Page 21 of Head Over Wheels

‘Lore,’ he said softly, his palm snaking around the back of my neck and his forehead dropping to mine. Longing flared up inside me – but for what? His warm hand was unbearable and necessary on my skin, but a deep restlessness rose up inside me as well. ‘We stay friends, yes?’ It was a condition, not a question.

‘Yes.’

‘I look after you, you look after me. Friends,’ he repeated,this time tilting his head and drawing close enough that his breath feathered my lips. I would have said just about anything to get him to kiss me.

‘Yes!’

His hand slid from my neck to my face, his other hand coming up to my jaw and I had a moment of fear that everything was about to change and any promises we made could end up dust. But he came solemnly nearer, holding me still and, with a slow, purposeful movement, his mouth tasted mine.

I was making a mistake. The ache that started up inside me should have warned me off, but the soothing brush of his lips, the relief that swept through me when he increased the pressure and teased me with the tip of his tongue, pushed out my concerns in a heartbeat.

It might be a mistake later, but right now, the kiss was everything.

Chapter 9

Seb

The moment was a littletooreal. That instinctive, unpremeditated kiss we’d shared in my room had been fun – an adrenaline rush, a rollercoaster of discovery – but this kiss was soft and scared and achingly slow.

A light tremor rippled through her, scattering my thoughts. I needed air, but I needed her mouth more, so I stayed where I was, my consciousness gradually overtaken by sensations: heat, pressure, tenderness, the tug of her lips and the first brushes of her tongue against mine.

Fisting my hands in the thick towel at her waist, I pulled her towards me and she came with a ragged exhale, one hand sliding into my hair as her knees landed on either side of me and then my mind blanked again when she kissed me – hard and deep this time.

My blood rushed and time elapsed too quickly as she pulled my bib straps off my shoulders and trailed her hands down my chest, her mouth hot and inevitable on mine. Panting,my vision losing focus, I dropped my head to her collarbone. The freckles weren’t as dense on her body as on her face, but they were my new favourite thing and I breathed her in, teasing her skin with my lips and tongue until she clutched my head and arched against me.

Spring sunshine – that’s what her skin tasted like.

I brushed my lips and teeth at her jaw, over the cartilage of her ear, and she lifted her chin and whimpered – the most wonderful sound I’d heard in my life.

Her towel loosened, slipping to reveal the most beautiful, freckled curves and I pressed soft kisses to her chest while I tugged at the material, chafing gently over her breasts until she was panting too.

‘Fuck,’ she groaned with a shaky gasp, making me smile into her skin. Slipping my hands under the towel, my mouth dried and my heart hammered and the feel of her was so much that I nearly lost it, as her arms came around my neck and she gave an inarticulate moan, her eyes closed.

‘This is already the best sex of my life,’ I muttered in wonder, almost to myself.

‘Don’t stop now,’ she grumbled in reply, drawing another smile to my lips. Coming down hard on my cock, she moved against me, sending white-hot need crackling up my spine.

‘Steady on,’ I choked.

‘Hurry up,’ she replied, reaching for the hem of my base layer and peeling it over my head. Her mouth was hot on my chest and my fingers dug into her thighs as I fought to hold back.

My palms drifting to the curve of her butt, over her hips and into the crease along the top of her thigh, where I suddenly, desperately wanted my tongue, I held her still and teased her with another tug of the towel.

‘If this is the only time I get to enjoy your body, I’m not going to hurry,’ I said in a low voice.

She wanted to make a smart comeback – I could see it in her eye – but my palm skimmed her rib cage and she arched up with a gasp. Lifting my hand higher, I loosened the towel right to the brink, but I didn’t touch her nipples, enjoying the way her breath hitched and caught.

‘You are so beautiful,’ I groaned, swiping her wet hair from her face with one hand, as the other one slowly pulled back the towel to reveal her freckled breasts, her tough, taut body, heaving with need, her skin flushed pink.

‘Shut up,’ she whispered, grabbing my forearms to steady herself. ‘I don’t believe you anyway.’

‘If you don’t believe me, then it doesn’t matter if I say you’re gorgeous when you want me so bad like this.’

She gave me a shove and opened her mouth to say something, but all I had to do was brush my thumb over her nipple and her protest became a strangled moan.

‘I want to suck your nipples until they’re pink and puffed up, but I also want to keep watching you lose your mind,’ I continued, now firmly addicted to the spark in her eye when I babbled nonsense like that out of the depths of my complicated ego.

Plucking her nipple and soothing it gently, I was endlesslygratified when her eyes slammed closed and she lifted her chin – in submission? Desperation? Invitation? I accepted, dragging my lips up her neck as I teased her breasts, ragged, inarticulate sounds emerging from her throat.

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