I grab my phone as I’m walking to my car and type out a text.
My place tonight? Chinese food and a movie?
I slide the phone into my pocket as I dig my keys out of my purse. I climb behind the wheel and set my purse on the passenger seat while I start the car and pull on my seatbelt. Before I’m shifting into drive, my phone dings and I get it back out to read his reply.
I’d love to. I’ll bring the food. You pick the movie.
I smile to myself and reply: I’m thinking The Notebook and orange chicken with fried rice.
Got it.
I toss the phone onto the passenger seat next to my purse and shift into drive, ready to be home to get our little date night started. I arrive and put my things away. I clean up the place a bit, take out the trash, and spray some air freshener so the living room smells warm and inviting. I clear off the coffee table for the food and light some candles to make it a little more cozy. I toss a couple blankets on the couch along with some pillows for snuggling, then go for a shower.
Even though I know there won’t be sex anytime soon, I carefully shave my legs. I wash my hair and face and get out to dry off. I braid my hair and leave it hanging over my shoulder. I pull on a pair of comfy shorts and a tank top. I add a little gloss to my lips and mascara to my lashes. I finish off with a highlighter to make my skin glow. Happy with my appearance, I head back to the living room and turn on the TV to wait. There’s a knock on the door around 6 p.m., and I nearly run to answer it. I pull it open and find Preston on the other side—his arms loaded down with bags of Chinese food. I grab a few things from his hands and lead him to the couch.
We put everything on the coffee table and take our seats. “What all did you get? The whole restaurant?” I joke.
“Pretty much,” he agrees. “I got a little of everything. I figured, why only get one thing when you can have it all?”
I laugh. “I like the way you think.” I grab the remote and turn on the movie. “Have you ever watched this?”
He snorts. “This chick flick? No way.”
“Ohhh, you have no idea what you’ve been missing. It’s so good! I bet you’ll cry.”
“Psh, I’m not a crier. I hate to break it to you.”
“Oh, you’ll cry. It’s impossible not to cry while watching this. If you don’t cry, you’re dead inside.” I glance at him before grabbing a carton of food. I pull my legs up beneath me as the opening scene begins playing out on screen.
“It’s about old people?” he asks, picking at his noodles with his chopsticks.
“Shh, just watch.”
He slowly turns to look at me. “Oh, you’re one of those?”
I pull my brows together in confusion. “One of what?”
“One of those people who can’t stand talking during a movie. You’re going to hate me!”
I laugh. “Can’t keep your mouth shut for a two-hour movie?”
He chuckles. “Oh no. Never in my life has my mouth been shut for that amount of time.”
“I just realized why I’ve never heard Piper talk about you two watching movies.”
“Honestly, you have a better shot than anyone else because I have food to keep my mouth busy.”
I’m dying to say I have another idea of how we could keep your mouth busy, but I hold it back.
“Hey, that’s the old man from that one show,” he says, pointing at the older version of Noah.
I just shake my head while continuing to eat my food and watch the movie.
Preston didn’t lie. He talks through most of the movie, only shutting up when he’s chewing, drinking, or too immersed in the story to say anything, but those instances are few and far between. We finish eating and the food gets put aside as we get comfy on the couch. He lies behind me with his chest pressing against my back. He has one arm under my head and the other wrapped around me. He feels good against my back, with my ass rubbing against his groin whenever one of us moves the slightest bit. I can feel him growing hard against me and it makes the butterflies in my stomach take flight.
I feel like I need to put some distance between us, but something inside me won’t let that happen. I lean forward and grab my drink off the table, taking a small sip before leaning back into him. His hand squeezes my hip when I brush against his bulging lap. I suck in a breath and bite my lower lip. This is the first time all night that I wish I would’ve planned something different for us to do. I mean, sure, it feels great, but now there’s so much more I want to do and I know we’re not there yet.
His hot breath is blowing against my neck and ear, and as hard as I try to focus on the TV, I just can’t do it. My eyes flutter closed so I can enjoy every sensation that much more.
His hand moves around to my stomach and I find myself hoping it moves down. “So, where are we on the ‘no sex rule’?” he whispers in my ear.
I roll to my back and look up at him. The room is dark with only the light from the TV. He looks sexy and dangerous in the low light, with the shadows deepening every hollow spot on his face. “This feels good, Preston. I just don’t know if we’re there yet.”
His head moves up and down slightly, but then he closes the space between our lips. They’re soft and slow and teasing in all the right ways. His tongue darts out to taste me and it dances with my own. My eyes flutter closed as I deepen the kiss. I’m so tightly wound that I’ll take anything I can at this point. I want to go all the way with him, but I feel like that will only complicate things if we’re not where we need to be.
My left leg moves up to drape over his hip as my arms come up to wrap around his neck, holding him to me. His hand moves from the small of my back down to my ass, where it gives a firm squeeze. A soft moan slips past my lips. When that sound escapes, something inside him changes. He’s no longer soft and slow. Now it’s like he’s possessed and isn’t even controlling his actions anymore. He rolls us over so he can slide between my legs, pressing right where I need him, never breaking our kiss. His hips begin to move against me. He pulls them back, then rolls them into me, creating a perfect wave of emotion, pleasure, and confusion inside me.
