friends again. But as I got dressed I couldn’t help wondering if Bennett would show up. It was the same
frat house throwing the party as a couple weeks ago, and Bennett had mentioned that the one jock was a
customer of his. Said he had inked two tattoos on his biceps in the past year.
And so I found myself dressing for Bennett as much as for me.
Pathetic.
I wore my favorite skinny
jeans with a flowing top that I left unbuttoned to the center of my chest. I wore a white cami underneath
that had a built-in bra. It made my small breasts look firm and round.
When we first arrived I begrudgingly admitted to myself that I was disappointed that Bennett
wasn’t there. His friend Nate was, but I refused eye contact with him. It didn’t stop me from drinking
shots of tequila with Rachel and Ella and having a good time.
The music was pumping, the bodies were wall to wall, and the girls and I danced a few songs. I felt myself letting loose and not thinking so hard. We let a couple of guys dance with us, but when one
started getting frisky, I turned him down. Definitely not because of Bennett. I just wanted to ease back
into the game slowly.
We sipped the margaritas that Rachel mixed especially for tonight, and they felt good going down.
She leaned toward me and shouted above the music. “A yummy guy keeps looking over here. If you
don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
I looked up and saw Bennett leaning against the wall, a beer in his hand. He practically knocked the
wind out of me he was so stunning. He lifted his hand in a wave and I smiled back.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” Ella shouted into my ear. “Your neighbor?”
“Yep.” I bit my lip while my heart performed impossible tricks in a jump rope tournament.
“He is smoking hot,” she said, sipping her margarita through a straw.
“Yeah,” I said. “Too bad he doesn’t want to get it on with me.”
“Maybe he does but he’s waiting,” she said, looking over my shoulder and checking him out again.
I rolled my eyes. She was closer to the truth than she knew. Bennett had slept in the same bed with
me and never touched me once. “For what?”
“For you to want him in the same way, asshead.”
I hadn’t told her all the details of our nights; just that we had hung out some more. And that it was
totally innocent.
“Think about it,” she said, all smug.
Oh, I was thinking about it. Every single day.
And I knew what Ella was getting at.
I
did
want him.
I wanted to get him out of my
damn
system already.
Rachel headed toward Bennett like she was on a mission, and I felt my stomach bunch up. She kept
her dark hair short, and her face was unbelievably striking—full lips and dramatic green eyes. Guys fell all over themselves to talk to her.
She used her you-are-so-getting-some-tonight smile on Bennett. He was polite and said hello, but
kept his eyes trained on me the entire time. Rachel looked back, shrugged, and mouthed
All yours
before
she was pulled onto some huge linebacker’s lap.
Ella tugged at my hand. “C’mon, I can’t find Joel, and I need to dance to this one.”
“Okay,” I said, standing up and taking one last glance at Bennett. He had his back turned and was
talking to Nate. Nate said something and they high-fived and chugged back their beers.
We pushed our way to the middle of the writhing bodies and I started swaying my hips in time to
the music. I raised my arms in the air and got lost in the slow and sexy song.
A minute later, I felt warm breath stroke my neck and a strong hand brace my stomach. I knew it
was him without turning around. Those same long fingers had been splayed against my body all week
long. I closed my eyes and savored his skin touching mine.
“I like when you wear your hair down.” He twined his fingers through the ends of my curls and it
sent a shiver ricocheting through my body.
“You haven’t come up,” he breathed against my ear.
“I figured it was time to be a big girl and sleep in my own bed,” I said.
“Understood.” He held on to my waist and swayed along with me. His fingers trailed beneath the
hem of my shirt and a couple of inches upward. I fought to keep my breaths under control.
“I know this is going to sound crazy,” he whispered. “But I kind of missed you.”
He pulled me flush against him and I sucked in a breath. I felt the hard wall of his chest, the strong
and steady thud of his heart at my back. I laced my fingers around his neck and leaned into him.
His fingers blazed a trail along my rib cage and stopped just above my navel. I rocked my hips
back and forth in time with the music and he let out a slow groan.
“Jesus, Avery,” he said. Suddenly he pushed away from me. “I need some air.”
He stormed off the dance floor, leaving me speechless and way too aroused. Ella raised an eyebrow at me.
Why the hell was he resisting so badly?
“That boy’s got it bad for you,” she said. “So what the hell just happened?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, my mood having shifted to ugly. “You okay if I just take off?”
“It’s unlike you to get bent out of shape over a guy,” she said. “I think you’re feeling more than
you’re letting on.”
I just shrugged and stomped off. That was the problem with friends who’d known you forever. Too
perceptive. Especially Miss Psychology Major.
When I got home, I only stopped long enough to pull off my jeans and top before I fell into bed,
tipsy and more than a little frustrated. I had enough drinks in me to drift off to sleep.
Chapter Seven
A sharp knock on my door woke me out of my restless sleep. My heart jammed in my throat. Body taut
as a rope, my eyes immediately stole to my bedroom window, hoping it wasn’t another neighbor alerting
me of a potential break-in. I had managed to get to sleep the last couple of nights without completely
stressing over it, especially after taking an extra kickboxing class that morning.
I did however, move the biggest knife from my kitchen drawer to beneath my mattress. And now
my fingers were reaching for it.
My blinds remained dark, however, the only pinnacle of light from the streetlamp on the corner. I
was safe.
So who the hell was knocking?
I heard his voice before I padded my way to the door. “Avery?”
