Come As You Are(69)

“You’re forward.”

“I am. And since our friends are friends, it’s clearly fated that I kiss you senseless tonight.”

Setting down her glass, she wraps her hand around my forearm, and I like the way her fingers feel on me. “Christian, you’re literally the most handsome creature I’ve ever seen in my entire life, but you can’t possibly believe that.”

“Why not?”

“That’s such a romantic notion.”

“Who said anything about romance? Maybe I think we were fated to . . .” I move in closer as I tuck a strand of hair over her ear and finish the sentence with a whisper, “Fuck.”

She shudders, lifting her hand to her neck as if cupping the imprint of my touch as I pull away. She looks dazed, and that’s a most excellent look on her. “You smell like coconut,” I tell her.

“You’re spearmint and liquor.” Her eyes linger on my mouth. “It’s devastatingly enticing.”

“Let me devastate you in other ways.”

She shakes her head. “You’re too handsome. Too much.”

I’m undeterred. I want her. “Elise, come home with me.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because my mind is a blur of absinthe and spearmint right now.” She raises a hand, brushes her fingers over my jaw, then cups the back of my head. I’m turned on beyond all reason. Brushing her lips over my cheek, she whispers, “And because you’ve wanted to kiss me for more than a year. Think how much better it would be if I let you have a little taste of me every now and then.” She steps away.

“You’re offering me a third date? Because let’s be honest—this is almost like a second date, and you have seen me naked.”

She laughs. “This is barely a first date, and only by chance. Maybe buy me dinner, and then you’ll know how my lips taste.”

“In that case, I know a little bistro around the corner that could rustle up something if I make a reservation for, say, eleven thirty tonight? Care to join me for a late dinner?”

“Are you always this persistent?”

“Only when I know I absolutely want something.”