Meet Me Halfway(81)

We hadn’t been alone since the night we’d kissed, and if the look on his face was any indicator, he was thinking about it too.

I exhaled sharply, biting the inside of my cheek and pivoting away from him toward the living room. It wasn’t messy since we’d stayed at the table the entire time, but I still walked around, fluffing pillows and organizing the shoes by the door. I didn’t know what to say or how to feel about the tension in the air, the innate urge to grab him by his ears and eat his face.

Noticing I hadn’t locked the door after my parents left, I walked over and twisted the deadbolt, telling myself to say something—anything—to break the heavy silence.

Feeling pressure on my neck, I whipped around, barely suppressing a curse. Garrett stood less than a foot away, looking down at me with that same heated gaze. Any words I might have said got stuck in my throat when he rested his hands against the door on either side of my head.

“I feel like we need to clear up a few things so we’re on the same page.”

I was effectively caged in on all sides, the chill of the door clashing with the warmth of his body. I struggled to find oxygen, convinced it’d all left the room. Dropping his head near the crook of my neck, he blew air along my skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake.

“So, I’m not supposed to fuck you with my eyes.”

I shook my head, my cheek bumping into the side of his, while certain neglected parts of my body sparked to life with flying banners and fucking blow horns. With him this close to me, his scent filling my nose, I couldn’t remember why I’d ever said that. He could eye-fuck me until I was a mess on the floor for all I cared.

“But you want me around?”

My head bobbed in answer. I wanted him around every damn day.

“Use your words, Maddie.”

“Yes,” I croaked, “I want you around.”

“Why?”

“You’re my friend.”

“Friends.” He hummed low in his throat. “And as friends, am I allowed to touch you?” His arms slid down the door, inching closer and closer to my body. I nodded again, my eyelids fluttering closed.

“How about kiss you?” All it would take was the slightest movement and our lips would touch. I could feel his breath mixing with my own, and it was intoxicating.

I pulled my lip into my mouth, biting down. There was a reason for no kissing, no touching. But fuck me, I couldn’t remember what it was.

“Words, Maddie.”

I could hear the smile in his voice, and like a dam, I broke. I lurched forward, slamming my body into his, and running my fingers through his hair. Gripping two fistfuls, I yanked his mouth to mine in a vicious kiss.

The second our lips touched, his hands were already clutching at my hips like they’d been on high alert, just waiting for the green light.

He gripped me tight, as if worried I’d disappear, but there was no need. I wasn’t going anywhere. Refusing to breathe would be easier than denying this man. His body called to every part of my own in a natural, primal way, and I couldn’t fight it.

I ran the tip of my tongue across his lips, and he opened for me, swirling and caressing in equal measures. It wasn’t enough. My body was screaming and my mind silent for the first time in my memory. I pressed harder, imprinting him into my soul, and sucked his bottom lip into my mouth.

He groaned, lifting my leg and wrapping it around his waist as he shoved me back against the door and ground into me. Noises I didn’t even know I could make were slipping out in breathy sighs across his mouth.

I released his hair and moved my hands down his body, allowing myself to feel every single muscle while he continued to rub against my center.

Giving my mouth one final sweep of his tongue, he pulled away, dragging his teeth across my jaw and down the column of my neck, sucking and licking as he went.

For the first time in my life, I sensed I could reach the brink, sensed I could shatter into a million pieces from a touch that wasn’t my own. And the truth was he was barely even touching me, yet I could feel myself tightening, coiling up like a spring.

He was dry humping me in the middle of my living room with the lights on, against a cold door, and I could still imagine myself screaming out his name.

I gripped his shoulders, fully intending on hiking up my other leg so I could straddle him koala-style. I needed him to take me to my room, and I needed it now. Consequences be damned. But the second my fingers curled around his sexy ass trapezius muscles, the door to the bathroom opened.

Instead of staying where I was or shoving Garrett back, or doing literally anything else, my brain chose option Z.

Squeaking like a mouse in a trap, I dropped straight to Garrett’s feet right as Jamie stepped out into the hall. My ass hit the ground, the impact reverberating through my tail bone all the way up my spine. I winced, raising my head only to get an eyeful of Garrett’s thighs and the enormous bulge straining there.

“Mom? What are you doing?”

“Jesus.”

“You’re doing Jesus?”

Garrett’s deep, hearty laughter hit my ears, and I tipped my head back to see him clamping a hand over his mouth, trying and failing to hold it in. The sight hit me straight in the gut, and I joined him, laughing my ass off, sprawled at his feet.

“I don’t get it.”

I rubbed my eyes with the pads of my thumb and pointer before looking toward my narrow-eyed child. “Nothing, bud.”