“Fuck.” Wes growls out the word, extending that one syllable like a prayer. It’s barely more than a breath against my skin as he kisses his way back up my throat, leaving a blazing trail of fire in his wake. When his mouth meets mine again, gone is any and all tentativeness. This kiss is bruising and raw, our tongues a tangle of heat as we try to get more of each other. Like we’re starving for each other.
“God. Wes.”
“Only one of us is here, Grey.” His voice is light, filled with humor, as he chuckles against my lips. It’s the brevity I need to clear my head, if only a little. We need to stop.
“Yeah, we kind of forgot to leave room for Jesus, didn’t we?” A full laugh bubbles up, and I press my forehead into Wes’s chest as I let my shoulders shake. I’ve effectively stopped our kiss and given myself the chance to breathe, reveling in the scent of him for just another minute. The smell is comforting, fresh and masculine, and entirely Wes.
“The teachers said that here too?” I hear the smile in his voice against my hair. I nod into his sternum, still not ready to break away. “I was never very good at that. The eighth-grade dance chaperones hated me.”
I look up to catch that signature smirk of his, dimples on display. I melt at the sight of them and nearly lose all restraint again.
“Of course you weren’t,” I answer with a smile. “I guess that makes two of us.”
I’m so nervous for what comes next. Afraid that no matter what Wes said, we’ll never be able to return from this. He’s still bracketedsolidly between my thighs and damn if it isn’t sexy as hell. I want to reach for him and pull him back to me while simultaneously needing to push him away so I can pretend this never happened.
I’m saved from the need to decide by the sound of my phone ringing on the coffee table. I know it’s her, and the moment is doused in the cold that washes over me. I let my head fall back and close my eyes. I haven’t heard her voice in seven years, and I don’t know what it’ll do to me when I do.
“I don’t want to talk to her,” I say, feeling cowardly and embarrassed that I can’t handle a single phone call. How am I supposed to deal with seeing her tomorrow?
I feel a slight shift above me and hear Wes’s voice. “Hello?”
My eyes fly open, looking at where he’s propped himself above me with one hand, holding my phone to his ear with the other. Bloody hell. I can’t quite hear what’s being said on the other side of the line, but I can tell it’s a woman’s voice.
“This is Wes, Joss’s boyfriend. She’s running errands and left her phone at home.”
This is a different Wes than I’m used to. This is not the sweet, flirty, charming Wes that I know him to be. This is a more calculating Wes, his protective side on display.
“Yes, she told me you’d be visiting.”
More talking on the other end of the line. Damn, now I wish I could hear it.
“Sorry, no, we don’t have space for overnight guests, and I wouldn’t be comfortable with it even if we did.”
Go Wes!This is only making him hotter in my eyes. He is totally unflappable and not giving her an inch. I can’t take my eyes off him.
“If you’d like to come here for lunch, we can make that work. I’ll have Joss send you the address when she gets back.”
More talking from the other end of the line.
“Okay then. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
He hangs up without another word and I am dumbstruck. Setting the phone back on the table, he sits himself up on the couch and runs a hand through his hair, looking irritated and a little sheepish, before glancing at me.
“I’m sorry,” he says, “I should have checked with you.”
He looks almost nervous. That… what? I’m going to be mad at him for taking charge? As if. That was the nicest thing I think anyone’s ever done for me.
“You’re kidding, right? That was amazing! Thank you.” I launch myself up and wrap him in my arms before pulling back just enough to look at him.
“Now teach me your ways, because how you just handled my mother was”—I make the little chef’s kiss motion—“perfection.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Hell no. I said I didn’t want to talk to her, and I never would have been able to hold the line like you just did.”
I release him, pushing all the way back across the couch. A little breather from the physical touching feels necessary.
“Was she mad?” I worry my bottom lip between my teeth. “When you said they couldn’t stay?”
