We sped up. Jessie whooped and laughed, his grip tight enough to almost cut off my circulation. But I held on, and we turned corners, flew past others. I was on the outside of our little line, so I whipped around a bit faster than they did.
I couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t remember the last time I’d felt this happy. Skating with Oliver, seeing the wide grin on his face, was like all the stress over the last few days had melted away. Yeah, he was going to Paris. But people made long-distance relationships work all the time, right?
The way he’d kissed me…that hadn’t been just a one-off, a drunken act. I’d felt him—his heart, his emotions—in that gesture. We’d connected. I hadn’t imagined it.
We sped up more and took the next curve. Jessie’s hand slipped out of mine, and my skates flew me right into a deep snowbank.
“Oof!” Oxygen whooshed out of my lungs in a big rush the moment I hit the wet pile face-first. My skin burned from the cold blast of snow that seeped into every opening it could find. Wonderful. I tried to work my way out, fumbling on my skates.
A large, strong hand pulled me from the snowbank. Oliver’s face was etched in concern. “Maya? Are you okay?” He brushed snow off my face, my hat, my arms, my back.
A stiff breeze picked up, and I couldn’t stop shivering. The cold permeated me right down to the bones. “I’m—I’m okay…” I managed to chatter out. My flesh throbbed in pain as bitter-cold snow slid down my limbs.
He frowned, his eyes darkening. “You’re going home.”
“B-but—”
“No buts. Stay right here for a second, please,” he ordered me. Then he took Jessie over to end of the rink, where the boy’s parents stood on the sideline, sipping coffee. In an instant he was back, a firm grasp on my upper arm. We skated to the far side of the ice rink, took off our skates, and donned our shoes.
Disappointment swelled in my gut. I stood and fought back the tremors as I looked down at him. “Guess I’ll see you later.”
He stood as well. “I’m escorting you home.”
God, I so wanted him there, but not because he felt like he had to make sure I got there safely. While part of me had been disappointed with his refusal to come inside last night, the other part was grateful he’d been gentlemanly enough to not make a move when I was buzzed. I appreciated that about Oliver—the way he did the right thing.
But I was stone-cold sober right now. Sober and freezing to death. And I knew he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I sighed. “Okay, thanks.”
We made our way to my place. A few minutes into the trek, he grabbed my arm and stopped me, peeled off my coat, then draped his around me.
“I can’t—”
“You can, and you will,” he said in a sharp tone that dared me to defy him. “You’ll freeze if you don’t stop that wind from seeping in.” He gripped my wet coat in a gloved hand and gently nudged me to keep walking.
Great. Oliver was in hardcore big-brother mode now. I’d seen him get like this with Sami before. Hell, he’d been like this with me too on many occasions. This had nothing to do with attraction and everything to do with obligation.
I zipped the coat up and eyed him. At least he had on a thick sweater to help him stay warm. Once we got to my place, I could give him back his coat and hopefully scrape together some semblance of pride—alone.
I just didn’t know what to make of him. He’d been all over me last night, turning me on like crazy. Then back into friend-slash-overprotective “brother” zone today. I swallowed in frustration and tried to shove back my feelings. At least he was trying to be nice.
But boy, had I gone overboard with the fantasies earlier. Thinking he’d want to try a long-distance relationship with me? So embarrassing. At least I hadn’t spilled any of those feelings to him.
Every step toward the house made my heart sink deeper in my chest. My home was right up the road now. I didn’t want Oliver to go, but I didn’t know how to ask him to say…nor did I think I could bear to have him give me another polite refusal.
Winterfest was almost over. Our toast on the bridge was in a few hours. And then everything would go back the way it was before—the magical spell that had been woven over this weekend would be gone.
And soon, he’d leave to go to Paris and I’d be empty without him.
My heart squeezed in almost physical pain.
“What are you thinking about?” Oliver asked me.
His voice jarred me from my deep thoughts. “Um. Oh, about Winterfest. That’s all.”
