt. “I have waitedmonthsfor this,” he adds. “I plan on taking my time with you.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just stare at him, his green eyes, his swollen lips, the flush in his cheeks.

---