Then, they disappeared down the porch steps and into the night. Maisey shut the door, locked it, and turned to lean up against it while looking at me across the expanse of the great room.
“Sorry,” she breathed out.
Damn, did she look delightful. She was in nothing more than yoga pants and a tank that clung to the delightful curves I’d gotten a full view of earlier.
Before I could really think it through, I was crooking a finger and saying, “You’ll have to come closer for me to hear you, darlin’.”
The thready beat of my heart echoed through other parts of me, overpowering any other thoughts but the one that whispered I should finally relieve my desperate need for her.
Maisey wobbled as she slowly tottered her way across the room to me. When she got close enough, she made a detour, rounding the table to start picking up glasses and plates.
“Sorry,” she repeated. “I didn’t know they were coming. And Andiewas insistent on talking about the wedding, and then she said everyone was talking about how we weren’t really—”
I stopped her rambling by stepping into her path and pressing a finger to her lips. The contact sparked like it had earlier, heat licking up my arm. With that soft mouth against my skin, I felt seared and yet somehow more alive than I’d ever felt before.
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Maise. Not for having your friends here or greeting me at the door with a kiss.” My pulse raced. “Truth is, coming home to you that way… I liked it. I wanted it. I wanted more.”
I trailed off, unable to finish as my breath disappeared as usual, but I was amazed when, after a few seconds, the tension in my lungs eased, and the air cleared.
“I think we should reconsider our position,” I told her.
“Are you drunk?” she asked, sweet lips moving against my fingertip.
I wanted to laugh as she’d expected, wanted to shift back to the taunts we were so accustomed to handing each other. But I couldn’t. Not when the longing I had for her, the absolute necessity to taste her before I lost the chance for good, was this large. It was too big to be denied any longer.
I withdrew my hand from her lips, and I wanted to believe it was disappointment that crossed her face. Instead of backing off, I grasped a single, silky strand of her hair that had escaped her ponytail and wrapped it slowly around my finger.
“I had one beer at Frank’s, so no, I’m not drunk. Are you?”
“Drunk is a really strong word. I would say, I have a good buzz going.”
My entire body yearned to give her a different kind of high. One that had her panting and chanting and calling my name.
Her stare bored into mine. “It would be a shame to waste this kind of buzz, don’t you think?”
The electricity notched up between us, zipping and zapping, scouring my soul.
When I didn’t respond, when I couldn’t because I was fighting with everything I had to hold back and not sweep her into my arms, stalk with her to my room, and toss her on the bed, she closed down.
“Or maybe Iamreally drunk. Just ignore me.”
She started to move away, and I couldn’t let her do that. Couldn’t let her feel like I was rejecting her. Couldn’t let her think she wasn’t enough when she was so much more than that. So, I caught her around the waist and hauled her to me. She let out a quiet shriek I ignored, turning to set her on the island before stepping between her legs so she couldn’t escape.
My entire body went hard at the position and the accompanying flare ofdesire in her eyes. When she licked her lips in nervous anticipation, a rumble escaped my chest.
“You want a real buzz, my Maisey-girl?” I asked.
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t respond.
“I can give you the best buzz of your life. Right here, right now.”
She gulped, darting a look down the hall to where her father was tucked away in my guest room. And I proved once again I was a bastard, because it didn’t matter to me that he was there. All I could think about was putting my hands on Maisey and seeing her flush at my touch. I wanted her soft and trembling, undone by my fingers, my mouth—by me.
I wanted to lose myself in her, even knowing that doing so was fraught with pitfalls I’d carefully avoided since I was a teenager.
Her eyes closed as I trailed my finger over her cheek, down her throat, and along the swell of a breast peeking out of the tank. Goosebumps broke out over her skin, and her nipples pebbled just as they had earlier in her room. It had taken all my strength to walk away from her then. I simply let myself revel in it now, indulging myself by brushing a hand over a hard little tip. She gasped, hands going to my wrists as if to push me away, but she didn’t.
“Look at me, Maisey,” I demanded.