Page 57 of Your Last First Kiss

“Okay,” she finally says and steps back, but my body is so in tune with hers that when her left leg shifts, so does my right one. We move in tandem like marionettes.

She holds my strings, and I never want them severed.

“So, Penny Mulligan.” Her name is delicious on my tongue. “Friends. Friends who are honest. I’m going to be real fucking honest for a minute.” I lower my voice to barely above a whisper, and she lifts her head up like she’s straining to hear me. “You look gorgeous.”

She snorts, then chokes and ducks her head, but we’re standing so close that when she bends forward on a laugh, her forehead rests against my chest. She jerks back, but I crowd her even more.

“Right,” she says. “With baby vomit on my shirt and a teething biscuit stuck in my hair. God, Dillon. I thought you were going to tell me my cooking sucked or something.”

Why the hell can’t she see what I’m seeing?

Irritation makes my scalp prickle, and I grasp her chin firmly between my thumb and forefinger.

There’s no more keeping my distance from her.

“You could be wearing last week’s pajamas and have liver in your hair, and I would still see the most beautiful woman in the room. You, Penny, are stunning in that gold dress I dream about. You’re vexing in your pencil skirts. But this version of you? At home, relaxed? Real? This version is breathtaking.”

I press my hips forward, wanting her to know what she does to me. “You’re so mesmerizing that I can’t think straight because all the blood in my body is rushing to my cock that’s weeping for a taste of you.”

Her breaths are shallow and fast. The color high on her cheeks makes me desperate to know how her body flushes in pleasure.

“Dillon,” she says on an exhale. Her lips part, drawing my head closer to them.

When my mouth ghosts above hers, a whisper of a breath between us, I ask, “How’s that for honest?”

She nods, and when she does, it brings her lips against mine. Her eyebrows shoot up in shock, but I won’t waste this opportunity. The second she sighs into me, I slip my hand from her chin and wrap it around the back of her neck, holding her to me. No, not just holding her to me, but molding her to me.

Her entire body fits into mine like she was carved from my soul.

She has her reasons. Reasons a relationship is too complicated. But I have some reasons of my own. Reasons why this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

Perhaps it’s time we came to an understanding. A meeting of minds to meld our opposing sides into one cohesive unit.

A gentle moan escapes the back of her throat, and I greedily swallow it down. She tastes of home-cooked meals and sex. A strange combination that has my head spinning in a lustful haze.

Baby giggles from the next room have us pulling apart. Her looking a little dazed. Me wanting to beat on my chest like a wild animal announcing that I’ve finally found my place.

“Dillon,” she whispers, but I hold a finger to her lips to silence her.

“I’m going to be here for a while, and I know that was not taking it slow. But, baby, we’ve been taking it slow for years. So, give me a month. A month to try.”

“Try what?”

Jesus Christ. Her voice is wobbly with wonder, and I’d give my left nut to know what she sounds like when she comes.

Focus, Dillon. Focus.

“A month to try. With you. With your family. No pressure. No expectations. Just me and you and them.” I hook a thumb over my shoulder.

Penny shakes her head as her eyes go watery. “I can’t, Dillon. I can’t just try. They’ll get attached. They’ll feel let down and discarded when you go back to the city. I can’t do that to them.”

Rage burns in my veins. She’s so sure I’ll go back to the city. So sure I’ll leave them.

Well, fuck that.

I just made up my mind.

“I’m going to be here, Penny. In this town. Your neighbor. Your friend. I can be their friend if we’re together or not, and that will never change. I don’t drop people. And I know from experience how hard it is to let people in when all you’ve experienced is the letdown from someone you should have been able to trust with your life. I would never cause them more pain. So let me be your friend when they’re watching.”