Page 133 of The Route to You

“We’re going to wreck our friendship,” she said, lips twitching.

“Eh, we were never that great of friends,” he shot back, pushing his cock against her.

“Mm, don’t tempt me.” She looped one arm around his neck then turned her cheek toward him as his lips found hers. The palms of his hands found a soft path over her belly, grazing up to her breasts.

“Tempt you to what?” he whispered, his voice rough and dangerous.

“To spend the night fucking you.”

He groaned out a laugh. “Yeah, sounds awful. Please don’t punish me that way.”

She ground back against his cock, kissing him again. “Maybe you should be punished. We could have been doing this for weeks now. I thought you didn’t want me.”

Kyle’s arms tightened, and he drew back, giving her a steady look. “Sloan, I never stopped wanting you.”

Silence filled the space between them for a few moments, her heart stumbling as she considered the subtext. She was the one who’d dumped him, after all. The one who’d walked away from them.

The one who’d said I don’t love you.

Her eyes brimmed with tears for a moment, then she gave him a softer, sweeter kiss. “I wasn’t the woman you needed back then . . . I lost myself. And I needed to walk through some of life’s ups and downs to be ready. To know myself again.”

And that admission made her feel more vulnerable than ever—except for the fact that the man she was making it to had always made her feel safe.

She swallowed hard, then turned toward him fully, her back to the mirror. “I love you, Kyle. And I’m not saying it because I want you to say it back. Or because I take that lightly anymore. But you deserve to feel as safe with me as you’ve always made me feel. And I didn’t take care of your heart the way I should have.”

“Oh, you love me?” He quirked a brow, his dimple showing as he smiled.

“Yes. I do.” She brushed her thumb over the scars on his shoulder. “And I don’t think I fully realized it until I was driving across the country, trying to figure out what the hell I would do with the rest of my life if you were no longer here.”

She knew she’d been lying to herself and Delilah when she’d said she wasn’t in love with Kyle earlier, but she wasn’t feeling brave then. But from the way Kyle was worshipping her body, she knew she meant something to him, even if he hadn’t said the words back.

“So, you kind of like me, then?” He gave her a teasing look.

“I always have, Kyle. I just was too young to understand back then that you were steady and dependable. And I was an idiot for thinking that wasn’t exactly what I needed.”

A smile warmed his gaze as he cupped her face, then kissed her, slow and gently at first, then gradually increasing in heat and pressure with an energy that hadn’t even been there a few moments earlier.

She skimmed her hands down his chest, pushing down the waistband of his shorts and boxer briefs, over his hips, and freeing his erection. Her fingers wrapped around his hard length, and his breath hitched, his mouth pulling away. “Should I get a condom?”

She shook her head. “We don’t need one. I want to have sex with you, but not yet. Right now, I just want to take care of you. Return the favor you did for me.”

Sex could come later. She wanted it to come later, for a reason she couldn’t fully explain, even though it wasn’t even close to their first time together.

He didn’t answer, instead drawing her in for a fierce kiss, one that she had to stand on her tiptoes to return. His arm secured around her lower back, pressing her hard against his cock.

Her blood began burning hot instantly.

Slow it down.

She cocked a sly smile at him, then pulled away and went over to one of the drawers in the vanity and pulled out a satin bag. She fished out her vibrator, and his eyes turned darker with naked lust as she took his hand, leading him toward the shower.

“Just what are you planning, woman?” he asked as she pulled them both inside, facing him, settling between his legs.

The water ran rivulets down her torso as she knelt, her legs tucked under her. “I didn’t only visualize the mural the last couple of weeks,” she said, a smile curving her lips.

Smoothing her hands over his thighs, she scooted back, taking in the sight of him. He had a man’s body now, all muscle and tight skin, hair well-groomed. And he was long. Thick. Dripping at the head of his cock, which seemed to quiver as her hands wrapped around it.

She’d never thought of herself as particularly good at giving head, so she leaned down and licked the drip of cum from his cock, talking her way through her fantasy. “I thought about this,” she murmured, swirling her tongue around the head of his cock. “Of how fucking good it would be to put my mouth around you.”