If Only You (Bergman Brothers, #6)(76)

Biting my lip, I drop my head back against a shelf, gazes locked. “Well…if I was allowed one more chin boop, I think maybe I’d stop crying.”

He glares at me playfully, eyebrow arched, then sighs. “Fine.”

I push off the bookshelf, until our chests touch, until our faces are inches away. Slowly, I lift my finger, smiling as I press it into his chin. “Boop.”

He huffs a laugh, and I lower my hand, until it falls on his chest. My fingertips graze the skin at his open collar, the edge of a butterfly’s wing resting at the hollow of his throat.

Air rushes out of Sebastian as his grip on my back tightens. I peer up and our noses brush, our eyes hold.

Be brave, Ziggy. Be brave.

“Question,” I whisper.

A swallow works down his throat. “Answer.”

“Do you want to kiss me right now?”

He stares at me, his eyes soft as they dance across my face. “Every day since I saw you. Now. Tomorrow. When I’m on my deathbed. Yes, Ziggy, but we’re just—”

“Friends.”

He nods slowly, his nose grazing mine, air leaving him unsteadily as his hands drift down my back. “Just friends.”

“What about ‘just friends’…who kiss?”

He groans. “That sounds like bad news.”

“Funny,” I whisper, rubbing my nose against his, “I’ve been trying to give myself an edge lately. A little bad news seems right up my alley.”

“But I”—he exhales roughly, setting his temple to mine, his mouth brushing my ear—“am reforming. Bad news is the last thing a penitent should be seeking.”

“A penitent seeks absolution,” I tell him.

He nods, sighing when my fingers drift into his hair.

“Then let me absolve you. Let me tell you that this kiss can be between two friends who care about each other, who want to keep each other safe and make each other feel good. Let me tell you that in no way will you disappoint me or harm me in this. Enjoy me. Let me enjoy you. It can be that simple, I promise.”

“Ziggy,” he sighs, pulling me against him. His breathing’s unsteady. I feel his heart thudding fast and hard in his chest. “You promise? Nothing changes after this?”

I wrap my arms around his neck, my lips brushing his ear. “I promise.”

He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t give me time, and I love it. He cups my face and devours my mouth.

I sigh as I taste him, as his lips sweep over mine, first gentle, then hard and desperate. I clutch his shoulders as his hands slide down my waist, then lower. He spreads his hands across the curve of my backside, tugging me closer.

A gasp leaves me at the exquisite relief of his body wedged against mine. He’s hard inside his jeans, rubbing right up against my clit beneath my shorts. Pleasure pools warm and aching, a soft, steady pulse. Every inch of me melts into him.

I tug his hair, and now he gasps. I kiss him harder, teeth clacking, until he settles our rhythm—hips fused, rolling together, mouths moving, slow and decadent, hot, hungry strokes of tongue.

I could do this forever—kiss him, hear him, hold him—drink in every sensation of his body so connected to mine. Sebastian’s hand goes to my hair and dives into my braid, cupping my head.

“Ziggy,” he pants. “God, you taste so good. You feel so good.”

I smile against his kiss. “So do you, Sebastian.”

He shifts his hips and palms my butt, pulling us closer. Pleasure pools into a sharp, sweet ache between my thighs, in the tips of my breasts as they brush against him. My head falls back. My legs give out.

My hand darts out reflexively to catch myself, but Sebastian catches me first, and eases me down. Still, I manage to knock half a shelf of books to the ground. I squeak in horror. “The books—”

“Fuck the books, Sigrid.”

“They’ll get bent! Damaged!”

“I’ll buy them all,” he mutters against my mouth, yanking a thick one across the floor, then setting it under my head like a pillow.

I laugh at that, tugging him close. Sebastian crawls over me and settles his weight between my thighs, knocking off a new string of books from another shelf. They rain down on us but bounce off his back as he shields me, pressing kisses patiently down my neck. “That’s a lot of books to buy,” I whisper into his hair, before I kiss it.

“Worth every penny.” He presses wet, hot kisses back up my neck and finds my mouth, working his hips into mine.

And then time just….slows. The air kicks on, a soothing hum. The lights above cast a saintly halo around this man who’s so convinced he’s the worst kind of sinner. Gently, I lift my hands to his hair, smoothing it back.

His gaze searches mine. Then, slowly, he bends his head and kisses me, soft and slow.

I wrap my arms around his back and pull him closer, until his nose brushes mine, until our chests brush. He sighs into my mouth as I glide my hands down to his backside, tugging him closer.

Propping himself up on both elbows, Sebastian smooths back my hair, framing my face with his hand. “So beautiful,” he says quietly.

I tip my head as his gaze dances over my face. “This from the beautifullest person I know.”

“Shut up,” he mutters, kissing me.

“Like you don’t know,” I mumble back, but he silences me with another sweet, seductive kiss to my mouth, chased by a hard, wicked stroke of his tongue. He breathes my name as he gives me more of his weight, and I feel him hard and heavy, right where I need him.