Page 13 of Promises & Pumpkins (Haunted in Hazy Cove #1)

When the marshmallows were toasted and smashed between graham crackers that dripped melted chocolate, Harper took a large bite.

Crumbs fell to the ground, some clung to the melted marshmallow, and chocolate ran over her fingers.

She didn’t care. “Oh my god,” she groaned.

“That’s so much better than making them in the microwave. ”

“I told you.” I smirked at her when she glared, then decided after a quick second that she was more interested in another bite than holding the grudge. She was too distracted to notice there was chocolate on the corner of her lip. “You’ve got a little something…”

Harper instinctively leaned toward me when I reached my finger out toward her lips.

She held her breath when I ran my thumb along her bottom lip, almost gathering the chocolate left behind on my thumb.

Instead, when her eyes locked with mine, they had that same magnetic, unable-to-resist-it look in them, and I leaned in instead.

She mirrored the approach until my lips captured hers, and I licked the chocolate from her mouth before our tongues met.

She hummed, forgetting about the rest of the s’more in her hand when she wrapped her arms around my neck.

I felt crumbs tumble over my shoulder to the ground, but I didn’t care.

I dropped what was left of my s’more into the dirt, folding my arms behind her and pulling her closer to me to deepen the kiss.

I wanted to taste more of her—all of her.

I needed every breathy whimper that was escaping her chest, and I didn’t want to share the sound with anyone else.

When she sucked my tongue into her mouth, closing her lips over it and running them up to the tip before she pressed them to mine again, I forgot there were others with us—others that saw me in a uniform and called me Captain most days.

“Am I interrupting?” Stanley cleared his throat behind us, and Harper quickly snapped away, burying her face and her embarrassment against my chest. I glared at him. He knew he was interrupting without having to ask—that was why he asked.

“What does it look like?”

“Not at all.”

We answered at the same time, and Harper tugged her lip between her teeth. “I’m actually going to run to the restroom.” She looked around, finding the outhouse Stanley had put in and giving me a quick smile before she shuffled away.

“You’re a dick.” I turned to glare at my partner. He laughed.

He was amused. “I thought you said she was a friend?”

“Fuck off.” I licked my fingers clean of the sticky chocolate and marshmallow left behind.

“I’m just messing with you,” he said, nudging me with his elbow.

“I haven’t seen you have so much fun with someone since Miranda died.

” Stanley looked too sincere for me to get annoyed.

He was right. I shied away from women most of the time.

There was something about Harper that didn’t feel wrong—something that made me want to spend more time with her.

I shrugged, looking over my shoulder to make sure she wasn’t walking up behind me. “I like her,” I said when she wasn’t there. “But she’s not looking for anything.”

“Are you?” He looked surprised, and I shook my head.

“No, not necessarily.” I didn’t know that I would ever feel like I was completely ready to move on, though. “But I like how she makes me feel.”

Stanley looked over my shoulder but continued.

“Maybe because she’s so young.” He winked when I grumbled, ready to defend myself.

She didn’t act like the twenty-something-year-old girl next door.

She was more mature than that, and she challenged me.

“Give her some time. She seems like she likes you too. At least a little bit, judging by that kiss. She’ll come around, and maybe she’ll decide being with your old ass isn’t so bad. ”

“I’m not even forty yet,” I grumbled. Who was he calling an old ass? We were only six months apart.

“You may as well be. You’re thirty-eight. At that point we start rounding up.” Stanley laughed, throwing his head back with amusement at his own joke.

“What’s so funny?” Harper asked, walking back up. A sense of relief flooded me when she wrapped her arm around my waist.

I shook my head, wrapping mine around her shoulder and pulling her closer. My side buzzed with new familiarity. “Nothing,” I said, resisting the urge to kiss the top of her head and glaring when Stanley’s eyes widened. “What do you say we get out of here?”

“Thanks again for coming with me tonight,” I said, standing behind her while she unlocked her front door. When I heard the lock, the tension in the air between us grew heavier. Harper turned, leaning back against the front door and holding her hand loosely over the knob.

“I’ll admit it. I had a really great time.” She smirked. “Even if you tricked me into going.”

I took a step toward her, closing the distance between us. “Would you have gone with me if I hadn’t?”

She gulped and shook her head. “Probably not.” Harper bit her lip, and I was filled with envy.

Then her breathing changed, growing heavier and slower.

“Did you, um, want to come in?” She didn’t bother to offer me a cup of tea she wasn’t going to make.

We both knew exactly why she was inviting me in.

“What for?” I asked, taking another step until she was framed neatly between my body and the wood panel behind her.

She shrugged, and I followed the bob in her throat when she gulped. “Isn’t that what friends do?”

“Friends,” I repeated, closing my hand over hers and opening the door behind her.

When I took another step, forcing her backward, we both entered the house.

Harper reached around me and flipped on the light.

I slammed the door behind us, and she jumped slightly.

Her breath hitched in her chest, and I could feel the butterflies swirling inside her.

“Do you really think we’re just going to be friends, Harper? ”

She nodded, and I smirked. I curled my finger under her chin, guiding her gaze to meet mine, and her eyes flickered around the entryway, from the full-length mirror next to the door and back to my face. “I’m not good as more than friends.” Her voice shook.

