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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Skylar

“Please, please, please .”

Shaking his head with a sly grin, Cassius chuckles. “No.”

“But Cass…” I whine, again showing him the bright pink helmet in my hands. “It’s so pretty. Please, can you take me for a ride?”

It’s unfair that my best friend just bought the hottest motorcycle on the planet but refuses to let me ride it with him . When he turned up with it a couple of days ago, out of the blue, I was shocked. Cassius doesn’t exactly live life on the wild side and had never expressed any interest in getting one. When I asked, he said he was ‘feeling it’ and I was a little shocked that my hyper-planning best friend would do something on such a whim. However, the first time I saw him coming up our street, mounted on the back of a sleek black motorcycle, getting my turn was the only thing I could think of.

“How am I supposed to get to work, huh?” I huff, throwing a hand in the air.

“Use the van,” he says as he fishes his keys out of his pocket.

My eyes dart to the other side of the garage. Oh, yeah , the insanely drool-worthy soccer mom van that used to belong to both of us but is now solely mine. “Please, it’s just one ride.”

He sighs as he stuffs the handlebar into his backpack. “It’s not safe, sunshine.”

“But you ride it!”

“So? I’m risking me, not you.”

I open my mouth to bite back with another stubborn comment, but my lips twitch into a smile instead. He really can be just the sweetest muffin on the entire planet. I drop the helmet gracelessly, and throw myself at him, nearly causing him to tip over the bike. He wraps his arms around my waist as I cling to him, so fucking grateful that I have him in my life.

But I want to ride the motorcycle, damn it!

“Did I ever tell you how sexy you are on it?” I tease, trying to play to his ego. “Fuck me, Cass. You’re like a walking porno with the helmet and the gloves and?—”

Chuckling, he shoves his hand under my shirt so he can splay his fingers against my bare back. “Flattery isn’t going to get you on the bike.”

“How about…” Then it hits me, and I pull back just enough to look up at him. “How about a kiss?”

His eyes narrow. “A what?”

“A kiss,” I repeat, licking my lips teasingly. “A kiss with tongue, and I get to ride with you.”

With a snort, he shakes his head. “It’d have to be a million and one kisses to?—”

But he’s cut off as I stand on the tips of my toes and layer my lips atop his. He rears his head back, almost like a flinch, but it doesn’t stop him from grasping my hips with harsh hands and pulling me flush against him. When I flick my tongue along his seam, silently asking for permission, he opens up for me. But that’s the only control he’s willing to give.

Before I know it, I’m being whirled around and deposited on top of the bike. Cassius is digging one hand into my hair and yanking my head back, his other hand reaching for my thigh and hooking it around his hip. He’s not just kissing me back, he’s demolishing me, and it makes my toes curl as I whimper.

“Those sounds, sunshine,” he praises, pulling back only so he can gently nip at my bottom lip. “You make the prettiest sounds.”

“Uh-huh,” I mumble, already wrapping my arms around his neck so I can drag him back down to me.

I forget the whole point of this. Forget that it was just supposed to be a joke because— holy shit —Cassius is an amazing kisser. He’s fucking into my mouth with such unrestrained passion, with an eagerness that’s still somehow cocky. Despite knowing this is just my best friend, my body becomes all sorts of hot and bothered. I whine when my dick surges to life, tenting the front of my pink shorts.

He finally lets up and pulls away, his lips puffy and spit soaked as he smirks. “One.”

“Good enough for a ride?” I tease, breathless.

He shakes his head, and he has to know where his hand is right now, so dangerously close to feeling just how hard he’s made me. “Only a million more to go.”

I pout, working my hands under his shirt, and feeling how his abs quiver under my touch as my fingers trace their way up to his tattoo. “So no ride then?”

“No ride,” he says definitively. He goes to take a step back, but stops. Instead, he reaches up to cup my cheeks, brushing his thumbs just under my eyes, his own lit with a desperate sort of urgency. “I can’t risk you getting hurt. Ever . I don’t know what I would do with myself if something happened to you.”

Stupid tears blur my vision, and I nod. “I feel the same, Cass.”

So very deeply in my bones do I feel it. Cassius is the most important person in my life. Without him, I don’t know where I would be. We met when we were so young, bonded over the life we were forced to live, and crawled out of that same life hand-in-hand.

“Tell me you love me,” he whispers, lips dangerously close to brushing against mine. “Say it, sunshine.”

My lower lip wobbles, those tears on the brink of falling down my cheeks. “I love you?—”

And then he’s kissing me again, but this time, it’s different. It’s not that same heady and passionate lust that drove him before. I’m fully aware that best friends don’t kiss, but I can’t find any fucks to give about it now. This embrace is something smoother, sweeter, deeper. It’s something so meaningful, a testament to our relationship, and I drown in it.

It’s a promise.

A promise that he’ll always be in my life. A promise that he’ll give me whatever I need. A promise that he’s not going anywhere.

So, I yield to him, melting in his hands as he groans against my mouth. Cassius is my comfort, my security, my anchor. Nobody needs to give us their approval to be who we are together. Nobody gets to dictate our friendship that spans beyond the norm. Nobody needs to understand this connection we share that’s fully on display as he kisses me like he loves me.

Because he does.

“I’m going to be late,” he finally says when he breaks our kiss. Brushing his thumb against my abused lower lip, he looks at me tenderly. “I’ll see you later, sunshine.”

“Okay,” I mumble, in a daze, barely able to stand on unsteady legs as he helps me off the bike. I want to stay with him, cling to him, be all sorts of needy, but I let him go. “I’ll see you when I start my shift.”

He throws me a wink as he mounts his bike, his handsome face hidden when he puts on his helmet. He doesn’t move, however, and I realize he’s waiting for me to go back inside while he watches. I chuckle at that, even though my heart always warms at how overprotective he is.

I’m reluctant to leave him, but I do. He follows me on his bike as I make my way out of the basement garage and to the entrance of our building. When I’m inside, I go to the kitchen table, where my sparkly notebook rests. Biting my bottom lip, still tingling from the kiss, I pick up my pen and open the notebook.

MUST KISS ME LIKE MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.