Page 185 of Burn Bright

Harriet takes staggered, uneven breaths, gripping fiercely to my gaze. “Say it again.”

I glance at her lips—and I kiss her. It explodes us together. I crash into the fucking cymbal. She elbows a snare drum as our lips meld with a desperate heat. I need to be closer. The craving screams at all my muscles, and to avoid breaking the drum kit, I pick her up and haul her over the instrument and into my chest.

A moan ejects out of her mouth, and I want to devourthe pleasured sound. I crush my lips against hers, one hand tangled in the back of her hair, the other cupping her ass. My tongue glides against her tongue, loving the sweet taste of her, loving her vulnerable, overwhelmed reactions to my hands, my lips. I can feel the building heat of her pussy against me, her legs split apart around me. It’s a primal urge to want to slide inside her right now, but I don’t.

I just kiss her. But it’s not reallyjusta kiss. It feels like I’m being lit on fire. I’m burning and burning. And I’m not in search of water. I want to fan these flames. I buck her up higher on my body, and a whimpering cry leaves Harriet—a sound I’ve never heard her make.

Blood rushes to my cock.

Aroused flush coats her cheeks, and she clutches my neck. Hanging on to me as our gazes cling. I hold her at eye-level. Next kiss, I carry her to the wall. Resting her shoulders against it. Then I trail kisses down her cheek, her jaw—spending a longer, hotter beat at her neck. She full-body shakes.

“Ben. What the fuck…?” She breaks into a moan.

“Fuck,” I groan against her nape. I’m careful not to give her a hickey. It’s as if every nerve-ending of hers is coming alive from my touch, and it’s making me want to smother her until she climaxes. Then I’d do it again, just to see it all over again.

I return to her lips. Holding her soft cheek while I slow the kiss in sensual strokes. She’s melting against me, and my muscles flex against her as I control my need and desire. She’s allowing me to take her on this journey, and I’m grateful because feeling Harriet lose herself to pleasure in my hands is like inhaling helium. I’m flying high. Fire in the night sky.

A smoldering, blazing star.

“I can’t,” she gasps for breath, her eyes threatening to roll.

“Let go,” I whisper against her lips.

“It’s too…much.” She chokes on a sudden cry, and I taste the sound against my tongue, then I run my fingers between her thighs. On the outside of her gym shorts. Over her clit, her pussy. She isso fucking wet.It aches my cock.

This does her in—my hand between her legs.

Her whole body convulses against me. I want inside Harriet. I want to feel her pulse and clench around me, but I grit down on my teeth and breathe hot breath through my nose. Keepingher in my arms while she orgasms. She’s light to me. I could probably toss her around all day, all night.

Really, I just want to hold her right up against my chest. Press her close. Just like this.

And never let her go.

As she descends off the rippling climax, I take a hand off her ass, just to peel strands of her hair off her reddened lips. Mine sting a little, and my breath is much shallower than hers. I’m pent-up. Doing my best to ignore it. Her fingers slip down to my biceps. I watch her study our bodies, how I have her supported by the backs of her thighs now.

“Good?” I ask her with a rising smile.

“Uh, that was…way better than good.” Her cheeks are still flushed. “I’ve never really enjoyed kissing, but that…holy shit. I could fantasize about that.”

“Why fantasize when you can have it?” I kiss her more tenderly, then pull back to see her narrowed eyes softening. I see her thinking. Her mind contemplating weeks from now. “I’m still here.”

“I know.” She kisses me this time. Deeper, soul-pulling. Her small palms cup my face. I skate my hand into her hair again. I grind against her into the wall, and I’m scared I might lose myself in a round two ofjustkissing.

So I break our lips apart.

I let her catch her breath, then I set her gently on her feet. She tugs down her shorts, and I adjust my erection.

“Dude,” her eyes bug at my cock.

I burst into a laugh. “I will fit, Fisher. Basic anatomy. I assume you aced Health Class, smarty-pants.”

“Aced it, yeah. Never taken a dick that big though.”

“I’ll go slow.” I nod toward the drum kit. “You want to play?”

She walks back over to the instrument and grabs the sticks off the floor. “I thought you were about to ask if I wanted to be fucked on the drums.”

I laugh again. “Yeah, I have to draw the line somewhere”—I peer back to the closed door, thankful for the soundproofing in here—“being caught having sex isn’t going to appeal to the nerds. Unlike my kind, who love the notches on the bedposts.”