Page 36 of Half-Hearted
“Joel, I haven’t been able to so much asthinkabout another man in lord knows how long. Are you kidding m—”
He kissed me.
I froze for the briefest of moments, too surprised to react. And then, slowly, my body began to melt into him. My eyes fluttered shut, my hands sliding up his chest to link together behind his neck, bringing him closer.
I couldn’t remember it too well, the kiss from that night. Everything had been fuzzy, swirling and spinning with alcohol. A hot, drunken blur of lips and hands.
Andwow, had I missed out.
Joel took his time, teasing me with gentle brushes of his lips, strokes of his tongue. It was slow. Careful. Until it wasn’t. Until I let out a moan of pure bliss in response to the first daring plunge of his tongue, and it seemed to set everything on fire.
I was lifted off my feet, pressed to the wall, and we were clutching each other, mouths moving with increasingly fevered desperation. Until Ineededhim on top of me, inside me, like I needed oxygen.
And, of course, that’s exactly when he pulled away. I almost groaned. “What the hell? Why are we stopping?”
“Let’s go back to my place,” he suggested breathlessly. His voice was so hoarse I barely recognized it.
What?
“Ethan won’t be back for two hours,” I reminded him.
He nipped at my bottom lip, sending needy little sparks through me with his gaze. “Not nearly fucking enough.”
* * *
We stumbledinto Joel’s apartment in a flurry of fumbling hands and tangled tongues.
He’d lost a shirt somewhere. The hallway, maybe. The jeans needed to go, too, so I reached for them with shaking fingers, unbuttoning and unzipping clumsily, teasing out a smooth, sexy groan from the pit of his throat.
I was going to combust, and we weren’t even naked yet.
His bedroom door shut with a louder bang than he probably intended, and less than a second later, I was pinned against it, legs secured around his waist.
He tore my shirt off over my head, then twisted my ponytail around his fist and pulled my head back, hungry mouth moving to my fully exposed neck, and holyfuck, more of that,please. “This is so much better than I even imagined,” I rasped.
I swear to god, the man growled. “When you touched yourself, thinking about me?”
My fingers dug into his bare, muscled shoulders as he continued to trail nips and kisses across my throat. I could barely breathe. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about that.”
“Change of plans.” He pulled his head back, gaze searing into mine. “How many times?”
My heart was slamming so hard in my chest that I barely heard the words when I spoke them. “I don’t know. Lost count.”
He cursed under his breath, jaw strained so tight I thought it might crack. Then he asked, “What were we doing?”
I swallowed with a little smirk. “Whatever you wanted. However you wanted it. I got off on being your little plaything.” His mouth dropped open, his eyes glassy. Encouraged by the reaction, I gave him a little more honesty. “And you weren’t always… gentle when you fucked m—”
He shut me up with a deep, sizzling kiss that curled my toes and melted my thoughts.
“I love you. Fuck, I love you so much,” he rasped, voice grave with desperation as he whipped us around. We tumbled onto his bed with our mouths attached, peeling off more layers until I was panting up at him in my mismatched black sports bra and red thong.
“It’s your turn,” I said as he tossed his jeans across the room. “You never answered me. Have you ever thought about me?”
He toyed with the front zipper of my sports bra, foggy eyes traveling over my body. “Alexis. I haven’t been able to think about anyonebutyou for almost two torturous years now. You’ve fucking ruined me.”
My heart soared with pure glee. It was the second time he’d said it. That I’druinedhim. “Details, Joel. If I had to share, so do you.”
The grin he flashed me in response was positively devilish. “Why talk about the fantasy when I’m about to live it?” He practically purred the words, his hands trailing from my chest down, down, down.
