That’s all it takes.I kiss her against the edge of the pool table, slow at first, then not slow at all once her mouth opens beneath mine and her hands slide into my hair.I lose myself in the taste of the whiskey and the warmth of her.The cue clatters somewhere behind us.Neither of us cares.
By the time I lift her onto the edge of the table, her legs are wrapped around my waist and her laughter has turned into something softer, breathier, more dangerous.
“Hayden.”
My name from her lips that still threaten to ruin me.I drag my mouth down the side of her neck, hands gripping her thighs as she arches into me.
“We should go upstairs.”
“We should.”I don’t stop the trail of kisses I’m currently peppering up her neck, and she laughs against my mouth when I kiss her again, and the sound is so easy, so happy, so completely unguarded that something inside me goes still.
This.This is what I didn’t know how to give her before.Not the desire or devotion, but the room and space she needed to make her own choices.I pull back enough to look at her.Her smile fades as she reads whatever has changed in my face.
“What?”
I brush my thumb along her cheek.“Nothing.”
“Hayden.”
I shake my head once, soft.“I’m just happy.”The words come out before I can stop them.
Vanessa’s expression breaks open in the smallest way, emotion flickering through her eyes before she leans in and kisses me again.It’s gentler this time, like she knew how hard it was for me to admit that.
The elevator ride upstairs is unbearable, and charged with a tension that’s just short of sparking into an inferno.Vanessa stands close enough that every shift of the elevator feels like another excuse for her body to brush mine, whiskey still warm between us, her lipstick smudged from my mouth against hers.
My hand rests low against her back.Possessive by instinct.Gentler by choice.She glances up at me once as the elevator climbs, and whatever she sees in my expression makes her mouth curve up.
“You’re staring again.”
“I’m thinking.”I advise with a smirk.
“That’s always dangerous.”
“You’re about to find out how dangerous.”
The elevator doors open before I can show her more.I grasp her fingers in mine and lead her down the hallway toward my apartment while both of us pretend there’s still a shred of restraint left between us.
There isn’t.The second the apartment door closes behind us, Vanessa’s mouth is on mine again.Hungry in that slow deliberate way that destroys my ability to think.My hands slide into her hair while I walk her backward through the apartment, kissing her hard enough that her laugh catches somewhere between breathless and wrecked.
Her coat hits the floor first.Then mine.Boots abandoned near the hallway.My sweater dragged over my head while she kisses down my throat, fingertips already working impatiently at the button of my jeans, her hand wrapping around my length in a tight grip.God help me.
“Bedroom,” I manage roughly against her mouth.
“Yes.”Her word a single pant as she nods.We make it halfway down the hallway before I press her against the wall again.Because apparently, I’ve lost all remaining self-control tonight.
Vanessa laughs when I kiss her neck, fingers curling into my hair while my hands slide beneath her shirt, skin warm and impossibly soft beneath my palms.Clothing disappears piece by piece after that, scattered behind us in a trail through the apartment like neither of us can move fast enough anymore.
My t-shirt.Her sweater.Jeans.A flash of lace.And then, bare skin.Every inch of her I uncover feels like rediscovery all over again.By the time we reach the bedroom, both of us breathing harder now, Vanessa’s legs wrap around my waist the second I lift her.Like she remembers exactly how we fit together.Like maybe she never forgot either.
I lower her onto the bed, city lights spilling silver-blue through the windows behind her while her hair fans across my sheets.Her eyes stay locked on mine with that same terrifying openness that keeps undoing me over and over again.
For one suspended second, neither of us moves.Then she reaches for me.
And I go willingly.
Chapter Twenty
Vanessa
