“What, you don’t think I have moves? These hips—they swivel, darlin’,” he says with a slight twang.
“That they do,” I respond, pulling a few strands of my hair in front of my face, hiding from the flirtatious words I just said. Will chuckles more, but after a second or two, it’s nothing but the sound of his room on one end meeting the sounds in mine.
“Your lip ticks up, like Elvis,” he says, breaking the silence just as I feel my blush crawling down my neck and onto my chest.
I punch out a laugh and roll to my side.
“Does not!” I say, feeling my face, my mouth higher on one side. Son of a bitch!
“It does,” he laughs lightly. “Always has.”
I wait for the quiet to settle in again. I wait to be braver with him.
“Just how many things have you noticed about me, Will Hollister?” The second my question is done, my words are replaced by the rapid pounding of my pulse, but my face—it’s still smiling. So hard it hurts.
“Let’s see,” he says, and I hear him settling into his bed, his voice muffling as his phone presses against his face. “I noticed that you can’t stand having your hair pulled up in anything. When we swim, you pull your cap off the second we’re done.”
“Well that’s sexy,” I say, covering my face and mentally kicking myself for letting that one slip out.
“Oh, you wanted sexy things…” he says, and I open my mouth to say no, but shut it quickly, curious over exactly what he’ll say next. “I have lots of those, too, besides the Elvis-lip thing, which yes, Maddy, is so fuckin’ sexy.”
“Oh,” I blush, my thumbnail quickly moving between my teeth.
“Let’s see, first, there’s the way your legs curve along your quads, the muscle that’s there giving them this edge. The athlete part of me likes how hard you had to train to make it that way,” he says.
“What does the…” I pause, taking a quick breath, “man side of you think?” I ask, now so red that even my arms look flushed.
“Oh, the man side…” he growls low, a rumble from his chest. “That part of me likes the ride my hand takes when it starts just above your knee, then glides slowly up your leg to your panties, my fingertips tracing that lacey band that runs along the inside of your thigh and up over your hip.”
Holy hell.
“And then there’s the way your neck curves into your shoulder, the way your hair tickles your skin and makes you get goosebumps—just like it does when I kiss you there,” he says, and my body shivers at the memory of his mouth against me.
“Your eyes do this thing, just before you race, where they haze and close in on their prey. I always imagined what it would be like for you to look at me like that,” he says.
“Haven’t I?” I ask, waiting a breath while he considers what I’m asking. “Looked at you that way,” I fill in. “When we…”
“Maddy, I was so focused on every other part of your body that day, I don’t remember what your eyes looked like,” he laughs.
“Well maybe next time you will,” I say.
“Next time.” I can hear his grin in his words.
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Next time.”
This time.
The quiet comes again, filled only by the sound of his breathing, his breath a long draw that sounds as a warning in my ear. I chew at my nail, waiting…hoping.
“Maddy,” he says, finally.
“Yes?” I sit up and crawl to my knees.
I hear his door open across the hall, and I stand, pressing my palm and forehead against mine.
“Let me in,” he says.
I drop my phone to the floor and unlock my door, his hands running along my cheeks and into my hair the minute he enters my room. He kisses me so hard that he walks me backward several steps before the door slams closed behind him. His hands sweep down my sides to my legs, and he lifts me; my legs wrap around him as he continues to take long strides toward the bed, where he drops me the instant we reach it.
Will doesn’t waste a breath, lifting his shirt over his head and tossing it to the floor as he moves closer to me. I lift myself on my elbows and bend my knees as I lower my chin to my chest to look him in the eyes. He runs his hands up my legs and along my knees, pushing them apart enough to put his knee on the bed between my legs. I move myself backward slowly as he crawls toward me—predator, prey.
“There it is,” he smirks. “That’s the look I love. Goddamn, Maddy, when you look like you want something.”
His biceps flex from holding his weight, he climbs over me slowly, and I succumb, falling to my back until his elbows rest on either side of my head, his eyes raking over my face as his hands run through my hair and caress my cheek so sweetly I can’t help but close my eyes and just feel.
“You have no idea,” he says, and I hum, “what?”