Page 56 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
Electricity crackled around the room. Zipping back and forth between us as James took a step, then another, toward me. The air thrummed with anticipation as he stood close enough to touch.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The quietness of my words made me wonder if I’d actually spoken them at all.
“I don’t really know,” James replied as he reached out. His fingers, feather-light, traced the curve of my cheekbone. “I just knew I couldn’t let our evening end so soon.”
My eyes drifted to the windows overlooking the pool. The reflection of the lights on the blue water outside painted the night sky. “But Roxie and Sebastian?”
“Sebastian came back in for a second beer. I think they’re going to be out there for a while.”
His fingers dipped from my cheekbone, down to theline of my jaw. Then the slope of my throat before tracing my collarbone. “You. Are. So. Beautiful.”
He whispered each word into the quiet room.
“What are you doing?” I asked again. I froze, afraid of what was about to happen and afraid of when he’d stop.
“Touching you.” His breath hit my neck, warm and slightly musky, as his nose brushed against my skin.
A nervous flutter pulsed in my fingertips as my hands shook, yearning to reach out and touch him. I’d been so shocked when he’d kissed me last week that I hadn’t even reached out to run my hands over the hard planes of his body. But this time, James reached down and gently took my hands in his, the warmth of his skin a comfort as our fingers laced together.
I knew what was about to happen. I realized as James took the last tiny step forward, so our chests touched, that this was an inevitable ending for the two of us.
“Why?” Now it was my voice trembling instead of my hands.
“Because I’ve decided that I’m tired of holding back.” James gently released my hands, his touch lingering, before cupping my face in his palms. “But I’m not making another move if this isn’t something you want, too.”
What did I want?
I wanted to write about things that I actually cared about.
I wanted to make enough money to afford a place that was bigger than the primary closet in this place.
I wanted to continue seeing all this world offered.
I wanted to be happy.
So I reached out, slowly at first. My teeth sunk into mybottom lip, a nervous habit as my fingers brushed against the rough stubble of his jaw. A gasp escaped James’s lips as I encircled his neck, and he froze, not daring to move a muscle. His eyes fluttered closed, eyelashes brushing against the apples of his cheeks.
“What am I doing?” I hadn’t even realized I’d spoken the words until James replied.
“Touching me.”
The silence stretched, a fragile thread connecting us.
As soon as I crushed my lips to his, the moment snapped, leaving a frenzy in its place.
20
James
The moment that Hallie’s lips touched mine, life was breathed back into me. Kissing her was unlike any other experience I’d ever had. Both times I’d kissed her nearly brought me to my knees. Hallie was taking her time. Her hands exploring my chest. Then my back as her fingers dug into the muscles there. My hands shook at my sides as I did everything I could to be patient. To not reach out and scare her away by moving too quickly.
My chest ached and my heart throbbed as she pulled back, her eyes searching mine for something she apparently didn’t find because she reached back up on her tiptoes to press her lips against mine again.
This time, it wasn’t me devouring her. This time, she was voraciously consuming everything in her path. Just under one week after our first, I got to kiss Hallie Woods again and somehow it was impossibly better this time around.
Hallie’s hands smoothed up my chest and back around to the nape of my neck, where she pulled at the hair just long enough for her to get a grip on. The moment she pulled me in closer to her, the rest of my resolve snapped. My thumbs found her cheekbones as our lips hungrily devoured each other.
We kissed.