Bennett stood there, a bit unsteady on his feet.
I folded my arms. “Are you drunk?”
“Maybe a little,” he said, his hand wandering to the back of his neck. “More nervous than
anything.”
I had the power to make this beautiful man nervous?
“What the hell are you nervous about?” I asked, hands on hips.
“That you’re pissed at me.” He leaned forward. “That you won’t let me in so we can talk.”
“I’m not mad. Frustrated, maybe.” I opened the door wider to allow him to pass. I wasn’t sure what
I was doing, but I knew I wanted to see him, talk to him, spend time with him. “Were you hoping to test the coziness of
my
bed tonight?”
He stretched his gaze across my body, and a shiver bolted through me. “More than anything.”
“Well, good.” I turned and walked away. “Because I’m exhausted, and I need to go back to sleep.”
I marched to my room, and felt him follow closely behind. I slid back into the comfort of my sheets
while he inspected the photography on my walls and the trinket boxes on my dresser, like he was
memorizing everything.
My heart throbbed in my chest as I watch him unbuckle his belt and then unzip his pants. His gaze
remained locked on mine the entire time, like this striptease was for me, and me alone. So damn sexy.
He took off his jeans, flicking the material down one muscular leg at a time to reveal his blue boxer
briefs. Then he reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. The light from my bedside
lamp highlighted his ripped biceps and his lean abdomen. I caught a glimpse of the tattoo on his rib
cage. Swirls of black letters curled along his smooth skin, and I hoped for the chance to examine it more
closely one day.
“So you
do
sleep on that side,” he said matter-of-factly as he slipped into my bed. “Not just at my
place.”
We lay facing each other. Studying each other. Drinking each other in.
“Bennett,” I said, taking a deep breath. “What happened to that girl you were seeing?”
“Dunno. Haven’t talked in a while,” he said. “Guess I’ve had other things on my mind.”
He reached out and skimmed his fingertips over my shoulder and then up to my jawline, sending a
bolt of electricity through me. Anticipation coiled into a tight ball in my stomach. I couldn’t take it
anymore. I wanted him. I needed him.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever been more desperate to kiss someone.
Chill bumps broke out on my skin and raced up and down my arms and back.
“Avery?” Bennett stroked my lips with his fingers, and the heat from his touch shot straight through
my stomach and whispered a trail along my thighs. I panted out a breath. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know what this is or what the hell we’re doing,” he said. “But if I don’t kiss you right now,
I might explode.”
His fingers curled over the nape of my neck and into my hair, tugging me nearer.
“God, Bennett.” My voice was breathy and my head rolled back against his fingers.
He whispered soft kisses against my neck, along my jaw, and below my ear. Then he nipped at my
bottom lip, and I fought for air. He slid his thumbs over my cheeks and stared deeply into my eyes, right
before his lips brushed over mine, so gently that I shivered.
Did this man have to take everything in measured steps? I was dying a slow erotic death.
He positioned his body over mine. “I love your eyes. They remind me of a rainstorm.”
My hands rested on his chest and I moved them up to his hair. It was silky-smooth, and I closed my
fists around the velvety strands.
Then the soft pillows of his lips hummed in concert against mine.
When his tongue slipped between my lips, I whimpered. He explored my mouth slow and careful,
and all the nerve endings in my body began to pulse against him.
He reached into my hair, tightening his hold and deepening the kiss.
His tongue lapped against mine like his life depended on it. Something that sounded like a growl
emerged from the back of his throat and sent another heat wave ripping through me.
Bennett was kissing the shit out of me and I couldn’t breathe but I didn’t care because if this is
what kissing him felt like, I could get my fill of oxygen later.
He pulled my lower lip into his mouth, and then my top lip, taking his time sucking each one as my
fingers dug deeper into his neck.
His hands never traveled south even though I would have welcomed them. All of his focus was on
my lips. And then on my neck. And then on my ear. His hot breath making my toes curl.
This man knew how to kiss. He shifted again and the entire length of him covered me. I felt every place on his body that
touched mine—his chest, his stomach, his pelvis. Bennett claimed a patch of skin at the base of my
throat and drew it into his mouth hungrily. The ache between my legs intensified and I tilted my hips
against his.
His tongue slid back inside my mouth, wet, deep, and forceful. Like he was starving and I was his
last meal. I fought to keep my breaths steady. They were as reckless as my thundering heart rate.
An eternity passed before Bennett took a breath, but I immediately grieved the loss of his tongue.
My lips were swollen and my face stung from his stubble, but I’d welcome him back in a heartbeat. No
questions asked.
He looked into my eyes for a long, silent moment before kissing the hell out of me again. His
mouth captured mine in a desperate, frenzied, heated rush. I was jumping off a cliff, sinking, drowning,
and couldn’t have cared less about being saved as long as he kept kissing me.
I was aroused, flying sky-high, and could barely take anymore. I wanted this man, if he’d have me.
He pulled me on top of him, and I could feel his hard-on bumping against the thin material of my
underwear. He was hot and throbbing and I was panting and desperate from need.
I traced my hand down his stomach to the top of his shorts, and he shuddered out a breath.
He latched on to my hand to stop me. “Avery, I don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
“The same thing you’re doing to me,” I said between heavy breaths. “Bennett, I want you.”
His whole body stiffened. And then he moved from under me. “I . . . I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?” My voice had raised an octave. “Why the hell did you come over,
Bennett?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about you.” He placed his head in his hands. “You’re the sexiest
