Connected (Connections, #1)(55)
Tangling my fingers through his wet hair, I tug on his bottom lip with my mouth. “I really like that song.”
My thighs tingle as his hands glide under my skirt, I know the moment he feels my new undergarments because his body stiffens, and he lets out a short gasp. “I really like your . . .skirt.”
Sucking in a deep breath through his teeth, his explores the soft skin between my garter and my exposed thigh. “Did you buy this just for me?” he murmurs against my lips as he runs his fingers up and down the straps of my garters.
Laughing against his mouth I answer, “Maybe . . .”
Caressing my tongue with his, tasting me completely, he pauses to mutter, “Then your leaving was worth it.”
Moving my hands to his chest and grinding into him a little I quip, “Glad you approve.”
Sliding his nose to my ear, he gently bites my earlobe before whispering, “I loved your note.”
I smirk at him as his lips crash to mine, and he runs his palms up my back.
As his fingers move to the knot in my hair, he pulls out my elastic tie. “I called you.”
Crushing my body against his, my hands wander down his bare skin, along the sides of his torso. “Oh, the blocked caller was you?”
Running his fingers down the slight curve of my breasts and along each of my ribs, he says, “Let me see your phone.”
Not wanting to break our closeness, I say, “It’s behind me.”
“Can I see it?”
Twisting around, I reach for my purse and pull out my phone, fully exposing the top of one of my thighs.
“Fuck.” I hear him mutter as I turn back and say, “Here you go, sir,” with my southern belle accent. The one I find myself using every time he demands something or does something extremely charming. Odd. Not sure why I’m doing that.
Smirking at me, he takes my phone and taps on the screen before handing it back to me. “There you go, now you’ll know who I am when I call you,” he says with a wink.
“Do I get a picture?” I say, standing up to snap one before he answers.
Shaking his head at me with a ridiculously adorable grin on his face, he says, “My turn.” He gets up to retrieve his phone from the kitchen counter.
Holy shit! He has my lip-kissed underwear tucked in the back pocket of his jeans. Is he planning on keeping my panties as a souvenir? And that’s not all I notice. Walking his sway of a walk to the counter, I notice his jeans are a tad loose, exposing just a hint of the gift that lies beneath them. Of course he turns to see me gawking, but I just don’t care, as I stand there open-mouthed, gaping.
He grabs his phone and walks back to the couch. “Yeeesss . . .” he exaggerates while pulling up my skirt and running his phone up my leg.
I look at him quizzically, unable to comprehend anything right now until it clicks. “You are not taking a picture of my garter to store in your contact file,” I quip, pushing his hand away and lowering my skirt.
“What makes you think that’s what I was doing? But, thanks for the suggestion,” he chuckles while feigning innocence.
With a devilish look in his eyes, he raises an eyebrow and moves his phone to playfully finger the inside top of my hose and continues, “And besides, I thought you bought these for me?”
Nudging him in the shoulder, I retort, “Well, your mind seems to always move to the opposite end of the innocence spectrum.”
“Hmmm . . . really? I never noticed,” he says with a wicked grin. Setting his phone down, he picks mine back up. He checks out the picture I took of him before tapping the screen a few more times.
I watch him and remember that it wasn’t too long ago when I thought happiness was only for those who believed in fairytales, that my future held nothing but sadness and a stoic existence. Yet, in this moment, as he juggles our phones, I think my future is bright, and maybe it’s my time. Maybe it’s our time to begin a new chapter in our own fairytale.
So as River sets my phone back on the coffee table, he picks his up and turns to face me. “Smile, beautiful girl,” he says, and just like that, I melt at his heartfelt words; and for the first time in a long while, I feel hopeful.
SPEECHLESS
It feels like I’ve always known you
It’s like we’ve been together forever
I think the time apart was worth it
I’m falling head over heels for you
And you leave me speechless.
With the windows open, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing through my hair. The radio is on, but it’s not even loud enough for me to hear the song that’s playing. Even now, I can’t help but notice his extreme attractiveness. He is wearing his black leather jacket and Wayfarer sunglasses, and he looks incredibly hot. I shouldn’t even be thinking about this with the conversation we just had, but I can’t help myself. My mind is a jumble of thoughts that keep leading back to the man sitting next to me, and how he makes me feel.
His hands are gripping the perforated leather bands wrapped around the steering wheel. His hair is whimsically dancing around his face, just barely reaching past his ears. His lightly stubbled jaw is tightly clenched. Everything I see, everything about his body language, is giving me the indication of his emotional state right now; he seems uncertain, unaware of how to proceed, maybe even unsure of what to say.