His mouth breaks free and his lips trail across my jaw and down my neck and chest. His hands move up to cup my breasts over my shirt. But I’m not wearing a bra, only a thin tank top, and I know he can feel how excited the girls are for his attention. His hands squeeze gently, then his thumb runs across the hardened peaks. Lastly, he pinches them softly between his thumb and forefinger. I gasp with pleasure as tingles take over my body, running from my chest to my stomach and then to the junction between my legs.
The next thing I know, my shirt is lifted up, exposing my chest to him. He kisses and sucks and flicks his tongue against my nipples while grinding his hips into me. I can feel my release building. My knees begin to shake on either side of his hips. My toes begin to curl as my breathing picks up.
“Oh,” I breathe out. “Preston, I’m going to . . .”
“Come for me, baby,” he whispers against the skin of my chest.
My nails dig into his back, through his shirt. I squeeze tighter, ready to let my release go. My orgasm builds and rises to new heights before shattering into a million pieces and raining down over my whole body. I’m somewhere floating above myself, no longer in my body. I have no control over the shaking, the panting, the moaning, and the wiggling I seem to be doing. All I can do is ride out every last wave he’s providing. My lungs freeze as my orgasm works its way through my entire body. I feel like I’m drowning, but it’s amazing—like something I’ve never felt before. We’ve had over a week of foreplay at this point, with small touches and innocent kisses. It’s all just added to the mixture to create this perfect masterpiece.
His hips don’t stop moving and his mouth doesn’t stop its assault until my whole body goes still and limp beneath him. Slowly, his hips stop and he removes his mouth from my nipple. His lips come back to mine and he kisses me. It’s a deep kiss—the kind I can feel in my already-tingling toes.
&
nbsp; When he pulls away, I’m completely breathless, with my heart racing so fast I’m sure he can feel it.
“That was fucking beautiful, Riley.” His hand moves from my hip up to my cheek, where he pushes the hair away from my face.
I feel my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I just got off from him grinding against me like we were a couple of teenagers making out. A nervous giggle escapes and I pull my eyes away from his.
“What? Why are you blushing?” he asks, leaning in to quickly kiss my lips and then my jaw.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. I just . . . it’s been a long time since something like this has happened.”
“What do you mean?” he asks, pulling his brows together.
“I mean,” I finally look back at his shining blue eyes, “I don’t usually hold back when it comes to sex. If I want to sleep with someone, I do, and if I don’t, then I don’t want to be with a person who can’t turn me on, you know?”
He nods but still looks confused.
“It’s just that things are complicated with us. Right now, everything is great and fine, but we need to think about the future. I don’t want to complicate the getting-to-know-each-other phase with sex. I want to know that this is real—that this is serious—before telling our friends about us and moving on to the next step. But it’s never been so hard to not have sex before. And this . . .” I laugh. “I haven’t achieved liftoff like this since high school.” The giggles take over again.
He smirks. “Nah, it’s not that you’re easy to get off. It’s just that I’m that good.”
I roll my eyes and laugh at him. “But what about you? I mean, won’t this be a problem for you later?”
“Don’t worry about me, Riley. I could see how wound up you were. Maybe now that we’ve reset the clock, the physical part will be out of the way for a little while so we can just focus on becoming better friends and having fun.”
My mouth drops open. Preston is nothing like what I’ve heard Piper say about him. I would’ve sworn he was your typical playboy—that he was only interested in me for sex, and that he would push until he got what he wanted. But he hasn’t been that way at all. If anything, he’s been patient and giving and considerate. He hasn’t pressured me for sex, and even now that I’ve been taken care of and he hasn’t, he’s still not asking for more. I’m really starting to wonder if Piper even knows the real Preston at all.
“Are you sure? I mean, I could . . .”
He cuts me off by pressing a finger to my lips. “I’m sure about us, Riley. I know what I want and who I want it with. I’m more than happy to wait for you to catch up. Now, it’s getting late and I have to work in the morning.” He leans in and kisses my forehead. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” He kisses my lips gently before removing himself from me and standing up. “You want help cleaning this stuff up?” he asks as he bends down and starts cleaning up anyway.
I sit up and grab his hands. “You’ve done enough for tonight. I’ll clean up the mess.”
“Then I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He moves in and kisses me one last time. When he pulls away, he says, “Dream of me, Riley.” He stands up and is out the door a second later, and all I can think is, Oh, I’ll be dreaming of you all right!
I let out a long sigh before forcing myself to stand up and clean up our mess. When everything is put away, I lock the door and head to my bedroom. I plug in my phone and see a message on the screen. I open it to see that it was sent a few hours ago. I guess I was too occupied by Preston to notice. It’s from Piper.
Pizza and wedding talk again?
I roll my eyes. Yeah, like she’s going to bribe me with that again. I reply back: Sorry, was with my new guy. We got a little frisky on the couch and OMG, Piper, this guy is amazing. That doesn’t even include what his mouth and hips can do.
I laugh at myself before pulling back the blankets to climb into bed. I turn off the light and get comfortable, but the phone dings.
