Page 53 of Coping Skills

“Really.” One corner of his mouth turned up in a sexy half smile. She’d missed that half smile. And his full smile, too. It had been too long since she’d seen either one.

He reached for her, pulling her in and brushing a kiss over her lips. “I’ve missed you so fucking much.”

“I’ve missed you too.” She cupped his face in her hands, bringing his mouth to hers once more.

He kissed her, but not for as long as she wanted before he pulled away. “Wait. I need—“ He closed his eyes, his jaw flexing. When he opened his eyes again, he rested his forehead against hers. “If we’re going to do this again, we need to do it right. That means dating first, learning how to be in a relationship together before we take the next step.”

She pulled back, her eyes going back and forth between his. He looked so sincere and tortured, and she could see this was important to him. “Okay. We’ll date. And I’ll wait for you to decide when you want to go further.”

He groaned, kissing her again, this time more than the chaste brush of his lips against hers. His tongue licked at her lips, and she opened for him, sliding her tongue against his. His arms locked around her, one hand holding her head in place, the way she loved him to do.

When he broke away, they were both breathless, and she was straddling him, his cock hard between her thighs. He let out another groan, his head falling back on the couch, peeking at her out of one half-closed eye. “You’re going to make it really hard for me to stick to that plan, aren’t you?”

She snort-laughed. “You said hard.”

He let out a groan again, this time in dismay at her juvenile joke, but it broke the mood, which was what she’d been going for. She climbed off his lap, standing in front of him. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist. But yeah, I don’t think this’ll be easy. Maybe we should plan on only being together in public for a while.”

The wide smile that took over his face, his teeth standing out in contrast with his gorgeous, dark brown skin, eased some of her own frustration. “I’m going to enjoy taking you out. Especially since you never let me do that before.”

Her answering smile turned sad at his words. “I’m really sorry about that. I—“

He stood, his hands going to her face, forcing her eyes to meet his. “Hey. No. Enough apologies. I forgive you. You need to forgive yourself. We’re going to do this right this time.”

She nodded as much as she could with his hands cupping her cheeks. “Okay,” she whispered.

A wicked smile came over his face, his voice dropping lower. “And just think, after all the foreplay we’ll be doing, it’ll be explosive when I’m finally inside you again.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “If you want that to be at some point in the future, we really need to stop talking about this and either invite Hannah and Matt back in here—who, by the way, have been listening in on all of this from the kitchen—or go out to eat. Something. But you can’t keep saying things like that and looking at me like that if you don’t want me to stick my hand down your pants.”

His eyes closed as he made a sound in his throat that was half sexy growl, half groan of anticipation. He kissed her hard and fast, then took three big steps back, running his hands over his face. “Fine. Would you rather hang here with your roommates or go out?”

Grinning, she thought for a second. “Let’s go out. I’ve missed you too much. I just want to spend time with you.”

He rewarded her with another big smile. “Sounds good.”

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