Priceless (Forbidden Men #8)(44)

This time, my eyes closed automatically and my head tilted to accommodate him. His lips brushed across mine, and my nipples tingled inside my bra.

I shifted closer, as scared as I was intrigued by the sensation. Brandt cupped my cheek in one palm, and his tongue gently nudged the seam of my lips. I opened for him more on instinct than rationally telling myself to do so. It was as if my body took over and brain shut down, because the last thought I remembered having was that I didn’t want to be a dead fish to him right before his tongue touched mine, and suddenly I was sliding mine across his and investigating the feel.

My breasts pulsed again, and the sensation between my legs matched them with the same thrumming need. I caught the front of his shirt and fisted it between my fingers as he moved his head, slanting to get more of me.

I whimpered, and he echoed the sound with a throatier groan.

As our tongues knotted together, he rolled me onto my back and slid partially on top of me, threading his fingers up my cheek and into my hair before grasping and encouraging my head to tilt where he wanted it to go.

My entire body throbbed, burning for more. Letting go of his shirt, I planted my hands in his hair, my fingers delighting in the silky softness. He shifted restlessly, sliding a little further on top of me, and broke from my mouth to kiss his way along my jaw. I gasped for air and gaped up at the ceiling above me while his lips traced my ear before his tongue flicked out to tease the lobe.

I let go of his hair to curl my hand under his arm and clutch the muscles in his back. Brandt followed my lead by skimming his own fingers from my hair, down the side of my neck before clutching my ribcage so his thumb grazed the side of my breast.

Arching up at the contact, I dug my nails into his back and gasped.

His mouth returned to mine. This time, our tongues were eager and needy, dueling for more. While they attacked each other, his hand shifted, moving farther up the side of my breast. I squirmed, aching to feel his fingers cover the hard, pebbled peaks when a small muffled voice on the other side of my bedroom wall wailed, “Mama.”

“Shit!” Brandt hissed, yanking himself off me and rolling until he was lying on his back beside me and sucking in air. “Holy shit.”

In the hallway, footsteps shuffled past my bedroom door as Reese went to check on whichever kiddo had called for her.

Next to me, my best friend set the back of his wrist against his forehead as he struggled for breath. Oxygen chugged like crazy through my lungs as I tilted my head to the side to see him.

He looked...shell-shocked. His cheeks were high in color and his eyes were glazed as he dropped his hand from his face so he could turn to look back. Then he licked his lips and swallowed noisily. “So, yeah. There you go. First kiss.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling so brain-dead I wasn’t sure what else to say except wow. Like really...wow. “Is it always so—” I broke off suddenly, realizing I was actually asking that aloud.

Brandt huffed out an amused sound. “Um...no. That was...” He shook his head before murmuring, “Pretty damn spectacular,” as if that fact left him dazed.

A grin bloomed across my face as joy heated my chest. “Really?” Thank God I hadn’t been the only one feeling it.

Thank God I didn’t suck at it.

“Yeah.” He glanced at me again, but this time, when our gazes connected, his eyes flared with horror. Before I knew what was going on, he leaped upright and briskly scratched the back of his head. “I, uh, I should go.”

He started for the window. But as soon as he lifted it, I said, “Brandt.”

His entire body flinched, but he stopped what he was doing. He didn’t turn back to look at me when he said, “Hmm?”

“You came in through the front door...not the window.”

“Right. Shit.” He shut the window and wiped his hand over his mouth. “Sorry.” When he finally glanced at me, he winced. My eyes were still a little crusty from crying, so I was sure I appeared pretty bleak.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking incredibly guilty.

“Of course.” I beamed up at him, being totally honest. Because I was okay. I was better than okay. That kiss had been...wow.

Everything.

I knew his rush to leave should probably worry me, possibly even hurt, but it actually made me feel better. Kissing me had rattled him, right down to his core.

I sorta loved that.

My mouth could actually rattle Brandt Gamble.

If I could have any superpower, that might be the one I wanted above all others.

But he looked so miserable, and guilty, and frazzled, that I couldn’t help but ask. “Are you okay?”

“Fuck, no,” he blurted before pressing a fist to his forehead, wincing and trying to revise, “I mean...yeah, of course.”

My grin grew, which only seemed to make him more irritable.

“I gotta go,” he muttered, whirling around and escaping through my bedroom door. “See you.”

A small laugh flitted from my lungs. Falling backward onto the bed, I stared giddily up at the ceiling and sighed.

“See you,” I told the empty room. And that right there was the only reason I was still happy. Because I knew I would see him again. There was no scaring Brandt off for good. No matter how much our kiss might’ve freaked him out, the one thing I could always rely on was the fact that I’d see him again, no matter what.