Page 59 of Take Me Home

Ash shot one. It landed in the ring around the center.

She looked impressed then forcibly unimpressed. “I guess you’ll do.”

Somewhere in the shadows, Travis was probably laughing his ass off, but Ash decided to go with it anyway. He’d seen enough rom-coms to know how this part was supposed to go. “Shut up and turn around.”

She gaped at this. But then…she straightened and did it.

He slid in close behind her, nudged her heel forward with the toe of his boot, shifted her hips. Leaning in close, he murmured in her ear, “Not so tense,” as he pressed his palm flat to one shoulder blade. Reflexively, she rolled back into his touch. He positioned her elbow then reached around to adjust her grip on the dart, his fingers curling around hers.

She looked from their fingers to his face and chuffed a breathy laugh. They were dangerously close to breaking their cover, the flimsy charade of it all. She knew what he was doing, and he felt borderline stupid doing it. But he didn’t flinch at her scrutiny, and instead of rolling her eyes at him, she bit into her full lower lip and leaned ever-so-slightly back against his chest.

“I think she gets the idea,” Derek said, coming up behind them.

Ash stepped back. She threw the dart. It landed closer to center than his own, and her hands flew up in victory, smile breaking wide.

Travis returned, and they split into teams. He’d have liked to team up with Hazel, but he was beginning to understand that her preferred method of flirting was trash talk. “Maybe I should be teaching you,” she crowed. He feigned exasperation, which made her smile. A dance they knew the steps to.

Despite being in competition, Ash managed to stay close to Hazel. Their arms brushed as they waited for Travis and Derek to shoot. She swatted at his chest when he gloated, which he did only because she wanted him to, because it made her green eyes flare with something fierce and free. After a bad throw, she chucked him under his chin and said, “Aw, better luck next time, Campbell.” And by their second game, after Hazel and Derek won the first, she was openly cheating, nudging the toe of her boot into the back of his knee or reaching around to cover his eyes with her hands.

“Get a room,” Travis hollered, and she didn’t blush or hide her face, just openly stared at Ash so long he nearly asked,Should we?

Something unreadable passed over her expression, like he’d actually said this out loud, and she grabbed a fistful of his shirt, dragging him into the hall that led to an ancient payphone, the bathrooms, and an emergency exit.

It was finally happening.

Hazel backed herself flat against the wall and yanked him in against her, leaving no question that she wanted it, wanted him. “Damn it,” she breathed. She pressed her face into his neck, right under his chin, a puff of warm breath tickling his throat. “Ash.”

He laughed—he felt just as wild-eyed as she looked—but it came out as a grunt. He braced one hand on the wall above her shoulder, skated the other from her hip up her side, catching the hem of her cropped sweater, ghosting warm skin, and continuingup to her neck, where he threaded his fingers into her hair and tilted her face up to his. No more dancing around each other. No more toeing the line. They couldn’t pretend any longer that they weren’t dying to rip each other’s clothes off. He dipped down and caught her mouth in a firm kiss.

Yearshe’d waited, studying that sexy little dip of her cupid’s bow, wondering what her mouth would feel like, taste like, and the answer wasperfect.Peachy and sweet from her drink. Soft and a bit tentative. Then, he felt her whole body melt further into the kiss, into him, and he couldn’t help himself, couldn’t believe this was finally happening, couldn’t go slow anymore—and maybe never again. He deepened the kiss, a little reckless, a little rough, until a groan in the back of her throat snapped him to his senses.

When he pulled away, already breathing hard, already aching to kiss her again, a whole emotional journey passed over her face—surprise, confusion, hesitation, then clear as day, desire.

She released his shirt and pulled his mouth back down to hers. The first kiss seemed to have caught her off guard. Maybe she’d expected him to swerve to safety at the last second yet again. But this time, she came for him confidently, greedily, her tongue exploring, her hips tilting into his. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, pulling her to him at every possible point. He wanted to be all over her. He wanted to somehow envelop her so completely that she became a part of him.

“This—” He tore his mouth from hers to kiss her cheek, her neck, her collarbone. He cradled her face. “This is what I wanted.”

Chapter

Thirteen

“I wanted you in that dressing room.” His words came breathless and broken in her ear.

Hazel pressed herself shamelessly against him, hooked her hands up over the backs of his broad shoulders and tugged, needing him closer.

“In that bird room the other night,” he went on. “Christ, in that dress that never stays on your shoulder.” He yanked the neck of her sweater over to mouth at the skin beside her bra strap. The soft, velvety warmth and scratch of stubble made her head swim.

A toilet flushed from behind one of the bathroom doors.

Ash buried his face into her shoulder and groaned. “So many better places we could have done this.” Drawing in a slow, deliberate breath, he straightened to search her eyes. His thumbs drew up either side of her neck, the touch melting her even as he gently moved her back a step from him. He was tense all over, fingertips pressing impatiently into the nape of her neck, then releasing.

Hazel wanted to kiss him again for it, for how he showed that he wanted her, for how he wanted it to be right. But she also couldn’t look at him, dread slowly ebbing in.

“You okay?”

She toed up and pressed her lips to his cheek, stalling.

He leaned back on his heels. “Talk to me.” His voice was stronger now, nearly back under control.

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