Page 28 of Holidate Fail
The wings brushed one of his nipples, and he groaned, his hips searching for warmth as he pulled that sweetness on top of his ready body, seeking and stroking and squeezing.
A shriek broke the trance, and he jacked up into a sitting position. Dahlia scrambled next to him, clutching the blankets to her chest.
Oh, God. “I’m sorry!” he proclaimed at the same time she did. “I was sleeping, I’m sorry. Until you touched me.”
“No, I’m sorry. I’m the one who—”
“I never would have—”
“It’s just that my cheek…and my hands, and your body. Wow, your body.” Dahlia paused and took a breath, her grip on the sheets loosening while her other hand covered her face. “It’s fine. We’re fine.”
“I never would have touched you without permission.” Never, ever. He had longed to touch her, to feel her soft skin and kiss her cute nose, but only if she was awake and on board.
“Which is what I did to you,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Kelly was quiet for a moment, staring at her while she blinked up at him. He shouldn’t want her. His best friend’s sister. With her kissable lips and curves until next week and her way-too-smart- brain. He shouldn’t.
But he did anyway. “I didn’t mind. When you stroked me.” His voice came out rough. Gravelly. “In fact, I liked it. A lot.”
Her quick intake of breath had his cock hardening. He wanted to hold and kiss and cuddle. He wanted to run his rough hands under the shirt she clutched to her body like it was a life jacket and she in the stormy seas. And he wanted to make her feel good, to show her how enticing she was.
Future be damned. He held out a hand in invitation.
Her brother’s scowling face filled his mind for a moment, but Kelly quickly kicked him out the door. There was room only for him and Dahlia.
“I…” Dahlia stopped and swallowed. Her tongue swiftly wet her lower lip right before she worried it with her teeth. “I don’t know what’s happening here.”
“Well,” Kelly said. He never had to be as direct with anyone else as he had to be with Dahlia, but just saying the words felt like the beginning of foreplay. “I was hoping I could kiss you.”
“Kiss. Me?”
“You’re the only one here.”
Her eyes flashed. He’d chalk that up under the wrong thing to say.
“So you’ll have to make due? First, it’s you’d never touch me and now you would because I’m the only one here.” She flung herself back to the pillow. One arm covered her eyes. “Movies don’t cover this scenario, Kelly. Or people like me.”
Her meek voice killed him, just knifed his gut. “People like…I don’t know what you mean.”
“No one ever does.”
He digested her words. “I’d like to change that.”
She peeked at him through the space of her elbow.
“I mean…I’ve been thinking about when this scavenger hunt is over, when I can text you and see if you wanted to meet for drinks.” Aw, hell. “It’s been you for me since we connected at Fountenoy Hall.”
“Not before, huh?”
“When you were reading all the time and only spoke when you were helping me with math? Yeah, not before.”
She lowered her arm and stared hard at him for a few moments, but he held steady. Oh, to be under her scrutiny, when she raked her direct gaze down his body and graced him with a rare smile.
Stop it.
“It’s been me for you?”
“If you’ll have me.”
