“Would you want to…” I avoided his eyes, feeling a blush creep up my neck. “Would you want to come in for a nightcap?” I scuffed one shoe against the other.
His fingers curled around my chin, tilting my gaze back up to his. “Are you trying to sneak me into your bedroom after hours, Ms. Haddock?”
If it were possible, I blushed harder. “Yes. No. I don’t know.” I groaned, pulling away from his graspandhis warmth.
“Come back here,” I heard him jogging up behind me. I didn’t need to see him to hear the grin he was sporting. He caught up quickly, his arms looping lazily around my middle, pulling me back into him.
I squealed as he spun me around.
“Ansel!” I gasped, swatting playfully at the arms around mymiddle. He nestled his nose behind my ear, but didn’t say anything.
After a minute, he let me go, mostly. He slid his hand into mine, lacing our fingers together as she walked up the road.
I stopped right outside the door. “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “My dad’s room is upstairs; my place is in the basement. We’ve just got?—”
“Hush. I’ll be good.” But his voice was low. But his fingers were drawing senseless patterns up and down my arm.
But maybe I didn’t want him to be.
With our hands still intertwined, I pulled him down the dark hallway, stifling a laugh as he tripped on the hall rug.
We made it down the basement stairs when my back hit the wall, crowded by Ansel’s large frame, his hands on either side of my face. He had me trapped, and his grin — his grin…devastating.
“Thought you said you’d be good,” I whispered, breathless already.
He leaned in, nose brushing the shell of my ear. “I’m trying,” he murmured, voice low enough to ruin me. His nose traced along my jaw, slow, reverent. “God, Juniper,” he whispered, almost like he hated himself for saying it out loud. “You don’t even know what you do to me.”
“Ansel,” I breathed, my hands creeping up his chest, fingers curling into the soft cotton of his shirt. For one dizzy second… I thought he might kiss me.
He pulled back just for a quick second. “Lead the way, pretty girl.” His voice was quiet, a painful kind of restrained.
By the time we made it to my room, we were both laughing too hard to care about being quiet.
“Shhh,” I hissed, trying to hold back a giggle as I pushed him toward the bed. “You’re gonna get us caught?—”
He flopped backward dramatically, taking me with him when our hands stayed linked.
“Ansel!” I gasped, landing half on his chest.
He just grinned up at me, completely unrepentant. “What? I said I’d be good. I didn’t say I’d be quiet.”
I tried to glare at him, but it was impossible when he looked likethat— hat off now, sandy curls falling loose across his forehead, grin warm enough to melt me into the mattress.
I slid to sit beside him, but he caught my wrist and tugged until I was lying back too, shoulder to shoulder.
“You’re trouble,” I muttered, turning my face toward his.
“Correct,” he said easily, eyes sparkling.
“At least take your shoes off if you’re going to lie in my bed.” He sat up so fast, tugging his shoes off and tossing them somewhere off to the side.
We just… stayed there. The room was dim, quiet except for our breathing, my heart pounding in my ears. His arm shifted, the back of his hand brushing against mine on the blanket. Like he were testing the waters.
I laced our fingers together.
His exhale was soft, shaky. “Junie.”
“Yeah?”
