“Hey, I wouldn’t come and then leave you hanging. I’d repay the favour.”
I would love to repay the favour. Fuck, I’m rock solid, and it’s becoming too uncomfortable. I want to lay her down and trace my tongue over every inch of her body. I want to taste her before I bury myself inside.
Enough. You need to focus on being her friend and forget whatever physical attraction you have with her. She’s just a girl. There are plenty of those for you in every city in every country.
We sit down, far too close for our not-so-innocent friendship. She gently thumps me on the arm and then traces the dragon wrapped around my bicep. She’s so easily distracted.
“I want a tattoo,” she says.
“Yeah? You’re going to mark that virgin skin?”
“I don’t know what I want or where I want it, but I like them. And it’s been a while since I realised I have something virgin.”
“Ah, the dickhead ex.”
Her ex was an absolute twat of a man. He was boring and soft as shit. If he called her honey one more time, I would’ve punched him.
“There was nothing wrong with him.”
“Oh, please. With people like him, you know exactly what your future would be like. You don’t fit that mould. You’d go insane.”
She shrugs one shoulder and then shuffles back and twists, so she can kick her feet up onto my legs. “I know. We weren’t compatible at all, but that doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with him. He was happy to be still, and he was content with what he had, whereas I need to keep moving and find something new.”
“Still is dull.”
“For people like us, it is.” She leans in closer, and her legs press into my crotch.
Is she doing it on purpose or what?
I lick my dry lips and grip the beer bottle with two hands.
You can’t touch her again.
Tex puts on a movie, and we watch it, hyperaware of each other and not really paying attention to the screen. I feel like I’m being pulled toward her, like a greater force is at work.
Keep your fucking hands to yourself.
The movie is wrapping up.
Tex lays her head back and tilts it in my direction. “Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if something major had or hadn’t happened? I occasionally wonder where I’d be if Jennifer had taken me with her.”
“Where’s that?”
“Ugh. I would’ve grown up as her mini me. She would’ve dressed me in kid versions of her outfits and done mother-daughter photo shoots to sell her own line of clothes. There was talk about it, but I think she realised she can’t design shit.”
“I often think about my parents. I was too young to remember them, but I sometimes wonder if I’d be here now. My grandad is the rocker in the family. If I wasn’t raised in his house, I might be somewhere completely different.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispers.
“Yeah, me, too.”
I can’t help it. She’s looking at me like she wants me to kiss her, and there is nothing else in this world I’d rather do right now. I dip my head, and her lips part. She wants this as much as I do. My heart is hammering harder, the closer I get.
Fuck everything.
I’m going to kiss her, but before I get close, her door swings open and slams back on itself. I’m so fucking glad Milo has a spare key… Texas and I jump and look over the back of the sofa. Cooper struts in without paying attention, but Milo sees us.
“Just in time,” Milo says, lifting his eyebrow.
I lean away slightly. “We were just discussing Cooper’s threesome fail.” About two hours ago. Believe me, Milo.
He’s looking too hard, and I’m afraid the truth is obvious.
I can’t lie to myself anymore, so how can I fool a guy who knows me better than anyone else?
Cooper is the joker, and Milo, I can talk to. I’ve never discussed Tex with him, and he doesn’t know about our first kiss or last night, but something tells me that I might have to talk to him soon.
“It wasn’t a fucking fail, dickheads. I’m grabbing a Jack, Tex.”
She waves the back of her hand at him. “You sleep with some models then?”
Milo grins. “Of course. What’ve you boring wankers been doing?” he asks. His question sounds innocent, but it’s laced with accusation.
“Movie and beer.” I reply.
“Mmhmm. Mind if we join?” Milo looks at me with judgment in his dark eyes.
Tex shrugs a shoulder but still doesn’t move her legs. The way Milo is watching me, he might as well have me on the other side of a table, shining a light in my eyes. His hard what-the-fuck-are-you-playing-at look is demanding a thousand answers to a thousand questions that I don’t even want to think about.
I don’t know what I’m doing.
I’ve never really wanted someone before. Tex is the first, and it’s fucking with my head.
Awkwardly, I sit up a little straighter, and she drops her legs. The bastard’s made me self-conscious of my friendship with Texas.