“So what is it, then?” she said. Her voice was still strained but had lost its venom. “What are you so sorry about?”
“I’m not sorry I kissed you,” I admitted. “I just didn’t mean to—”
I couldn’t finish the sentence because her arms wrapped around my neck and she pulled my mouth to hers.
I was lost.
Completely and totally lost within her.
I was fucked.
I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her to me as she pulled my head down toward her roughly. She pushed her tongue into my mouth, and I welcomed it. She moved one of her hands from my shoulder to the top part of my arm, and then to my chest. She grabbed at the material of my shirt as she pressed her mouth against mine again.
There were so many unfamiliar emotions going through me, I didn’t know what to do to comprehend them all. There was lust and desire—without a doubt—but that was expected…normal…welcomed. It was the other shit I didn’t know how to process.
The fear.
Her grip on me relaxed slightly, and I held her close as my mouth moved across her jaw and down her neck. Her breath came in short gasps as her fingers tried to latch onto my hair.
“I don’t do this,” I whispered against her ear. “I’ll just screw it up, Tria. I don’t want you hurt because of me. I’m not worth taking the chance.”
“Why don’t you let me decide that?” she replied, and her mouth was on mine again.
I have no idea how long we stayed there, standing in the doorway, making out between the hall and the bedroom, but we were both out of breath by the time we stopped. Tria pulled away first, because I might never have, and then she looked at me for a long moment.
I couldn’t decide if her gaze made me feel uncomfortable or not. Eventually she sighed and then placed her cheek against my chest, leaning against me.
“I had given up, you know,” she said.
“On what?”
“I didn’t think you…you know…”
Pulling back a little, I looked down at her.
“I didn’t what?”
“That you just weren’t interested,” she said with a shrug.
I let out a short, humorless laugh.
“I just didn’t want to be a dick,” I told her.
She tilted her head up and pressed her lips softly to the base of my throat.
“Don’t run out on me like that again,” she said into my neck.
“Okay,” I said.
“Promise.”
“I promise.” My arms went around her back, and I pulled her closer against my chest. “I thought you were pissed.”
“I wasn’t pissed,” she told me. “I just…wasn’t ready for that. I can’t go from roommate to lover in thirty seconds.”
“Oh…um….” My voice trailed off with no direction or purpose.
“Are you going to be okay with that?” Tria asked in a small voice.