Ariana tilts her head back to look at me through those long, black lashes. Stunning face, if you hadn’t realized. There is just something about her smile that makes that face incomparable.
Such a bad idea.
“This isn’t so scary, is it?” she says as we slowly turn, her eyes studying mine.
I swallow, my gaze dropping to her mouth. “Terrifying.”
It comes out in a gravelly whisper, and her smile falls. Her brows furrow forward as she scans my face, but I’m a lost cause at this point. She’s woven her web. She’s finally snagged me within it, and now that she’s so close, I want to be fucking devoured.
Such a bad idea.
I lower my head, no hesitation before this choice, and press my lips to hers. I kiss the most tempting mouth in the world,and whatever comes next doesn’t fucking matter because the memory of this kiss could hold me over for lifetimes.
She’s frozen for a moment, startled I made the first move for once. It doesn’t last long. She’s not one to shy away from what she wants. Her hands tighten around my neck, and she hoists herself up higher in my arms—her soft mouth kissing me back. She’s impatient and demanding and every single thing I expected her to be. Every single thing Iwanther to be.
My hand glides up her back, sliding under the billow of her thick hair in that ponytail. Her tongue glides into my mouth without pause from either of us, and I practically groan against it when I finally taste her. The flavour of her vanilla lip gloss, the hint of lemon in her mouth from whatever she drank before she walked in here, all of it.
We’re still dancing, still moving slightly to the music, but all I can hear anymore is the echo of her name in my head.
The song ends at the worst possible time, cutting this shorter than I’d have liked. She slowly pulls back, glancing up at me with victory in her eyes.That’sa different look than she’s ever worn when she’s studied me. A look I shouldn’t see on her face. A look that tells me something has changed for her now that I’ve given in to her. I don’t know if it’s a look that’s in my favour.
My eyes dart to her plump, swollen lips, and though I’m fueled by the fact that I’ve made my mark on them, I’m also doused with a wave of panic that I have.
I’m about to tell her that this was a bad idea in the politest way that I can think of, but her eyes darken before I can find my balls or my voice. She reaches for my belt, scrambling to get it off me.
My brain short-circuits.
This can’t happen. This has already gone way too far.
This absolutelycannotfucking happen.
“Woah, woah,” I say, shaking my head. I reach for her hands, stopping their busy movements. She blinks up at me, eyes wide and needy and I’ve never wanted something this badly in my fucking life. “We can’t, Ari. You know that.”
She angles her hand, sweeping her palm against my very hard, aching cock. I hitch a breath, trying not to groan when she wraps her fingers around it through my clothes. She makes everything so fucking impossible. She makes it so I’ll never have a chance.
“It feels like you can. It feels like you actually might need it,” she says simply, her voice soft.
I keep my hand on her wrist, breathing heavily through my nose—preventing her from going any further. “Ari.”
It’s a warning. One she doesn’t heed to.
“Let me,” she says desperately, searching my eyes. “I’ve thought about it for so long now, Boston. Please, let me.”
“Don’t beg me for this,” I grumble, my grip tightening on her hand. I lean down, pressing my mouth to hers in a hard, brief kiss. “It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it, sweetheart. Trust me. We can’t go down this road for a million different reasons. I’m never going to be that guy for you.”
Her thumb brushes against the length of me and I shoot her a look, sucking in a breath and forcing myself not to react.
“What guy?”
“The guy that you need. The one you bring home to Mom. I’m never getting married, I’m never having kids, and it’s not like we do this once and we’ll go our separate ways. We’re not getting rid of each other anytime soon. I don’t want to be the guy that does this to your brother.”
Because youareForker’s sister. You’re going to be around forever, even if you leave the city. You are a woman who will get married, have kids, and make some man the luckiest guy on the planet. That’s not someone I’ll ever be. I don’t want those things.She can date all the losers she wants, but it’s always been clear she dreams of the white picket fence at the end of the day, even if she doesn’t realize it yet. The rooftop told me all that I needed to know.
She smiles up at me, showing me those pretty, white teeth. “You’re in luck. I happen to prefer my men emotionally unavailable.”
For fuck’s sake. I am not making it out of this alive.
“I’m going to drop to my knees now,” she tells me, unbuttoning my pants and yanking down the fly. She pauses and purses her lips in request, and like a fucking idiot, I kiss her like she’s asking me to. She’s beaming when I pull away. “I’ve been dying to know how you look when you come, by the way.”
