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Something snapped in him and both of his hands cupped my face as he plundered my mouth, allowing me to savor him, absorb him into my being.

I whimpered, loving the control he had over me as our tongues tangled. Him, taking what he wanted from me and me, along for the ride as I memorized the sensations, his flavor, and the caress of his hands over my skin.

When he broke the kiss, we both panted. With great effort, I forced myself to let go of his clothing and not slide the material up and off the way I yearned to do. I’d promised, and it didn’t matter at the hole widening in my chest, at the knowledge of never having this again. I smiled, grateful I hadn’t missed out.

“Wow,” I murmured.

Connor seemed dazed, confused when I spoke, but I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the regret when the reality of the situation made him aware of what we’d done.

His hands dropped away from me and with a loud, poignant sigh, I heard his feet shuffle toward the door before the finality of the soft click alerted me I was alone.

Despite my desperate need to cry, I pressed the palm of my hands against my eyelids and took deep breaths. Even knowing it wouldn’t go further than this, I’d hoped. It should have alertedme to what a horrible choice it was, to know Connor as more than a friend. But did I regret it?

No, I didn’t.

5

CONNOR

Was it possible to lose your mind from a simple kiss?

It was a question I kept asking myself in the two weeks since Ollie had been in my bedroom. The beautiful flush of desire along his cheeks and neck as my hands roamed over him, remembering the smooth skin against my roughened palms. And the kiss; the spark of connection I’d never found with any of the others I’d been intimate with, I couldn’t shake. It kept replaying in the forefront of my mind during all my waking hours, taunting me.

Shit, and the last thing I wanted was to think about my past and the nameless men and women who I shared a bed with over the years to satiate my lust.

But as much as my mind wandered to… it, something else bothered me in the days that followed.

Ollie seemed to have erased from memory the intimate kiss we shared. He treated me like another friend; the way he did the triplets or Gracie. To him, maybe our kiss hadn’t meant a fraction of the way it had me.

But it wasn’t as if I stuck around long enough after to find out how he processed what we shared. One look at his swollenlips and the bliss making him glow, and I wanted him. To touch every inch of his body, find the areas that made him gasp as I took him apart. Because of the unknown, my mind had no problems filling in the gaps with images of him arching, screaming out his orgasm, and feeling him clench around my cock.

The questions swirling around in my brain demanded to understand what the moment meant to him, tied with the ways I wanted to touch him, which led to scarier questions.

Could he picture building a life with me, sharing his thoughts and listening to mine? Did my past skew the way he saw me? Those and more wanted to push out of my throat after I experienced the hottest kiss in my entire existence.

But instead of asking him, or saying anything, I flushed when I recalled dashing out of the bedroom, finding the nearest bathroom, yanking down my pants, and coming on my hand after two throttling strokes.

A hunger consumed mebeforeI had intimate knowledge of the way his lips pressed against mine and the pressure of his tongue as he explored. I steered both of us to the brink of madness because whenever we were in a room together; I touched him as though he were already mine. Instead of reining in my desire for him and helping him find a man to share his life with, I’d stolen a taste of him. From a simple kiss, my world changed, and I found myself in a revolving cycle of fighting a craving I could never satiate and wishing away all the constant fantasies of mapping out his entire body with my lips before taking him apart until he shouted my name.

His nearness made my fingertips tingle, and whenever his fresh scent invaded my senses, I tightened my muscles to resist the urge to pounce on him and taste him, confirming that his addictive mouth and his responses to me weren’t an exaggeration in my memory.

It had even gotten to the point my family was giving me a wide berth. There was nothing wrong with me, but having Ollie glance my way without the affection glinting in his blue eyes hurt my heart.

But this was what I wanted. Wasn’t it?

The triplets followed me upstairs after I got home from meeting with my agent, and I was almost, but not quite, relieved I would have distance from the situation soon. Rather than breaking off and going into their own rooms, they strode into my bedroom after me and slammed the door behind them.

For a minute, three pairs of narrowed eyes glared at me before I cracked.

“What?”

“We love you. Most of the time you’re a wonderful brother, but I’m going to set that fact aside to tell you if you fuck this up…” Lyric growled, cutting off the last part of his threat.

Landon shook his head, but the thoughtful one continued.

“We’ll find a painful way of making you miserable every day for the rest of your existence.”

“Linus!”