“It’s been interesting, hasn’t it. Did you hear about Kennedy getting punched last night before the concert? And apparently, Cohen just stopped playing right in the middle of a song—he walked off stage and didn’t come back. Must have happened after we left.”
I blinked. Holy crap. “Wow. No, I hadn’t.”
He huffed a sigh. “Everything has been so weird this year.”
My throat clogged up with sudden tears. Weird. Was that what he thought of our kiss? I swallowed. Don’t you dare go down that road—don’t put words in his mouth. He didn’t want a repeat performance, but he hadn’t told me he regretted it. Though we hadn’t spoken about it at all, come to think of it.
“Hey.” A few steps from my sidewalk, he grabbed my arm and stopped me in place. His eyes were hooded and I couldn’t read them. “I didn’t mean… I wasn’t including…”
“It’s fine,” I said in a dismissive tone. I gave him a huge smile. “Really, don’t worry about it. I can tell we’re not going to talk about that—that kiss, which is fine, because it really was an odd occurrence, and I’m not going to—”
“Maya,” he spoke in a quiet tone that shut me up immediately. “It’s cold. You need to get inside and take those wet clothes off.”
Avoidance Tactic 101—dodge the topic by bringing up something else. “Yeah. Okay.” I tugged my arm out of his hand and whipped his coat off, cramming it in his hand. “Thank you for letting me use your coat. I appreciate it.” I reached out for mine, but he kept it tight in his grip.
He stepped closer, his eyes boring into mine. I couldn’t look away.
“I’m cold,” I whispered as I rubbed my arms.
He moved another step closer, our bodies a breath apart now. This close, I could see that his eyes were heavy-lidded, dark, intensely focused on me. His cheeks were flushed, and he dropped his gaze to my lips.
My core tightened in reflex.
This wasn’t overprotective Oliver looking at me right now. This was Oliver from last night. The one who’d driven me wild with that sexy mouth.
“Let’s go inside, Maya,” he said, and there was no mistaking the heat in his tone. The breath caught in my lungs. “We need to warm you up.”
Oliver
Maya sucked in a rush of air, her perfect lips forming an O. She turned and fumbled at the latch, finally getting it open and going inside. I followed then closed the door behind us. The low click of the lock made my blood pump harder.
“I don’t…understand,” she finally said. Her eyes were confused as she peered up at me, her breasts rising and falling with her shallow breaths. She drew her lower lip between her teeth and sucked on it.
Arousal slammed into me, hard and fast. Frankly, I didn’t understand either. I’d told myself last night was a one-time thing, despite the painful turn-on I’d experienced from kissing her and walking away. But seeing Maya’s face today, I’d been consumed with nothing but thoughts of tasting her delicious mouth.
I couldn’t get the feel of her body out of my head. And even if it was wrong and stupid of me, I had to feel it again. Couldn’t fight it right now.
I dropped our coats in the tiled foyer behind us; silence thickened.
Eyes still locked on mine, she shivered. Swallowed.
“Do you know why I haven’t talked about that kiss yet?” I asked.
She shook her head, chewed harder on her lip.
I lifted her arms in the air and drew her damp sweater over her head. She st
ood before me in a small black tank top, the tops of her breasts round and beckoning my mouth.
“Because it’s all I can think about, and I don’t know how to handle that. We’re friends, Maya.” I stepped closer, my breath brushing the small hairs on the sides of her face. “But right now, all I want to do is taste you again. And that’s not right.”
She released her lip and straightened her spine. Her eyes flashed with a tinge of irritation. “Yeah, I get it.”
“No, I don’t think you do.” I stroked a hand along the waistband of her jeans; she shivered in response. “Everything is different now between us. And I don’t know what to do.” I tugged her tank top out of the waistband. “I’m trying so hard to be a gentleman, to be a friend, but one look at your sexy-as-hell mouth makes me want to do very dirty things to you.”
She stared at me in wide-eyed shock for a long moment. Then her eyes narrowed just a touch, and she unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, still staring at my face. I throbbed at the sight of the tiny stretch of black fabric encased within. She nudged them off her hips and stepped out of them, revealing curvy thighs, slender knees, shapely calves.
