Page 114 of Touch the Sky

“I mean stripping you naked…”

I inch closer, my knee bumping against hers. “And touching you…”

I wait for her to pull away, to be the one to end this, but she’s leaning closer too.

“And tasting you…and being inside you.”

She makes a soft, choked sound, and the beer bottle nearly slips out of her grip.

I take it from her and set both our beers on the coffee table. When I turn back to her, she’s still sitting there with her eyes shut. All her muscles are strung tight, like a wolf waiting to strike.

I want to strike back. I want to spring at each other and go down together.

“I never even got to take all your clothes off you, Tess.”

She grips the tops of her thighs hard, sliding her fingertips up them like claws.

“Inever got to take allyourclothes off.”

She almost sounds angry about it. The slight growl in her voice makes my stomach clench with anticipation.

Her eyes flick open, and my breath catches when they meet mine.

“God, I wish I could see you like that.” She looks like she’s already peeling my clothes off in her mind. “I wish I could feel you.”

I’ve never wished for anything harder. I need her stretched out, not stuffed into the cab of a truck or propped against a wall.

I need her in bed.

“I wish I could feel you…everywhere,” I admit.

Our knees brush together again, and this time, we don’t break apart. The side of her thigh presses hard against mine, and we lean in until our foreheads are touching.

I can feel the heat of her breath on my lips. I can smell her skin, the mix of sunshine and leather, like a hit of summer in the middle of fall.

“This is exactly what we shouldn’t do,” she pants. “This is what we’re supposed to stop.”

“Je sais,” I agree. “I know. I just…I can’t believe I’ll never have you like that. Even once.”

I can already feel the weight of losing this part of her, like a crushing boulder about to tip down onto my back.

“What if it was just once?”

I freeze, the tip of my nose bumping hers. I stay still and wait to see if she’ll take it back, but she doesn’t.

“You want that?” I ask.

“Of course I fucking want that.” Her voice is strained with desperation. “God, this is so fucking stupid. How do you make me lose my goddamn mind like this?”

She trails the tip of her nose down the side of mine. Her lips are just a whisper away from my mouth.

Just once.

“I lose my mind every time I look at you,” I tell her.

She reaches up to cup my cheek, her touch feather-light at first before she makes another choked noise and tightens her grip on my jaw.

“Would you just kiss me?” she asks. “I just…I just want to stop thinking. Please make me stop thinking.”