Page 58 of Can't Always Get What You Want

When I reach past her to inspect the label on a carton of cream, my chest presses lightly into her back. Nova doesn’t move.

Doesn’t flinch.

If anything, she shifts just slightly and her ass grazes my pelvis. Wiggles, even. A barely-there grind that’s more suggestion than statement.

It shortens my breath.

“Stop it,” I mutter without conviction.

I’m weak.

So, so weak.

Nova bends to grab the carton of cream from a lower shelf in the refrigerator aisle and falters, my hand finds her waist to steady her.

Thumbs graze the bare skin where her tank rides up. Pause there, rubbing slow, deliberate circles along the dip of her waist.Up. Down. The skin there is soft, warm—so much softer than mine.

She stands, straightening with the cream in her hand.

Turns slowly.

Her face is close.

Real fuckin close.

So close I can count the few freckles on the bridge of her nose.

Everything feels like foreplay now…

“Thanks,” her mouth seems to say.

Nova leans closer, tits brushing against my chest, lips pressing along my jawline, a whisper of a touch that sets everything inside me on fire.

We’re in the grocery store for fuck’s sake—it’s not supposed to be arousing. Is it?

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nova

By the time I pull into my spot and kill the engine, my hands are still tingling. Not from nerves, exactly. From memory.

Luca’s headlights fade behind me as he parks in the space across the lot intended for guests; I don’t move right away. I sit there, gripping the steering wheel like it might ground me, like it can hold back the flood of everything I’m trying not to replay in vivid, aching detail.

His hands on my waist.

The rough brush of his knuckles grazing my skin.

The way he leaned in behind me like his body belonged pressed against mine…

And God, the way his voice cracked when he told me to stop teasing him.

His command was so weak. The literal exactoppositeof stop.

He wants me so bad.

An excited shiver works its way up my spine, and I press my lips together as I glance over at the grocery bags Luca set on my passenger seat.

“Get it together—stop being nervous,” I tell myself. “You invited him to your place. Youstartedthis.”

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