Page 67 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

‘It’s my number for a nearly perfect day,’ I panted as his hand inched higher up my waist.

I should stop him. Push him away again but my body ached for him.

‘Nearly perfect?’ he said in between kisses.

‘It’s a code Tessa and I have. Every day we give a rating to how our day is going. For me a close to perfect day would be an eight on a scale of one to ten.’

‘And what’s your number today?’ he said against the hollow of my neck before planting a scorching kiss there.

‘Six, maybe six and a half,’ I gulped out as heat licked through me.

‘How do we get to an eight?’ His voice turned husky.

I sucked in a breath as he slid a finger through my belt loop and tugged me in closer, the hard edge of him pressing into me.

‘Does this get us there?’

‘Close,’ I moaned and he sucked on my bottom lip until I opened for him. Our tongues did their regular dance, swirling and searching, each movement more insistent. It was a sin the way he could flip a sexual switch inside me. One minute I was sure we could only be partners, and then with a single swipe of his tongue I couldn’t remember why I’d protested his touch in the first place.

His hand slid up my chest until it reached the outside of my bra. He took his time slowly rubbing my aching nipples and I wrapped my leg around his and arched into him.

‘What about now?’ he moaned in my ear.

‘Seven and a half,’ I teased.

He pushed me harder against the wall. While one hand slid inside my bra, the other moved down to stroke the front of my jeans. I swallowed back a moan and leaned against him needing more.

All of this was crazy. We were standing in a partially finished room in our half-renovated house with his sister and my partner only steps away. Footsteps moved on the landing above us and Piper’s voice echoed through the house.

‘Stop pawing each other down there. We need to finish the tour.’

Beck’s laugh filled my ears as his forehead landed on my shoulder. ‘Twenty-four years old and she’s still cock-blocking me.’

‘See, she’s doing okay.’ My words came out fast and punctured. I thought I could handle a single touch from him, but nothing with Beck was simple. All he had to do was glance my way and the lower half of my body lit up like a fricking neon beer sign.

‘Yes, it’s good to see.’ He moved aside my ponytail and pressed his lips to my shoulder, sucking on the tender skin.

‘Don’t make me come down there, you two,’ Piper yelled. ‘There’s plenty of time for you to screw around later.’

I pushed Beck away and he got a determined look in his eyes. ‘To be continued because now it’s my mission to get to an eight.’

I tilted my head up and gave him a pointed look.

He threw his hands up. ‘I know. I promised slow.’

For a minute he took a walk around the room until the part of him that needed calming finally listened. When he was ready he tipped his chin to the stairs. ‘Let’s go look at the rest of this masterpiece.’

I followed him up the stairs and toward the sound of his sister’s voice. When we found Piper and Manny, they were standing in her old bedroom. All signs of the hideous pink wallpaper were gone. She walked across the floor and ran her hand over the wood framing against one wall.

‘A closet?’ she cried. ‘I always wanted one in here!’

Beck gave me a heated grin, and neither of us could escape Manny’s knowing stare. I glanced at Beck and wondered if his lips were as kiss-swollen as mine. Manny’s face went dark, confirming my suspicions.

We were so busted.

After touring the rest of the house, we ended back on the wraparound porch outside. Manny said his goodbyes quickly in a rush to get home to Lou.

‘It’s beautiful. My parents would have been so happy,’ Piper gushed, her eyes moving over the house. ‘It looks like there’s still a lot of work to be done, but it’s exciting to hear that a TV show is filming it all.’