Page 84 of Friends with Benefits

“I mean. I get why you came home. Obviously. But…” Evelyn’s voice trails off. Theo’s eyes are transfixed on her lips. How glossy they are. “Being here? Seeingyouhere? I guess I just don’t understand why you’ve stayed in LA.”

“Don’t you?”

It surprises him, the challenge in his voice.

Her brow furrows. “You love New York.”

“I do.”

He whispers this confession, as if it’s not obvious. Silence stretches between them. He could—should—fill it with bullshit excuses. It’s what he’d do at home.

But New York makes him brave, so he continues, “It’d be impossible. Leaving again.”

“Because of work? You can find another job—”

“God, Evelyn. No. Not leaving myjob. Leavingyou.”

Her eyes widen.

“Ev—”

But before he can walk those words back, she leans in andpresses her perfect lips against his. Wraps her arms around him and runs her fingers through his curls, her nails scraping against the nape of his neck. She tastes like vanilla. When her teeth graze his bottom lip and bite softly he moans, then braces himself for their brains to catch up to their bodies.

They always do.

But she just smiles against his mouth, then keeps kissing him like he’s a goddamn revelation. Theo’s palms stay pressed against the mattress. He doesn’t dare touch her when she climbs onto his lap and tells himself he still has an ounce of self-control when the reality is he is so far gone and it’s so sexy. Evelyn’s tongue in his mouth. Evelyn’s hands in his hair. Evelyn grinding against him, her dress hiked up to her hips, her mouth lowering to his neck as she reaches for his belt buckle, her fingers teasing him.

She pulls away.

Her eyes shift to his hands, which have sunken into the memory foam. And it’s devastating, the furrow of her brow. She bites her swollen lip and lowers her gaze. “I’m… I thought. Fuck. You don’t want—”

“Evelyn.” Theo presses the pad of his thumb under her chin, tilts it up so her eyes meet his. “I want.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Then fucking Christ, Theo.Touch me.”

17

“Where?”

“Theodore.”

“Where?” he repeats, voice low.

In the stretch of silence that follows, their eye contact doesn’t break. Evie wonders if this is another lapse of judgment that they’ll spend the next five years not talking about. Just like the first, last,onlyother time she climbed onto her best friend’s lap in a moment of weakness. Their hearts beat loud as she searches Theo’s expression for any indication that this desire is a fleeting moment.So what if it is?

“Evelyn.” It’s thrilling and terrifying, the desperate way he says her name. “Show me.Please.”

Please.

With that one word, his soft plea, she crashes into his lips, takes his hands in hers, and shows him. Starts at her thighs, his touch so light, so tentative, as she guides his fingers up, up, up and under her dress. She keeps one of his hands on her hip as she skims the other across the hem of her seamless, practical nude underwear. Sucks on his lower lip. In response tothe pressure of fingers sinking into the flesh of her hip, she teases herself with his hand. Allows only his fingertips to dip under the fabric of her underwear.

“Ev.”

She knows it’s reckless, letting him touch her like this.

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