I grab it, surprised she’s still awake.
Tell me more! Did you guys hook up?
I giggle. No, we just did some PG-13 stuff. I can’t tell you the last time I got off without sex, but he managed it and he didn’t even ask for anything in return. This guy is perfect. Pray that it lasts. I can really see myself spending the rest of my life with him! I hit SEND and it only takes her a few seconds to reply.
As sad as I am that it’s not with my best friend, I wish you all the best. Hey, maybe he’ll stick around long enough to be your date at my wedding. Only three-and-a-half months to go. You can do this!
Thanks for the vote of confidence. See you tomorrow.
I turn off the phone and drop it back onto the table, needing some sleep so I can wake up early for work.
Seven
Preston
I’ve never seen anything more beautiful or sexy in all my life. I’ve never been the giving kind. I mean, when I’d hook up with a girl, I’d make sure she got what she needed before I let myself blow, but I was never there just for her. I always had myself in mind. But tonight, it was completely different with Riley.
I went over there knowing that sex wasn’t on the table. I went just to hang out with her. She’s fun and I enjoy spending any time with her that I can. But then we started cuddling on the couch and things got out of hand rather quickly. She felt too good pressed against me. She was warm and soft and has these curves that my hands want to memorize. I couldn’t stop myself from rubbing her hips and stomach and legs. She knew the moment I grew hard, because she did everything she could to rub against me, only torturing me further.
In fact, she decides to torture me over the next two months. We’re pushing our way into November soon and the weather is changing. Temperatures have turned from hot to cool and crisp. Even though Riley and I have been dating for a few months now, nothing’s changed between us. We’re still moving slowly and making sure this is something we both want before diving in feet first. We spend all of our free time together—usually entire weekends and every evening after work. We still haven’t gone all the way or stayed all night at each other’s place—other than the night she was sick—but that doesn’t mean things haven’t gotten out of hand a time or two. Since that first time, we’ve tried to keep our distance as much as we can while still being close. We’ve held hands, kissed hello and goodbye, and hugged, because we’ve both learned that cuddling only leads to other things. So we’ve been trying to avoid getting too comfortable on the couch.
The trickiest part, though, is keeping it a secret from Piper and Calvin. Since we spend a lot of time together, we’re often in the same room when they call us. Once Calvin called me while Piper was on the phone with Riley. I had to silence my phone and leave the room so they wouldn’t put two and two together. If we’ve both blown them off too many times in a row, we’ll play rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to hang out with them so they don’t figure things out based on how we always seem to have a different excuse at the same time.
Today is Saturday, and Riley blew Piper off last night for an invite to go dress shopping with her today. Calvin called this morning wanting me to go try on tuxes with him, but I made the excuse that I had something come up at work and had to go in. He was pissed at first, but I told him it wasn’t my fault he waited until now to pick out a damn tux for a wedding that’s happening so soon. He knows which one Piper wants him to pick anyway.
We’re both free and plan to spend the whole day together. We’re going to go out for lunch, followed by a Segway tour through the city—Riley’s idea. I’ve lived here long enough to have seen all there is to see by now, but she swears it’s a totally different experience taking the tour. Plus she says Segways are fun. I’ve never ridden a Segway and haven’t really had the desire to, but she was so excited about it that I couldn’t say no. After our two-hour tour of everything I’ve already seen, we’re going to shower and change to go to dinner. After dinner, I have tickets to a Monster Truck show.
“Hey,” she says with a smile when
I walk into her apartment.
“Hi, beautiful,” I whisper, pulling her in for a quick kiss.
She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me softly. “Are you ready for the most fun tour ever?”
I smile at her excitement. “We’ll see. What do you want for lunch?”
She pulls away and goes back to gathering her things. “Whatever you want. I don’t have any cravings bothering me at the moment.”
“How does Italian ice and a sandwich sound?”
“Mmm, that sounds perfect. Let’s go.”
The two of us jump into my car and I drive us over to Johnnie’s Beef in Elmwood Park. The place doesn’t even open for another 20 minutes, but the line is already from the door to the back of the building.
“Wow, this place is busy!” she says as she removes her seatbelt.
I throw the car into park and unclick mine. “It always is. That’s how you know it’s good.” We climb out and go to the back of the line. I wrap my arm around her, placing my hand on her hip. She steps into my side and wraps her arms around my waist. “What’s good here?”
I snort. “What isn’t good here? My favorite is the beef sandwich and Italian ice. The fries and stuff are good, too, but there’s something about the seasoning in the beef that mixes perfectly with the tangy Italian ice. It’s like the perfect summer combo.”
“Too bad it isn’t summer anymore. It’s going to be Piper and Calvin’s wedding soon.”
I nod. “I know. One more month.” I look down at her. “Hey, I have an idea.”
“What’s that?” she looks up at me but squints against the sun.
“What if we come out to Piper and Calvin at the wedding? I mean, we’ve been dating a couple months now and everything seems great. Then we could actually hang out at the wedding together and dance and stuff.”
Marrying My Best Friend's BFF: A Friends to Lovers, Accidental Baby Romance (Love You Forever Book 2) Page 8