Page 62 of Wish Lists and Road Trips

My God. This is really happening.My heart was a fireworks display. I lifted my butt, and Nick peeled the pants off of my damp skin, down my legs, letting them drop with a wet thunk onto the floor.

We stared at each other, him naked from the waist up, me in just my underwear from the waist down. My stomach was a swirling ball of nerves and affection and pure lust. I wanted this man so bad it hurt, and I knew by the drunk look on his face that he wanted me too.

I’d been sleeping next to a man for years, but I’d never been looked at like this—with such hunger. I’d given up on ever having a moment like this.

Nick climbed up to sit beside me and this close to him, I could hardly believe the color of his eyes. They were other-worldly and they were staring right into my soul.

“Why are you looking at me like that, weirdo?” I forced a playful smile even though I was more than a little intimidated.

“Because you’re beautiful and you’re not wearing any pants.”

I burst into a laugh. That was exactly what I needed to calm the butterflies in my stomach—Nick being blunt, joking, being my friend. This was the same man who said he liked my face and made it sound like a sonnet. Who took a punch for me in a dark parking lot and slept on my shoulder. Who let me sit with him during what was probably one of the hardest moments of his life.

Suddenly all of my nerves evaporated like a candle being blown out and I pulled to my knees, throwing one leg over his lap to straddle him.

Nick tugged my hips until we were chest to chest, pushing at the hem of my oversized hoodie. “Can I take this off?”

I nodded and he stripped it over my head, quick and clumsy. My hair got caught and he made a little growl of frustration as he worked to untangle it.

“Look at you,” he breathed when he finally tossed the shirt on the floor. I was perched on his lap in just a tank top and purple cotton boy shorts. He leaned back and dragged his eyes over my body—my small chest, my slightly-too-big-for-my-frame butt, my non-existent abs. His pupils were black, his breath shallow, and I felt that crown reappear. Nick was checking me out and he liked what he saw.

“I’ve thought about this,” he said, his voice low and rough. “Have you thought about this, Brit?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “Last night at the hotel, I wanted you to stay.”

“You have no idea how much I wanted to.”

He kissed me again, that tenderness from before giving way to a hunger that we’d both just admitted to. Nick tugged my lip with his teeth, hands pushing beneath my tank top to wrap around my rib cage. I spread my knees, dipping to brush against the hardness in his jeans.

His eyes rolled back. “Fuck.”

“Are you going to take your pants off too? Please? Take your pants off, Nick.”

He chuckled against my ear, easily lifting me off his lap. I watched as he unbuckled his belt and slid down his zipper. I’d already felt what he had hiding in there, but to see it was a whole other thing. Sean wasn’t small, or so I thought. I didn’t have much to compare it to. But Nick was much bigger.

He saw my eyes bulge and he gave me a wicked smirk.Oh my God, this man.He may not know his face should have poems written about it, but he knew what he was packing.

“Should I be scared?” I asked, only half joking.

His burst of surprised laughter briefly cut through the heady tension we’d built, but then he cupped my chin, bringing my eyes to his. I had to force myself not to blink away from the intensity. “I’ll be so careful,” he whispered. “I thought about that too, how careful I’d be at first.”

My belly swooped. “At first?”

He licked his lips and his eyes dropped to my chest. “Until you ask me not to be.”

I shivered, affection and want making me sway.

Nick shoved his jeans off, and I was back on his lap with just two thin layers of cotton between us. I could feel him pressed between my legs, hot and solid, and I rolled my hips, chasing friction while we kissed. His hands were everywhere, beneath my ass squeezing, pushing up under my tank top, thumbs stroking my stomach. I could have been kissed by him for hours but I was drenched and buzzing from the anticipation. “Touch me. Please?”

He groaned with what I assumed was restraint. “I’m definitely going to do that.”

“Nick. Now.”

Something on his face broke and he wrapped an arm around me, flipping us so I was on my back. He barely had enough room to pull to his knees above me. Even with my bunk tucked away, he had to hunch his shoulders. He propped his fist on the mattress beside my head, his other hand darting to the waistband of my underwear.

“That T-shirt you had on the other day,” he said. “The one you knotted, showing off your stomach. It’s been haunting my dreams.”

“I like that,” I said. “Being in your dreams.”

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