Her tank top came off next, and Maya stood before me in a black bra and panties. It took everything in me to keep my hands clenched to my sides instead of gripping those rounded hips and throwing her to the ground underneath me. Right or wrong, I wanted to be inside her so badly.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said in a husky tone that stirred my blood, made every muscle in my body lock tight.
She turned, and my gaze went right to the swell of her ass, the way she sauntered down the hallway. She stopped halfway down the hall and turned over her shoulder to look at me. Then her hands reached behind her and unfastened her bra, and she dropped it on the floor at her feet.
Oh, holy shit. I bit back a groan.
“You look cold, Oliver. Maybe you need to take a shower too,” she said. Then she stepped into the bathroom. I heard the water start.
I should leave. This was going to wreck everything, because if I stayed, I knew we’d have sex. And there was no coming back from that, no going right back to just being friends. But that hot, hungry gaze in her eyes as she’d dropped her bra haunted me… Maya was coming on to me, yet leaving it up to me to make that last step. Knowing full well that I was going to wrestle with this issue.
My feet moved toward the bathroom of their own volition, and the decision was made. I kicked my boots off, tore off my jeans and sweater and boxers. Anticipation shivered across my flesh.
The white-tiled bathroom was spacious and already steaming up when I got in. The shower door was closed, and through the smoky glass I could see Maya’s curves. I slid the door open and stepped in; she spun around and sucked in a shaky breath as her gaze dropped right to my pelvis.
“Oh,” she whispered when she saw my already rigid erection and then, God help me, licked her lips.
That undid me. I slammed the shower door closed behind me, grabbed her neck with one hand and her waist with another, and dragged her to my body. Kissed her, dove into her mouth. Her hands wrapped around me, damp fingers digging into my back. Hot water sluiced along the lines of our bodies, and my muscles unbunched as we molded to each other.
Maya opened her mouth deeper, sucked my tongue, bit my lips—she kissed me just as hard as I kissed her, making these little sounds that made my shaft throb where it was pinned between our wet and naked bodies.
She ripped her mouth away, kissing down my jaw, and I shivered. My hands ran up and down her plump ass, drew one leg to wrap around my waist. She groaned. “Oh God, yes,” she said as she ground against me.
Our mouths were starving; even the beating water from the showerhead didn’t stop us from kissing and touching everything. She licked my pecs, stroked my upper arms. I sucked her collarbone, ran my lips down to those tempting breasts, drew a hard nipple in my mouth. She arched, gripped my hair.
I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. I was nothing but a mass of sensations, a surge of cells that had come alive and were almost overwhelmed from this experience.
My hand slipped down between her thighs, and I stroked—holy shit, she was so wet already. She rubbed against my flicking fingers.
I brought my hand to my mouth, tasted her wetness. Her eyes flared, and she swept her tongue across my lips and fingers before I’d drawn them out of my mouth.
I was so hard right now that it felt like I would burst out of my skin.
I needed to be.
Inside her.
Now.
My fingers fumbled in desperation as I found the shower knobs and shut them off. Maya gave a small, shuddering sigh. I drew the door open, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around her. The look in her eyes knocked the air out of my lungs. She was filled with trust, pleasure, lust.
And love.
It was right there in my face, practically beating me upside the head. I could see it now, the way she felt about me, naked and vulnerable and hungry for me. For every part of me—not just sex.
Blood rushed to my limbs, made me swell even harder. My throat clogged with emotion I wasn’t ready to examine yet. I pushed it aside and kissed her again. This was sex right now, no mention of anything beyond the moment, and there was nothing wrong with that. We could have sex and, hopefully after, figure out how to stay good friends. Because as much of a bastard as it might make me, I couldn’t walk away from that ache in her eyes.
I needed her too.
Yet another thing I was too afraid to look at.
She ripped her towel off and started to dry me, but I growled with impatience and tossed it on the ground. I took her hand and led her out of the bathroom. I grabbed my pants, fished out my wallet, and found the condom I’d stuck in there for emergency situations.
