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Her eyes flit down my body. “Yeah,” she whispers.

“Do you want to keep going?”

She hesitates; then her fingertips find my shirt and pull until it’s untucked. I let out an involuntary grunt as my dick strains. I want her hand on my cock so bad. But her fingers are moving slow, and they’re moving in the wrong direction. I kiss her softly and try not to think about where I wish her hand was. The fact that she’s touching me at all is fucking amazing. She nudges my shirt up as her fingers graze my chest. But her kiss slows and cools.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I say, her mouth a breath away from mine.

“Yes.”

Her lips find mine again. The rest of my body is so jacked up with heat, dying for the same attention she’s giving my mouth. I close my hand around hers and slide it down. My cock hardens with every inch closer. But when we reach the front of my pants, Ruby pulls back. Her eyes find mine, uncertain.

“You want to stop?” I croak out with the scrap of fortitude I have left.

“It’s not that.” She looks down at my half-naked torso. “I was just thinking about what you said?”

I curse myself for ever having spoken. “What did I say?”

“About making this special. So we don’t ruin everything.”

There’s not much blood left in my brain, so the memory is vague. “That? I was being a moron. Sentimental. Forget it.”

“No, you were right.” Her eyes search mine. “We have to be careful. This isn’t like anything else.”

“But you said I needed to find your other tattoos.” I take her hand and put it back on my chest. “And everyone knows women are smarter than men.”

But I can’t draw her back in. She pulls her hand away like she wishes she didn’t have to.

The blood is moving slowly, painfully back to my head. I sigh and sit up. “Okay. I mean, youwouldchoose this moment as the first and only instance of me being right in thirteen years, but okay.”

Ruby laughs. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m the asshole who had to go and say it.”

“It was sweet.”

I take her hand and focus on her face, wishing my dick would get the message that the party’s over. “Remember what you said earlier about how I always want things to be perfect and they never are?”

She nods, understanding.

“I don’t think we can ruin what we have, not with sex. We’re too solid.”

“And if it’s not perfect?”

“We can recover. Besides, a wise girl once told me: It’s always good anyway.”

Her shoulders relax, and I pull her into my chest, kissing her hair. She curls tight against me like she needs this. It’s painful how much I want her, but if taking it slow means easing her worries, we’ll do it. The last thing I want is for her to be afraid of getting close to me.

“So you’re okay with waiting?”

“It was my idea, wasn’t it? My brilliant idea to keep things strictly PG-13 with my beautiful, sexy friend I’ve wanted since puberty? Of course. I’m thrilled.”

She swats me playfully. “Who said it had to be strictly PG-13?”

I raise my eyebrows. “What’s this?”

“We’re adults.” She brushes her knuckles along my jawline, her eyes following. “We can have adult fun without having sex.”

The wordsexcoming off her lips is all it takes for my cock to spring back to life. “Yes. Yes, we can, can’t we?”