Page 87 of Friends with Benefits

“Fuck me,” Evie whispers in his ear after their lips part, her teeth nibbling the lobe. “Theodore.Please.”

“Ev.” Theo turns his head so their noses touch. “It’s not going to be…” He pauses. Even naked and flustered, Theo considers his words. “I just. I’m already pretty close.”

“Yeah?”

With the exhilarating admission, she rolls against him.Guides him inside her as she pulls his mouth back to hers and shifts under him. Wrapping her legs around his torso, they find a rhythm. He feels… she feels…so much, being fucked by her best friend, who is always so gentle, so careful. Who is losing control. Who groans into her mouth when he comes. Her nails sink into shoulders slick with sweat, desperate to hold on to something. Not something.Him.

And it feels like it was always a matter of time.

This.

Yet Evie didn’t see it coming.

After they clean themselves up, she curls into Theo.

He runs a hand through his sex-mussed curls. “I feel like a fucking teenager.”

Evie laughs. Almost wishes that they were teenagers again so she could turn back time and choose New York the moment she was able to make a choice like that. Choose him. Not push him toward this city, toward this dream, away from her. But he came back. Confessed that it feels impossible, the idea of leaving her again.

Impossible.

Evie falls asleep in her best friend’s arms, letting herself, just once, have this impossible thing.

18

One weekend in New York with Evelyn, and Theo is seventeen again. Obsessed with his best friend. Attempting to play it cool. Agonizing over how to tell her. If he even should. Every messy feeling he’s spent the last decade denying was unearthed the moment he pressed his mouth against that fucking tattoo. Now home, they don’t talk about what that weekend meant. If it meant anything at all. But at least they don’t pretend it didn’t happen. In the week since,casualhas become their new favorite word. Before school, breakfast ends with Theo casually lifting Evelyn onto the kitchen island and fingering her until she comes. Before bed, Evelyn wrings her hair out with a towel after shower sex and laughs.Who knew we’d be so good at casual, Theodore?

Casual.

Casual.

Casual.

Theo falls asleep with her in his arms and wakes up alone and tells himself that’s enough.

Safe.

What he wants.

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a Monday holiday that allows Theo to sleep in. When he finally rolls out of bed at 8:05, Evelyn is rinsing blueberries at the sink in an oversized T-shirt that barely covers her ass. So casual. Theo is absolutely not hard at the sight. “Morning.”

“Hey.” Evelyn places the colander down and spins to face him. Leans back and presses the palms of her hands against the quartz countertop. “Breakfast?”

His eyebrows rise. “You’re cooking?”

“I’m adding blueberries to my Cheerios.”

Theo laughs, then reaches above her to grab two ceramic bowls from the cabinet. “Tell me more.”

“I’ve spent years perfecting the cereal-to-milk ratio.”

“Have you?”

She shoves him. “Stop laughing as if soggy cereal isn’t—”

Theo cuts Evelyn off with a casual kiss because that’s something they do now. Casually. Casual is his desire to always be kissing her. Casual is her soft gasp as he lifts her so she’s sitting on the countertop. She laughs against his lips, breaking the kiss as he tries to deepen it and pressing her hands against his chest. “I have to go to the studio.”

He groans. “You’re working today?”

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