A quick rush of air sucked in through his mouth, right before one of his hands released my wrist to wind around my waist. His mouth moved against mine in slow, deliberate pulses that spurred me into a frenzy of wanting all of him all at once. My hands roamed his body, fingers curling into flesh, palms kneading muscle as they explored him. His hands remained where they were—tied around my wrist and behind my waist—squeezing every time our tongues joined together.
“Wait.” His head fell back suddenly, his chest moving as hard as mine was. “Just wait.” He gave himself a moment to catch his breath, his hands staying tied around me. “The last time this happened, there wasn’t a verbal explanation of these feelings, and after that whole mess, I really need to hear you say it.” His eyes found mine. There was excitement flashing in them, but also something else. Uncertainty?
“Say what?” I asked.
“Whatever you need to. Whatever you’ve been hiding.” He slid a sheet of my hair behind my shoulder, letting his fingers comb through the ends. “I need to hear it this time.”
I had to look away to form a rational thought. I probably should have moved my hands away from him too, but they felt super-glued into place. “I like you, Soren.” My forehead creased as I tried to make sense of the feelings storming inside me. “As more than a roommate. More than a friend.”
When I stayed quiet after that, he made a continue motion with his hand.
This next part required a deep breath to get out. I felt like I was about to unzip my chest and hand my heart over to him. “I have feelings for you.”
That note of doubt left his eyes. “What kind?”
“What kind?” I groaned in frustration.
I slid a foot down the bed to keep temptation from overcoming my better judgment. He was fresh from the shower, wearing nothing more than a towel, and laying in the boyhood bed he’d apparently had filthy fantasies about. Temptation at its most potent.
“Do you really want me to give you an exhaustive account of them all right now? Because I’d much rather spend the few minutes we have left before dinner kissing you.” I glanced at the time on the alarm clock beside his bed. We couldn’t have much longer before we were expected downstairs. “Would you settle for strong? Strong feelings?”
Soren’s eyes flicked to the same alarm clock. His grip tightened around me as he pulled me back to him, hoisting me so I was straddling his lap.
“Strong works for me,” he said in a rush before his mouth crushed against mine.
My thighs squeezed him as he kissed me in such a way, I felt like we were making love right then. This wasn’t the kiss of a boy making out with a girl. This was the kiss of a man making love to a woman, on the cusp of spending himself inside her.
When Soren adjusted below me, I felt his erection through the towel. With the way I’d landed on his lap, the hem of my dress had scattered around him, nothing but my underwear and his towel keeping our bodies from joining. When I slid my hips up his length, a ragged sound spilled from his mouth into mine. When I ground back down him, his mouth fell away, his head hitting the pillows behind him.
“If you do that again, I’m going to lose it.” Soren’s neck went stiff as I rubbed up his shaft again. “I’m going to be that guy who gets off when a girl barely touches him.”
Realizing how turned on he was had me rocking into him again. “You’ve got a towel close by, at least.”
Another sound echoed low in his chest, his hips rising to meet mine this time. “I don’t want to get off in a towel. I’ve gotten off in a towel a million times.” He managed to lean up onto his elbows, his hand fitting around my neck so he could pull me toward him. His mouth settled beside my ear. “I want to get off inside you.”
Chills spilled down my whole body, my thighs squeezing together when his words hit my subconscious. I wanted to have sex with Soren Decker so badly at that moment, it felt like a sickness. The kind that would kill a person if they didn’t find the cure to end it.
I knew what the cure was in this instance. His body. In mine. Rising and falling together until we came apart in each other’s hold.
Turning my head so my mouth was near his ear, I pushed against him once more. “I want to feel you get off inside me.”
When I swiveled my hips over his, a curse hissed through his teeth, followed by another moan. This one wasn’t so muffled.
“Hey, Butt Munch. Dinner.” The sound of footsteps pounding down the hall. “Is that moaning? Are you jacking off in there?” The door flew open as Michael stepped inside the room. His face ironed out when he took in our position on the bed, right before a warped smile formed. “You devil. I’ll leave you to it.” Michael started backing out the door then stopped. “Hayden, as the first girl to take pity on my brother, let me offer my condolences. Suggestion? You might want to kick the tires and check the motor before you take him for a test drive. Number four. Just saying. All our parents’ good DNA went to us first. He got the leftover scraps.”
Before he could disappear out the door, Soren had freed a pillow from behind him and sent it flying toward Michael. It nailed him in the back before he got the door slammed.
“I’m telling Mom you’re playing footsie with a girl in your bedroom.”
Soren’s head rolled back. “There’s a quick way to kill the mood.”
Leaning forward, I kissed the red bump the ice pack had fallen off of, then I slid off his lap. As tempting as it was, this wasn’t the time—not when five members of his family were waiting for us around the dinner table. I could tell I was already in his mom’s good graces, and that was a position I’d like to keep.
“Clothes.” I picked up his scattered items and handed them to him while he adjusted his towel.
“Where are you going?” he asked as I headed for the door, making sure my dress was in place and my hair was laying where it was supposed to.
“Downstairs.”
“Don’t you want to wait for me? I’ll just take a minute.”
My hand dropped to the doorknob. “If I stay in this room with you while you attempt to get dressed, it’s going to be just that. An attempt.” My eyes dropped to where he was about to tug his towel loose. His arousal was still tenting the white terry cloth.
“You’re totally turned on by me right now, aren’t you?” A smirk smoothed into place as his pinkie skimmed beneath the place where his towel was knotted. “I bet if I did this, you wouldn’t be able to control what you did next.”
I was out the door, sealing it behind me when I heard the wet towel smack the floor.
Once I was in the hall, I took a few deep, clearing breaths before heading down the stairs. I felt bad that he’d have to make it down the stairs on his own, but it wasn’t like he would have made it down them anytime soon if I’d stayed either.
Maybe one of his brothers could be coerced into coming up to give him a hand.
Or not, I thought as I rounded into the kitchen to find them all around the dinner table, nodding at me with stupid smiles and leading me to the conclusion Michael had told them all what he’d walked in on upstairs.
“Where’s Soren? Still recovering?” Ben asked, trying to keep a straight face.