Heartbreaker (Unbreakable #1)(29)
“To new beginnings.” She took a deep breath as she stared back, gaze intensifying.
How much of that toast meant us to her? To me, for that matter. I had no idea.
I sensed the hesitation she had around me. Hell, I had serious reservations about how close we’d already gotten. And we had made the agreement to be just friends.
Shit, I needed things to stay platonic. At least, I thought that was the right thing to do.
But with every passing day, the time I spent getting closer to her, I wasn’t so sure.
We’d stumbled into a definite gray area, one where the closeness of friends had transformed us into some undefinable other thing. Deeper. And dangerous.
Because while I watched her, her gaze lowered to my lips. Her breaths quickened as she stared at my mouth with unmistakable want.
I sucked in a deep breath, arousal still lingering behind my fly.
My gaze dropped to her mouth too.
Those pouting kissable lips of hers parted.
My mind fuzzed out about the reasons we shouldn’t be going there.
We leaned toward each other, forearms braced on the tiny table of our half-booth.
Our breaths began to mingle as inches of space disappeared between us.
Consequences be damned, we were about to kiss—throw the whole “just friends” thing out the window.
A loud clank startled us.
We blinked hard as two identical plates slid onto the varnished wood, and we instantly pulled our arms off the table to make room. Both of us took a deep breath, gazes locked, as we reclined back to our respective sides.
She licked her lips, then tugged a side of the lower one behind her teeth. Her eyes darkened, lids drifting slightly closed, as if she could taste me even though we hadn’t yet touched.
But we almost had. She’d wanted to. Fuck, I’d wanted to.
The air between us hung thick with tension.
I pursed my lips, let out a hard breath. “So, yeah.” I raked a hand through my hair. “Seems like today is the day for it.”
“New beginnings.” Her words had gone soft, tone flattening them into a statement.
Because it didn’t matter that we hadn’t touched physically. A line had already been crossed.
On a deep breath, she finally broke our gaze, then blinked, glancing around as if she’d been in a trance. Then she looked down at her plate. Her brows twisted downward, expression growing doubtful as she leaned forward sniffing the air above it.
“Doesn’t look edible.” She poked at the mushrooms and onions with her fork.
And just like that, things between us lightened. Veered back into friend territory.
I let out a relieved sigh, comfortable with things staying safe between us. For now, at least. “It’s good for you.”
“What is it again?” She leaned left and tilted her head, examining it from the side.
“Chipotle ranch burger, no bun.”
“How can it be a burger with no bun? It’s ground steak, at this point.”
“Try it. We’ve got all the food groups here. Fuel for our bodies.”
She eyed her food with suspicion. “Since when is grease a food group?”
“Eat, smartass. Then you can judge.”
Only after I took a hefty bite of my mushroom-and-onion topped burger, complete with its layer of grease and chipotle ranch sauce, did she venture a bite. She took a good sized one too.
Then her eyes drifted shut, head tilting back. She let out a low moan while chewing slowly.
Something hit me, low and visceral. Arousal, and more. I wanted to be the one to have that effect on her. If that was what one bite of a halfway-decent burger did to her? I wanted to explore every kind of reaction she had to pleasure.
Realizing my brows had lifted, I swallowed hard. Then I blew out a lungful of air, regaining some semblance of composure.
Get your shit together, D.
Her eyes suddenly blinked open as she swallowed down her food. She began fanning the air in front of her wide open mouth. “Hot! So hot!”
I choked out a surprised laugh; the woman had me on an emotional rollercoaster.
“Here.” I dipped a sweet potato fry into her honey mustard dressing and handed it to her. “Puts the fire out.”
Then I let out a long sigh and watched her devour her food.
Yep. Kiki Michaelson had me up and down. Turned on, then turned inside-out. Torture one minute—teasing laughter the next.
I’d never had anything close with anyone else.
In just a couple of weeks, she’d twisted my view of the world into something unrecognizable—scary and unpredictable.
Yet inadvisable as it was, I wanted it.
I wanted her.
The only problem?
I wasn’t sure I had a right to want her—let alone have her.
Kiki…
The vibration of the truck seat turned me on as the imported beer-and-a-half buzzed through me. And a sky that had been a smoky purplish-gray minutes ago finally shifted into full-on darkness.
We were in Darren’s truck at night, him driving me home. Again. Alcohol obliterated my inhibitions. Again.
No matter how many lies we’d told ourselves between that last nightclub drop-off and now, no matter how afraid I was of the powerful attraction between us, what it could do to me…how it could devastate me…I wanted to get closer.
I wanted him. No amount of logic changed that fact: My body had an agenda completely separate from my heart and mind.