“I don’t think that’s true.” When I leaned in toward her, she closed her eyes like she was preparing for me to kiss her.

Instead, I guided her a step forward, stepping around her to stand behind her so we were both facing the mirror.

“Look at the hunger in your eyes right now,” I said, holding her gaze against the mirror while I ran my nose along the soft spot on her neck under her ear.

“Is that how you’d look at a friend?” She nodded again, but more meekly.

I kissed Harper’s neck, inhaling her soft gasp and tracing the goosebumps that rose on her skin with my lips. Then she leaned back against me, and I wrapped my arms around her. “What if you’re wrong?” she whispered. Her breath was heavy with the arousal we both felt.

“Let me show you that I’m not,” I said, running my hand down the front of her stomach to the button on her jeans.

She held her breath while I unfastened them, pushing them past her hips just enough for me to reach my hand between the soft lace that separated me from her.

Her body dropped back against mine when my finger brushed over her clit.

“You’re already so wet. Do you get this wet for all of your friends? ”

Her eyes got wide, and I watched her face turn from horror to embarrassment to need in her reflection.

Then she shook her head, closing her eyes when I circled my finger around her clit, spreading her arousal.

“Most of my friends don’t do that,” she whined when I slipped two fingers inside her and curled them, causing her back to curve.

“Or that!” I pressed my thumb against her clit, pulsing against her slowly and at an even rhythm. Her eyes closed tighter.

I pulled my hand from her damp panties and pushed her jeans along with the lace down her thighs.

The fabric dropped to the ground, and I moved my hand back to her now-bare mound.

“Open your eyes,” I said, sliding my fingers back between her lips.

“I want you to watch how you fall apart for me. Then you can tell me when we’re done that I’m just your friend. ”

Her eyes flickered open, and I got lost in the blue reflection.

My cock pressed against my own zipper, and the more desperate her stare got, the more it ached to be freed—to be buried inside her.

Then her pussy clenched around my fingers, and I had to feel her body ripple like that around my cock.

When she pushed her hips back, rubbing her bare ass against the bulge in my jeans, I couldn’t resist any longer.

I moved as quickly as I could to get my own jeans off by her next breath. The head of my erection pressed against her round ass, and precum glistened on the tip already. I was as desperate as I knew she was.

“Put your hands on the mirror,” I said, placing my hand against the middle of her back and guiding her forward.

She bent at the waist, flattening her hands against the mirror, just above her face.

When I pushed more on her back, she arched it, forcing her to stare into her own face. “Don’t look away.”

She shook her head and wiggled her hips. “I won’t.”

“Tell me you want me as badly as I want you right now.” She didn’t have to tell me for me to see the desperation in the way her eyes shimmered. I wanted to hear it anyway. I wanted to hear her admit that she was longing and hungry.

Harper pushed her hips back again, huffing with frustration when I grabbed hold of them and held her still. “Miles, please. Just fuck me.”

I lined myself up at her entrance, thrusting into her and sending her into the mirror.

How well had she mounted it on the wall?

When it didn’t fall after the next thrust, I figured it could handle it.

I forced myself deeper, filling her and groaning when my hips clapped against her ass.

Her face twisted in pleasure and concentration while she held her balance against the mirror.

Each time her eyes closed, she forced them back open.

As I sped up, her body flattened against the mirror, and I imagined the glass was cold against her nipples.

Her back arched more than it seemed possible, but she kept her balance while I continued to drill into her.

Soon her moans mixed with the clapping of our skin and the wetness of her arousal, filling the entryway with the sweet sound of proving my point.

“I can feel how close you’re getting,” I said, speeding up and fucking her harder.

Her moans turned to controlled cries and moans that cracked each time I brushed against her g-spot.

“Would a friend make your legs shake like this? Make your eyes water like that?” When her eyes rolled back, I wrapped my hand in her ponytail and held her stare in the mirror.

“Look at you, how beautiful you are. You’re a vision.

Absolutely lovely when you start to break for me, aren’t you? ”

Harper nodded. “Miles! I can’t!”

“You can,” I said when her trembling got more intense.

“You’re going to. Look at me.” Her eyes shot up, meeting mine in the glass.

I memorized every make-up smudge and drop of sweat that decorated her normally innocent features, savoring that I was the only one seeing them.

“I want your eyes right here when you come.”

She nodded, but her eyes didn’t leave mine.

Then she came, and the tension in her muscles relaxed before tensing back up again.

Waves of her pleasure coursed through her, milking my release from my body before hers had even stopped shaking.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful when you do that.

” I kissed her shoulder, licking the salty sheen from my lips.

“Do you do this with all your friends?” she asked with her face against the glass, trying to catch her breath. I grabbed her wrist, turning her toward me and pulling her into my arms. The scent of her shampoo and sweat filled my nostrils, and I inhaled deeply.

“No,” I said, kissing the top of her head. “But like I said, I don’t think we’re friends.”

She giggled, and her lips left a trail of drowsy kisses on my chest. “If you say so.”