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“Since when do you ask?” I hear the smile in her voice seconds before I push my way inside the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” I chuckle, finding her on her knees in the bathroom.

“I knocked over my makeup bag.” She gestures to the contents spread across the floor. “Don’t just stand there watching. Help.”

“But watching is so enjoyable.” I grin, crouching down to assist her in cleaning up her items. “Are you okay?” I ask again, for an entirely different reason than I asked moments ago.

She seems flustered. Off. Very un-Charlotte-like.

“Yeah, I just...” She rises to stand when I pick up the last item, dropping it into her cosmetics bag, giving me my first full view of her.

I have to bite down the groan of appreciation that works its way into my throat at the sight of her. She’s dressed in a pair of tight, black pants with an oversized deep blue sweater that damn near hangs to her knees. While I will take her in one of those little tight numbers she likes to wear any day, she is equally as beautiful when she’s fully covered, especially when I know how much I’m going to enjoy stripping her out of this outfit later this evening.

She has her red waves tied up in a loose pony that hangs softly down her back, little tendrils left down to fall around her face. She’s kept her makeup light and natural, showing off her freckles. She is absolutely stunning, as per usual.

“Is it weird that I’m nervous?” she finally asks.

“Nervous?” My forehead furrows in confusion. “We’re meeting Lyric and Kai for dinner. What could you possibly be nervous about?”

Char has spent the last half of winter break with me in North Carolina, and since Lyric is here visiting our parents, I thought it would be the perfect chance for all of us to get together, which is something our schedules have not allowed up to this point.

Between me and Char alternating weekends that we visit each other, and Lyric busy with Kai and school, we’re rarely all in the same place at the same time and even when we are, someone is usually busy with one thing or another.

“I don’t know. This is the first time we’ve all been out together.” She shrugs, unable to meet my gaze.

“Hey.” I close the space between us in one step, using my hand to tip her chin up, forcing her eyes to mine. “You survived dinner with my parents,” I remind her, sliding my hand across the side of her face. “Lyric and Kai should be a walk in the park.”

My mom insisted on having us over the day Charlotte arrived, and while I tried to get out of it, wanting her all to myself, Char thought it would be a good idea for her to get toknow my parents a little better. Not that I had any objection to that. I just don’t have a fondness for sharing her with other people. Even if those people are the ones who brought me into this world.

“I know itshouldbe, but what if it’s... I don’t know... Weird.”

“Why would it be weird?”

It’s only now dawning on me that sheisactually worried about this.

“Because Lyric is your sisterandmy best friend, and this is the first time we’re going out with her as an official couple.”

“We’ve been around my sister since we’ve been dating.”

“Yeah, but mainly just in passing or with other people around. This is different. A more intimate setting.”

“You have nothing to worry about. My sister knows how crazy I am about you. She’s not going to make it weird.”

“Maybe not. But what if I do?”

“How could you possibly do that?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been known to be a bit handsy. What if I touch you in a way that freaks her out or makes her uncomfortable? I mean, I don’t have any siblings, but if I had a brother and he was dating one of my friends, I can’t say I would enjoy seeing them grope each other.”

“So then we only grope where she can’t see,” I offer with a smirk, cupping her other cheek so I’m holding her face in my hands.

“You’re not helping.” She groans, a semblance of a smile playing on her lips.

“No? Kinda seems like I am.” I chuckle, dropping my mouth to hers.

She melts into the kiss, opening for me when my tongue drags across the seam of her lips. I dip my tongue into her mouth, groaning when she matches my eagerness. Letting my hands fall from her face, I slip one around to the back of herneck, the other falling to the small of her back as I pull her flush against me.

Breaking the kiss, I trail my lips down the side of her neck, licking and sucking along the soft skin.