Let Me (O'Brien Family, #2)(21)

I wasn’t trying to show off. My only intent was to hold her closer. But I don’t think she expected my speed or my strength. Based on how she stills against me, she’s afraid. Shit. That’s the last thing I want. She has nothing to fear from me. Now, or ever. So I do my best to prove it.

I lift my free hand, skimming her cheek, my gaze fastening to hers. “Are you scared?” I ask.

The quick rise and fall of her chest assures me she is, and maybe something more. “Yes,” she whispers.

I don’t expect someone like Sol to admit she’s feeling vulnerable. So her confession alone is enough to ease my hold despite my need for her. “Don’t be,” I tell her, the rasp to my voice gaining an edge.

I lean in slowly, brushing my lips against hers and teasing her with my tongue until she returns my affections. Her arms wrap around my neck, her pouty mouth inviting me deeper.

She feels so good pressed against my body. I slip my tongue in when she pulls me closer. She likes what I’m doing. Sweet. Cause I like it, too.

Her moan is barely audible, but I hear it, and feel it, just like I feel her full, soft breasts slide against my chest.

The heat between us rises, accelerating my pulse and luring the flicks of my tongue in for a deeper taste. My hands drag along her back. This girl can kiss and knows exactly what to do to make me hot.

I clutch her hip, our make-out session becoming more foreplay than the innocent act I intended when I saw how nervous she was. But now things aren’t so innocent. Now, I really want to touch her. So instead of keeping my hands where they’re safe, I slide one up to knead her breast.

I barely feel its weight when she draws back. She covers my hand with hers to move it down, but I beat her to the punch, knowing I’m way out of her comfort zone.

“Are you in a rush?” she asks, her lids heavy and her breaths quick.

“No. I just wanted to feel close to you,” I say, my heartbeat way out of control.

“To feel close to me?” she repeats.

“Yeah,” I say, surprised by how much I mean it.

My hand slides along her waist, enough to feel the bare skin her sweater doesn’t cover. Am I turned on? Totally. But she wants me to stop so I keep my hands from wandering. “You okay?” I ask.

I try to focus on her, rather than how tight my pants feel. Except that doesn’t help, not when I have a woman like Sol this close to me, and not when she gives me another quick kiss. “I’m not ready for this,” she says.

“The kissing?”

She shakes her head. “I mean you.”

“You’ve mentioned that,” I remind her.

She dips her chin, looking bashful and way too good to resist. “So why did you kiss me?” she asks, staring at me through a layer of the thick lashes.

My voice lowers. I know how to charm, but right then I’m not trying to get in her pants―okay, I am. But that doesn’t mean I don’t mean what I say. “Because you’re really pretty, cause I wanted to, and because you let me.”

She tilts her head, as if trying to figure me out. Maybe she thinks I’m blowing smoke, but for once I’m just being me, someone I haven’t been in a very long time.

I have to admit, it feels pretty damn awesome.

“I wish you didn’t say that,” she says, so quietly I almost don’t hear her.

“Why?” I ask, my tone deepening further.

“Because it makes me wish you hadn’t stopped kissing me.”

Fair enough. So I pull her close and kiss her again.





CHAPTER 9


Finn



“It’s that one, with the red door,” Sol says.

She had to leave her car for some minor repairs at Teo’s shop. I’d picked her up in the parking lot at her internship and then took her out for a late dinner. It was nice. Real nice, reinforcing how much I like her.

I pull my F-150 to the curb, on the opposite side of the one way street. I’ve been through this neighborhood a few times, and in the ones in the surrounding blocks, but I didn’t realize exactly where she lived.

“Something wrong?” she asks.

She must have caught the change in my expression. She’s like that, able to pick up on even the most subtle changes. But her soft smile tells me she’s not offended. “Nah,” I say, setting my truck in park. “I just didn’t realize this was your neighborhood. You’re not far from where I grew up. Maybe a mile and change.”

“Is that a bad thing?” she asks.

“Not at all,” I tell her. “I have a couple of friends on this block―they can be real dumbasses sometimes―but they’re good people.” I reach to play with the edges of her soft hair. “But if I knew you lived here, I would have hung out with them more.”

She glances down in that shy way of hers. “Who do you know around here?”

It’s what she asks, but I think she’s trying to talk just to talk, like she’s suddenly nervous. She probably thinks I’m going to kiss her again. If so, she’s right. Those kisses on Teo’s couch the other night were sexy and sweet, just like her. If I’m being truthful, I can’t keep her out of my mind.

I didn’t let my hands wander again when she pulled away, but I’ll admit it was hard. Sol has that typical Latina body: plump breasts, firm round ass and a tiny waist. But in my book “no” never means “maybe” or “keep trying to see how far you can get”. It means you’re doing more than she wants, and you need to stop. “Trevell McMurphy and Angelo Conti,” I finally answer.