Page 75 of Code Word
I snorted. “Shut up. I need to know if I’m looking for a new place. Because you told me at the cabins you needed me to move out, so does that still stand? Are we not gonna live together anymore?”
He clearly found something amusing. “Well, yeah of course we are. And I didn’t tell you to move out. I just needed some time without you. I was trying to go cold turkey, remember?”
I wish I had something to throw at him. “Mm. Don’t remind me. Worst week of my life.”
“And anyway,” he said in a moving-right-along tone. “A new place for us to move into will be a fresh start. A new place we have no history in, no memories of our exes.”
I closed my eyes again. “Sounds good.”
Sounded perfect, actually. Definitely couldn’t be hit in the face with any memories of me dating his sister if we had a new place.
“Something way smaller. Like the size of this place,” he mused quietly. “With just one bedroom. That way you’re clear on where I stand on the living-together arrangements and whether I want that.”
My heart knocked against my ribs and I cracked my eyelids open so I could see his face, his cheeks pink, smile shy.
“One bedroom, huh?” I murmured.
He smirked and began to strum again as if he hadn’t just said we’d be sleeping together, sharing a bed together every night.
I took in his body, from his bare feet, his legs, up to his blue swim shorts and the white muscle shirt that showed off his shoulders, his biceps. His muscular forearms, his talented hands...
Damn.
“You know,” I said, “you’re so tragically far away.”
He tried not to grin as he kept strumming. “Tragically, huh?”
“So very far away from me,” I whined. I opened my arm for him. “When you could be over here with me. We could be snoozing together right now, but alas...”
He mis-strummed and his eyes lit up with humor. “Alas? Did you just say alas?”
I nodded, very seriously. “Alas, indeed I did.”
He put his guitar on his lounge chair and joined me on mine, lying down with me, using the crook of my arm as his pillow. His sun-warmed body was divine, his scent of deodorant lingering with the saltwater dried on his skin.
“Is this better?” he asked, voice low.
My nerves were buzzing through me, anticipation and longing warring with the desire to kiss him. I tried to make a noise of assent, but it came out as a grunt, and Luke raised his face to look at me. He began to smile... until he saw my face.
I took a hold of his jaw and pulled him up so I could crash my mouth to his. His surprise melted away and he opened his lips, taking my kiss.
My tongue.
The sound he made was guttural and it lit me up inside.
Sparks, desire, pure need.
All of it.
I led this kiss, my hand to his face, my tongue in his mouth, devouring him. He tasted like papaya and heaven. I couldn’t get enough...
I wanted him.
Him. A man.
Luke.
He trailed his hand over my chest, up to my neck, pulling me closer, pulling me down on top of him.
