Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone #3)(69)

“I didn’t like it,” I whispered.

He bit my bottom lip gently. “Liar.” He grinned against my lips and then he devoured me again.

Oh my God, he was a good kisser.

He trailed his mouth along my jaw, down my neck, and over the bare skin of my collar bone and I gasped, tipping my head back. I still wore my jacket, and he peeled it off my shoulders until it caught around my back in the crook of my elbows. I shed it and it dropped to the floor behind me.

His breathing was ragged. He was already hard. A boner was pressing through his pants into the front of my dress.

“Let’s go to your room,” I breathed.

He nodded and then threw me over his shoulder. I shrieked and he turned us for his bedroom door.

“Wait, wait! The baby monitor!” I said, giggling, tapping his shoulder.

He backed up and leaned me over the table so I could grab it, laughing. Then he hauled me straight to his bedroom.

I’d never been in there before. It felt like he’d just carried me off to his lair, some inner sanctum that I’d never been invited to explore.

It smelled like him and looked exactly like the rest of the apartment. Dark furniture and a gray bedspread, neat and orderly. I wanted to look around, but I had more pressing activities to see to.

He sat me down on the edge of the bed and stood between my legs while he kissed me, reaching around my back to undo my zipper.

I tugged at his belt buckle and he peeled off his shirt. Then he backed up to take his pants down as I wiggled out of my dress. When he pulled his underwear off and his penis sprang free, I froze in the middle of slipping an arm out of my bra. “What the fuck…” I breathed.

It was amazing.

Breathtaking.

It was that moment at a hibachi restaurant when the chef does some crazy thing with the rice and you realize you’re in for a good show.

I twisted onto my side and reached for the phone on his nightstand.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Calling Kristen. I have to tell her the prophecy is true.”

He snorted. “Well, can you wait until after?”

I turned back to him. “But what if I need tips? Best practices? I am not prepared for this, Adrian.” I stared at it. “My God, no wonder you have those abs. You’re doing a crunch every time you stand up. It’s like a twenty-five-pound dumbbell hanging there.”

He laughed and climbed onto the bed, sliding over me. He finished taking off my bra and started kissing his way between my breasts, down my stomach.

Heat radiated off this thing like a lightsaber. I watched his head dropping farther down my body. “I mean, what if I can’t lift it?” I breathed.

Fingers wrapped around the waistband of my underwear and dragged them down my thighs. “I’ll do the heavy lifting,” he said, throwing my panties over his shoulder. He reached to the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a condom. He tore the wrapper with his teeth. It was a Magnum. I was afraid it still wouldn’t fit.

I sat up on my elbows to watch him put it on. His eyes raked down my body as he did it, taking me all in. I could see how much he wanted me. He looked like he was about to fuck me into the headboard and I was totally here for it.

I needed to savor every second. Press my lips to every surface that I’d been shamelessly ogling for the past few weeks. I was going to treat his body like a decadent dessert at the end of a great meal—because really, that’s what he was. He was the grandest of finales to a life well lived. The cherry on top of the cake.

He was very likely the last man I’d ever sleep with.

And it occurred to me that this would have been true even if I wasn’t probably dying.





CHAPTER 23





SEE WHICH CELEBRITY IS

YOUR SOUL MATE!




ADRIAN

I’d never had sex like this. To say it was fun was the understatement of a lifetime. She was as playful in bed as she was outside of it and she had no problem asking me for what she wanted. We couldn’t get enough of each other. We woke each other up in the middle of the night. I was on about three hours of sleep.

I loved the unique language of her affection. She climbed and explored me. Hung from my neck and kissed my Adam’s apple, hugged me from behind while I cooked a midnight snack for us, bounced off me and boomeranged back. She beamed at me, nestled into me, perched on my lap, peppered me with kisses. I wish I’d been able to unlock this level sooner. I wish I’d met her years ago. High school. Grade school. A previous life. It all felt like lost time.

It was Tuesday morning and I was getting ready to head into the office. I’d dealt with Annabel’s arraignment over the weekend. She was getting released from the hospital today straight into a rehab facility in Iowa. Sonja and Gerald were taking her.

She’d specifically requested that Vanessa not come. She didn’t want to see her. She was mad at her sister, probably for cutting off her credit cards and phone. Vanessa seemed hurt, but she was just glad Annabel was getting help.

I stood over the bed, putting on my tie, smiling down at the sleeping woman curled up in my comforter.

I loved having Vanessa in my bed. I loved waking up and being able to pull her in instead of staring at a wall between us or waiting for her to wake up and text me back. I loved the smell of her hair on my pillows and the things she’d say when she was half asleep. I loved when I got to get up with Grace and bring her back to give her a bottle in between us in the bed and we felt like a little family.