“I had the best time tonight, by the way,” she said, her hair falling around us as she looked down at me. “Seriously.”
“Ditto,” I said, giving in to the urge to let my fingers slide along her jawline. She inhaled sharply in surprise, but she didn’t move. We both stayed still for a moment, like we were unsure how to proceed while in her childhood bed—not the king-sized mattress we were used to—but then it didn’t matter.
In an instant, the close proximity was too much.
It felt like it had been building up throughout the entire zombie experience, the two of us against the world, and now we were free to explore every little bit of what that meant.
As I looked up at her, I was pummeled with feelings, like everything I thought about her all the damn time was hitting me at the same moment; the way she smelled, the way her eyes lit up when she laughed, the way she talked about her family; how she tried to be strong and independent but let herself lean on me; howIcould lean on her so easily.
Everything about her came together at once, punching me square in the chest with so much need that I had to grit my teeth against it. I wouldn’t have been able to come up with words if I’d wanted to speak, but then her eyes dipped to my mouth and I knew I didn’t have to.
My mouth found hers and it was done.
We were kissing, drowning, only there was too much need to call it a kiss. It was like our mouths were battling, yet somehow moving as one. One taste of her lips and I was locked in, engulfedin heat and raw desire as my hands slid into the back of her hair to hold her even closer, if that was possible.
“Thank you for being so good at this,” she said against my mouth, her voice soft and breathy as she set her hands on my chest and kissed me back like a fucking goddess. “You make me a little weak, Connor Cunningham.”
I shifted so she was half underneath me, obsessed with the way she met me kiss for kiss, the way her lips were deliciously swollen, the way her eyes clouded over with desire. I could barely breathe as I felt every contour of her body pressed against me; it made me fucking crazy. We were in a preposterously tiny bed with a One Direction poster behind us, and I’d never wanted anyone as much as I wanted her in that moment.
“Well, you fucking destroy me, Distefano,” I said as I lowered my head and set my teeth on the skin of her delicate throat. “So that only seems fair.”
I swear to God I’d never felt this way before, like it would be physically painful to stop kissing her or touching her.
And it was like that every time we were together. My hands were all over her body, sliding over curves while searching for sighs, and hers were all over mine in a way that had me uttering curses under my breath like a fucking sailor.
It became a desperate race to remove clothing, to get closer, to be as close as it was possible for two people to be. The bed was too small, the room too bright, but nothing mattered because she was there, whispering my name and urging me formore.
Duffy was the center of my universe, her sweet lips and soft fingertips the only things I cared to focus on.
Which explained why I hadn’t heard the noises outside of her room.
“Cunningham!”
Oh, fuck.
Tony’s voice cut through the haze and I shot up like I’d been Tasered.
“Oh shit, it’s my dad,” Duffy gasped, scrambling out from underneath me.
“Connor, you gotta go,” he yelled through the door.
“Dad!” Duffy yelled, sounding like an annoyed teenager.
“I know you’re an adult, Duff, but it’s my house and I just can’t have you alone in your room with a boy.”
As I helped Duffy retrieve clothing, I snorted in spite of it all, because this situation was too ridiculous.
“Okay, first of all, I don’t have a boy in my room; I have amanin my room,” she said.
“Terrible clarification,” I muttered, amused even as I worried Tony was going to shoot me in the face when I opened the door.
“And second of all, Iaman adult. I’m allowed to have adult friends over.”
“I was actually just about to take off,” I said, climbing off the bed and grabbing my shirt from the floor. I wrestled with it, trying to find the neck hole and get it over my head before her dad burst into the room.
“You don’t have to go,” Duffy said, failing to maintain her look of annoyance as she bit her lip to keep from laughing.
“I know, but it’s Tony’s house,” I said, reaching for the door.I needed to get out of the room, to where Tony could see I wasn’t touching his daughter.