I wasn’t sure how we got to her bed but before I knew it, we were stretched out on top of her covers, limbs tangled, mouths fused together. My pelvis was aligned with hers, and I couldn’t help but rub, coat my erection in her wetness.
She wrapped both legs around me.
I pulled back. “Maya,” I made myself say. Dragged air into my compressed lungs. “Are you…sure…”
She dragged my mouth back to hers, stroked her tongue along the roof of my mouth, and I grabbed her thigh. Ran my hand along her smooth flesh, squeezed her hip.
Before I could lose focus, I put on the condom and then settled back on top of her. She stared up at me, hair spilled across the pillow, eyes locked on mine, and that damned lump reappeared in my throat.
“You’re so beautiful,” I said, surprising myself.
Surprising her, too. She blinked before giving me that smile. That Maya smile that always made me feel like I was so amazing. “So are you.”
I swallowed, pressed my head to her entrance. We both paused, drew in breaths, our eyes still connected. Something intangible and powerful ran between us, and then I slid inside her. Groaned. Tightened my hold on her hip. I dropped my mouth to her breasts, kissing and nibbling and licking the curves, the tips, the undersides. She writhed, squeezed me with her core, and I had to stop for a moment so I wouldn’t come too soon.
I pulled out, thrust in. Again and again. Her moans matched my thrusts, and I increased my speed. Her breasts bounced, and her lips parted as a look of pure pleasure swept across her flushed face. I reached a hand up, stroked her cheekbones, her lips.
She dug her heels into my ass, pressing me deep inside her. So tight and wet and hot. Unbelievable. Maya felt unreal, like every wet dream I’d ever had come to life.
I nudged my free hand between us and stroked her where we joined, and there it was—the surge of her arousal filling her eyes, that flush creeping down across her upper chest. She stiffened.
“Oh, right there, right there, yes,” she said, her words tumbling across each other.
I slammed into her, rubbed her. My own orgasm was hovering so damn close, but I fought it back. Waited.
After another minute, her core gripped me so ti
ght I could barely move, and I shuddered with a swell of bliss.
“Yes, yes,” she said in a hot gush of pleasure. Then she froze, eyes pinning me as her orgasm swept over her. Her body shuddered, clung to me.
I resumed my pace, pushed deep inside her, my sac painfully tight against my body. Then my own orgasm hit, and I came with a loud yell as the white-hot surge of heat overtook everything, dragging me over the edge and plunging me headfirst into the ocean.
After a few long moments, we both collapsed. I lay there for a few minutes, her arms wrapped so tenderly around me, and a strange, intense surge of anxiety and panic and adrenalin hit me.
That was amazing. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
And the timing couldn’t be any worse.
With more than a little reluctance, I withdrew myself from her embrace and cleaned up. I kept my back to her so I could get a hold of myself. Rein my rampant emotions back in. God, I’d just had sex with one of my friends. How badly was this going to change things? Was I even ready for all of this? Was this going to ruin our friendship—what if we started going down this road of dating and it fizzled out?
I rubbed my brow.
A small, soft hand rubbed my lower back. “Hey, is…everything okay?” Maya’s voice was low, cautious.
This was not the time to be dumping all of my anxiety on her. Pull yourself together. I ran a hand through my wet hair. “Sure. It’s fine.” I turned to look at her. “You?”
Her eyes were a little narrowed as she studied my face. “I’m fine,” she said slowly.
I just needed a bit of time to really think about this, that was all. To see how I could keep our friendship from being utterly destroyed. “I’m hungry, actually,” I said. A total lie, but with the intense feelings still battering around in the air between us, I wanted to create a touch of emotional distance. If only to get a damn grip on myself.
She sat up, not even caring that she was still naked. “Oliver, do you think we just messed things up by doing this?”
“We’re still friends, aren’t we?” I asked.
Her face stiffened. She lifted her chin, and the flare of hurt in her eyes made my stomach clench. “Friends.”
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