Page 78 of Blush Crush

I’m not even sure what I’m whining for. I’m overwhelmed and frustrated and needy and I don’t know what to do with any of it.

Cole smiles, enjoying my reaction to whatever game he’s playing with my body.

But that smile fades the closer his mouth gets to mine.

“Tell me now, baby. Say it.” His breath dusts against the dampness of my lips, hot and lime-scented, and I feel dizzy. Like I’m in a hazy cloud and I can’t think, but I don’t want to think. I just want to feel.

“Don’t stop.”

His lips crash against mine, commanding me to open up to him, and I do. He pushes his tongue in, stroking it to mine as both his hands cradle my jaw, his entire body pressing into me. I feel perfectly caged, trapped in the best way.

Our last kiss was tame in comparison to this. This is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

He moans and the vibration of it sends a buzzing awareness down my body, landing in the budding heat between my thighs.

I grab the front of his shirt with both hands.

He makes a low sound against my mouth that I feel in my sternum and kisses me deeper, like now that he has permission he’s going to take exactly what he wants.

When he finally pulls back we’re both breathing unevenly, foreheads pressed together, neither of us moving.

“You didn’t need help finding the bathroom, did you?”

“No.” He smirks. “I just needed you.”

I suck in a breath, trapped in his gaze. “We should go back in.”

“We should,” he agrees, not moving.

His thumb traces along my jaw one more time before he drops his hand and steps back, giving me room to breathe again.

He offers me his hand.

I take it.

But instead of leading me back to the game room, we go in the opposite direction. To our room.

CHAPTER 24

Cole

SHE DOESN’T NEED LESSONS

Ariana is still holding my hand when we stop in the hallway outside our door.

I’m not sure which one of us slows first. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she turns toward me in the dim light and looks up at me with those blue eyes still slightly hazy from the sparkling wine and the kiss, and I lose whatever was left of my restraint.

I back her against the wall again—gently, my hand cushioning the back of her head before she meets it—and kiss her the way I’ve been wanting to since she walked down those stairs in that dress. Slow and deep and without an audience to perform for. Just her mouth and mine.

She makes a needy sound against my lips and her hands find my chest, fingers tugging the fabric of my shirt like she can’t get close enough.

I take control of the kiss, slowing us down a notch. Only so I don’t do something stupid and fuck her in this open hallway like my dick would prefer. I definitely can’t do that yet. But there are so many other things we can do instead.

“Can I kiss you?” My lips are a breath from hers, my body pressing her further into the wall.

“Isn’t that what we’re already doing?” A little smartass smile plays at the corner of her mouth.

I dip my head and inhale her sugary scent before trailing kisses down the smooth curve of her neck, each one slower than the last. I make my way back up unhurried, my lips brushing against her skin as I speak. “Can I kiss you somewhere else?”