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My heart pounds, trying to escape my chest as I wait for him to deepen the kiss, but it never comes.

After a beat, he frees me from the confines of the seat belt and pulls away. He climbs from the car like that moment between us didn’t happen before walking around to my side and opening my door.

He holds his hand out, and although I don’t want his help after the way he just teased me, I’m powerless but to slide mine into his larger one just to feel him once again.

Something happens when we touch, something I can’t describe, but I know it’s powerful enough to have me addicted.

I allow him to pull me from the car and slam the door behind me before he pins my hips against it. Movement from my left catches my eye, but I ignore our one-woman audience. I’m too consumed by the man who’s pressed up against my body and stealing all my air.

“I’m so glad you found me today,” he admits, his voice deep and gravelly as his dark blue eyes stare down into mine.

“It seems the universe—or Brooke—wants us to be together.”

Something flickers in his eyes at my words, but he doesn’t give me a chance to ask. “It seems that way. And who would we be to deny the universe what it wants?”

His hand slips up the length of my neck before his fingers tangle in my hair. He grips and tips my head back slightly so I’m at the perfect position for him.

“Friday night can’t come soon enough,” he mutters before his mouth crashes down on mine.

My lips part the second his tongue seeks entry, and I can’t help a groan rumbling up my throat when they connect.

I sag back against the car, relying on his body to hold me up, and he renders me useless with his intoxicating kiss.

My head spins as he consumes me. His fingers grip tighter on my hair, his hard length pressing against my hip and driving me crazy with need.

His hand slips down from my waist and hooks my leg up around his hip. It causes him to press exactly where I need him.

Knowing how easily he could make me fall completely under his spell is like a bucket of cold water. I pull my leg from his grasp and press my palms against his solid chest.

He pulls back and looks down at me. His pupils are shot, the blue almost swallowed by the black of his desire.

“Harlow?” His chest heaves as he tries to catch his breath.

“Friday night?”

“Y-yeah. Can I … call you?”

I nod, heat creeping up my neck. I was just basically dry humping him against my car for all my neighbors to see. Why is it that the suggestion of him calling me turns me into an excited teenage girl with her first crush?

“You can.”

A car pulls up somewhere behind us, and, after a quick glance at it, Corey’s focus is back on me.

“That’s my Uber.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you for today. It was … unexpected. From beginning to end.”

A chuckle falls from my lips as he steps back and turns toward his waiting car.

“Hey, Brit boy,” I call.

He looks back at me over his shoulder, a panty-melting smile on his face. A bolt of lust hits me as his eyes drop to my body.

“Sneaking out this morning might have been the best thing I’ve done in my life.”

His smile lights up his entire face. He knows as well as I do that if I were still in that bed when he woke this morning, none of this would have happened.

“Until Friday.”

I nod and smile at him, dizzy with excitement. It’s a feeling that’s eluded me for a very long time.

After watching his car speed off, I push through the front door before falling back against it and giving my heart a second to slow down.

“You’re welcome,” comes from the living room where I knew she was watching. I can’t help but laugh. “Did you have a good afternoon?” she asks, appearing in the doorway.

“What do you think?”

“Well, from the fact that I just watched your little porno in the driveway, I’d say yes. But I never know with you.”

I swat her shoulder as I walk past her and directly to the kitchen for a drink. I know I’m about to get a Brooke grilling, so I need a strong one.

I’m pouring the rum into my glass when I sense her behind me.

“I can’t believe you sent me there, knowing he’d be there.”

“I didn’t know for sure. I was just hoping.”

“You’re an interfering whore, you know that?”

She barks a laugh. “Guilty as charged. But wasn’t it worth it?”

My cheeks heat, knowing what she just witnessed.

“It was okay, I guess.”

“Okay?” she echoes incredulously. “He had you pinned to the car. I thought I was going to combust just watching you. How you allowed him to walk away, God only knows.”

“We’ve had a really great day. After he inked me, he took me for dinner at a surf shack by the ocean.”

“Whoa, hold up a minute. You let him do it? Let me see. Let me see.”

Putting my drink down, I lift my dress to show her my back.

“Ouch, that looks sore.”

It’s only as she says it that I feel it. “I had a good distraction.”

“True that. It’s stunning.”

“He’s really talented.”

“Oh yeah? Tell me more about those talented fingers.”

“Nothing happened beyond what you just saw.”

“But you’ve been with him for hours—practically naked, I’m assuming, to get that done. How?—”

“Because it was the right thing to do. This might sound crazy to you, but we just spent time together. Actually got to know each other.”

“You make me sound like a sex maniac.”

I raise a brow at her.

“What? I have more than first dates.”

“When?”

“Err … about four months ago.”

“And you came home complaining that he was too boring because he didn’t try to touch you up after date two.”

“Well, he didn’t. I like to know what I’m working with and if they’re good in the sack.”

“Whatever,” I mutter, pushing past her in favor of the couch.

“So, are you seeing him again?”

“Friday night.”

She squeals in excitement as she curls herself onto the other couch where she must have been before we interrupted her evening, if her half-empty bottle of wine is anything to go by.

“Book Friday off. I’m not working, so we’ll spend the day getting you date ready.”

“I can’t, I’ve got too much to do.”

“Too much to get a fresh wax?”

I throw a cushion at her and turn the TV up in hope of drowning her out.

“Don’t do this to me,” she warns. “I tell you all about the guys I spend time with.”

I groan. Don’t I know it.

“I don’t ask for most of the shit you share, B.”

“Maybe not, but I was hoping to get the same in return when you eventually found someone.”

“I wouldn’t describe one date as ‘finding someone.’”

She shrugs. “Not important. Is he as perfect and dreamy as he looks?”

“He’s a good guy.”

“A good guy ? My dad is a good guy. James,” she says with a sigh, naming the LA Vipers head coach, “is a good guy. You gotta give me more than that. Does he give you tingles when he says your name in that accent?”

“Tingles, yes,” I admit, much to her delight. “And I don’t know him well enough to give you much else.”

“You’ve seen him naked. What more do you need to know?”

“You’re a fucking nightmare.”