He says my name like a prayer. Just one word. Nothing else.
He drags that same finger down the middle of my throat, following a path downward to my chest, and then to my stomach, where he pauses at the button of my jeans. He’s looking too carefully at what he’s doing, and I just want his mouth on me again. I lean up to get what I want, but he nudges his knee between my legs, his hand on my stomach forcing me back against the tree.
Fingers slip into the waistband of my jeans. Cold fingers against smooth, warm skin. He brushes them against my waist, and they move up my back and I arch into his touch, desperate. Evan buries his face in my neck, inhaling and kissing and biting until I’m whimpering. He must have some sort of spell on me. I have never felt this undone over anyone before. I feel like I could fall apart in his hand just at the idea that he might put me back together again with the same delicacy.
“Say something,” he murmurs into my skin.
My vision blurs. “I-I . . .”
“Are you speechless right now?” He laughs and the sound vibrates through my entire body.
I lift my face to his, looking into his wild eyes. I don’t say anything as I catch his bottom lip between my teeth, biting hard until he winces, and I smooth it out with a kiss. It’s probably proving his point that I am, in fact, speechless but I don’t care because his lips are on mine again and he’skissingme.
This isn’t what I thought kissing Evan would feel like. I thought it’d be rough and demanding and fighting. But this . . . This isn’t that. This is playful and sweet and teasing. It’s fingers splayed across my spine and my hands in his hair. It’s tiny gasps leaving his mouth, and the knee wedged between my thighs. It’s perfect and endless.
A branch snaps in the distance, for real this time, and we both freeze, still intertwined.
We’re quiet for a long time, nothing but the sound of our heavy breathing filling the air. When we don’t hear anything else, I look up at him, my vision finally clearing. Evan’s lips are slightly red now, his hair even messier than before.
I clear my throat. “We should . . .”
“Head back to the car,” he finishes, his voice hoarse as he detangles himself from me.
“Yeah.”
I take off in the direction of the car first and I don’t think I look at him for the rest of the night.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: EVAN
I’m late to class for the second time this semester.
For the past week, I should’ve been preparing for the presentation we’re about to give in front of the whole class, but I’ve done nothing but think about the taste of Scarlett Voss’s mouth.
She is all I’ve dreamed about. All I’ve thought about every time my fingers brush past my lips and I delude myself into thinking I’ll be able to taste her again.
I hate her for kissing me and I hate myself even more for enjoying it. I don’t know how she’s managed to get into my head like this. She’s distracted me from the SEI and wanting to prove to my dad that I’m ready to be part of the business.Thatis what I should be focusing on. But here I am spending all my time either with Scarlett or thinking about her. I consume myself by thinking of the different ways I can be around her. How many times I can brush my hand against hers, how long I can keep it there without her noticing. I’ve spent all my time thinking that I don’t know what I’m going to do when I’m around her again.
I get to campus just before Scarlett’s and my presentation time slot, and she’s already outside the classroom pacing. She’s wearing a thick green sweater and black skirt, cue cards in her hands as she mumbles the words to herself while walking back and forth. Seeing her makes something weird jolt in my chest. It’s been a week, but the softness of her waist against my palm isn’t a feeling I’m going to forget anytime soon. She felt like silk in my hands, soft and beautiful, and—
No.
Nope.
I’m not going there.
Not now.
Her head shoots up when I stalk closer. She looks furious, dark-brown eyes glare at me and then narrow as she steps toward me. “Where were you? I thought you weren’t going to show.”
I shrug, adjusting the collar of my shirt. “I lost track of time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
She holds my gaze for a long moment, searching for something. I know I look like a mess. I hardly had time to brush my hair or iron my outfit today, so my shirt isn’t tucked in properly, my tie loose around my neck like always, and I’m pretty sure my face is still flushed from the jog I had to do from the car park to this building. It probably doesn’t help that seeing her again has completely fried my brain.
When Scarlett can’t find whatever it is she’s looking for in my expression, her shoulders drop, and she rolls her eyes. “Whatever,” she mutters, shoving a piece of paper into my hands. “Read this. I changed the notes slightly, but it’s still similar to what we’ve practiced.”
