Page 2 of Half-Hearted
“What’re you doing here?” He craned his neck to look at the round wall clock behind him. “It’s two in the morning. Everything okay?”
No, everything wasn’tokay.
It was fan-fucking-tastic. I couldn’twaitto tell him about my epiphany. Or, better yet, show him.
“Hi,” I chirped, giving him my best, widest, most seductive smile.
He blinked, drowsy eyes meandering down my black cocktail dress. They stopped at my feet. “Uh—where are your shoes?”
That wasn’t even close to being important right now.
What was important was him. Me.Us.
So I did the one and only thing that made any sense. The one thing I should have done a long,longtime ago. I threw my arms around his neck, pulled him down, and after seventeen long, angst-filled years of yearning, I finally kissed Joel Bennett.
2
Joel
I’d never hada lucid dream before.
I’d heard of them, knew what they were all about, but I’d never actually experienced one firsthand.
It was surprisingly… unsurprising.
Because of course, after seventeen months of lusting and longing for the one chick who was completely and entirely off limits, my brain had finally snapped and started manifesting her in my dreams.
Not that I was complaining. At all.
Alexis Milani showing up at my doorstep in the middle of the night, wearing a black minidress that hugged every single inch of her delicious curves, then throwing her arms around me and pulling me in for a kiss? Pure fantasy fodder.
Dream Alexis didn’t have shoes on, though, and I didn’t know whether that was a subconscious foot fetish awakening thing or just a random dream inconsistency. But that didn’t matter either. Not when the lush, full lips I’d grown agonizingly obsessed with were finally pressed right against mine.
I should have felt guilty about it. Because this was every bit as wrong in my subconscious as it would’ve been in real life. But I really couldn’t find it in me to care.
I reacted purely on instinct, wrapping my arms around her small frame as my head tilted into the perfect, warm plush of her kiss. I pulled her body closer and almost groaned.
She was so fuckingsoft.Every last tormentingly unattainable inch of her. Even in my dreams. It was enough to drive a man out of his goddamn mind.
My tongue brushed across her lips, seeking permission. Dream Alexis tasted like sugar and lime, and I’d never be able to eat either of those two things again without inspiring an instant semi.
Well fucking worth it, I thought as her lips parted with a tiny sigh.
This whole thing was so brilliantly…vivid. I could feel every curve and bend of her, the heat of her body against mine. I could smell her fresh, signature scent. And I could taste sweet lime on her tongue, mixed with the sharp bite of something that tasted a hell of a lot like… like…
Tequila.
My eyes flew open.
My brain fired to life.
No. Nonononono.
I jerked myself away, hands flying from her hips to her shoulders so I could move her to a steady, safe arm’s length.
Alexis—real-life Alexis—blinked back at me, all dazed and confused and… completely wasted.
Fuck.
