He chuckled. “Whatever you want, beautiful.”
Stretching toward me, his finger grazed my chin before his mouth settled softly against mine. A gentle brush of lips, and then he was rolling onto his stomach and pulling himself closer by his elbows so he could hover his face above mine. Then he was kissing me again, his lips parting my lips, his tongue sliding deep, and his warm palm cradling my cheek.
I gripped his wrist, kissing him back as flames of desire licked through my system.
This was really happening. My best friend was kissing me and seemed eager to kiss me longer. His hands turned greedy as they streaked into my hair, then gripped hard as his mouth grew demanding.
When one of the ball players on the shore yelled, “Get a room,” Brandt broke away, gasping. His eyes met mine before he lifted his face to scowl at our eavesdroppers and flip them all off.
Laughing, they went back to playing, and Brandt dropped his gaze back to mine. We said nothing, but the way he looked at me...it was as if he were seeing me for the first time.
There was just something about the moment, the softness in his gaze, his promise a few seconds earlier to give me whatever I wanted, the wetness between my legs...it all prompted me into saying, “Will you sleep with me?”
His eyebrows twitched briefly, flashing a quick expression of disappointment. But he said, “Of course.” Sitting up, he glanced at the picnic that still needed to be put away. “Are you ready to head back then? I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were tired.”
My brow crinkled in confusion before it dawned on me; he thought I meant sleeping in the literal sense, that I just wanted him to stay the night and cuddle.
So I caught his wrist as soon as he put the wine bottle back into the basket.
“No...” I said, making him pause and look at me. “I meant...will you have sex with me?”
BRANDT
A rushing sound filled my ears as Sarah’s question exploded through my head. I shook it to clear the chaos, sure I’d misheard her. I had to have misheard her.
“I’m sorry, what?” I said slowly.
No way had she asked what I thought she’d just asked.
But her blue eyes pleaded. “Just one time,” she said in a small, almost uncertain voice. “That’s all I ask. And then I’ll never bother you with it again.”
My lips parted. “Just one...” I started to repeat before it struck me, damn it, she really had just asked me to fuck her.
Holy shit.
My system automatically went into hyper-alert, dick perking to attention, heart rate kicking into gear. My fingertips tingled, itching to touch, and my mouth watered, needing to taste. I swallowed down the urge to mount her right then and there.
“You...this isn’t...Jesus, Sarah. I’m just going to forget you said that, okay. It’s all right. No harm, no foul. We’ll just...we’ll pretend it didn’t happen.”
Grabbing our cleared but dirty plates, I shoved them haphazardly into the basket, not caring what kind of mess I had to be making inside Aspen’s favorite picnic carrier.
Sarah didn’t say anything the entire time I scurried to put everything away, and I mentally kicked myself in the nuts because I’d probably hurt her by my reaction. But fuck, it wasn’t as if I could really have sex with her, no matter how much I wanted to.
I didn’t dare look her way until I had everything cleaned up and ready to go, and when I did, her face was lowered with her hair covering her expression.
“Come on,” I murmured, touching her shoulder. “Let’s get you back to the truck.” But damn it, touching her felt electric. She was all soft, warm woman. I wanted to push her back down onto the blanket and just start stripping her.
She looked up, her eyes wide with pain. I cursed under my breath. Acid filled my stomach.
“Listen to me.” I cupped her face in my hands and pressed my forehead to hers. “You’re upset because of what that dick did to you. I get it. And that is perfectly understandable. But—”
“No.” She shoved away from me and glared.
My gaze searched hers, but she only ended up glancing away.
“Let’s just go,” she said, her voice tired and beaten.
I sighed but helped her climb onto my back. Her curves pressed into my spine, making it more difficult for me to walk because of the hard-on hogging my jean space.
We didn’t speak all the way back to my truck. I left her for a few minutes to retrieve the blanket and basket, but she was still silent when I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine.
We’d just left the campus and started down the road that headed to her house when she said, “Okay, fine. Yes, I hate what Seth did; it made me feel stupid and small and completely undesirable. But it didn’t stop me from wanting to experience life. If anything, my disaster with him has only shown me how much I need someone I trust unreservedly to walk me through it. Not just any guy will do. And you’re the only person I trust enough to ask.”