Instead, I trail my tongue down between her breasts and to the lone freckle beneath her sternum. “Found it,” I murmur before gently nipping her skin.
She arches toward my mouth. “Your tongue has a rather impressive intuition.”
“Oh, and it’s not even done yet.”
I sweep my mouth lower, nipping at each hipbone before pressing my face right between her thighs and finally finding what I’m craving. Licking her clit, I slide my hands under her ass and lift her toward my face.
She moans and her hips buck. I want more than that. I want crazy, needy, desperate. So I draw back and blow softly. She gasps, and I follow my breath with my mouth and taste her with my smile.
“Nate,” she says, arching off the bed. “Aren’t you bored with… Oh, God…”
I wrap my lips around her swollen clit and suck, and she grabs a fistful of my hair and starts that desperate movement I’ve been after, but I can’t stand not seeing her face. I want to know how she looks when she comes, so I reposition myself next to her and slide two fingers inside.
“Nate.” Her eyes glossy as she turns to me. “I—”
“Sorry, sweetheart.” Her slick heat squeezes around my fingers. “I’ll get back to tasting you later, but right now, I want to see what you look like when you come.”
Her lips part and her eyes flutter shut. Then a phone rings.
She stills. “That’s probably Maggie.” She sinks her teeth into her lip.
“Let it go.”
She shakes her head and slides away from my touch. “I’m sure she’s worried about me if she’s gone to my room and I wasn’t there.” She finds her purse and pulls out her phone. “Hello?” Her face falls and her body language changes. “It was good… Yeah… I’m sorry. I’m not up for that…” Her gaze flicks to mine then back to the floor. “I don’t want to talk about it right now… I love you too,” she whispers, and then she ends the call. Covering her mouth with her hand, she squeezes her eyes shut and draws into herself.
“The boyfriend?”
“Ex-boyfriend,” she corrects, still not looking at me.
“You regularly tell your exes you love them?” I’m not the jealous type. You wouldn’t fucking know it by the tone of my voice.
She meets my gaze. “Love doesn’t go away just because you realize you can’t be with someone.”
Don’t I know it.
She finds my T-shirt on the floor and pulls it on over her head. “Listen, could we keep what happened here between us? I really don’t need my sister freaking out about it.”
“And you don’t want it getting back to Max,” I say flatly.
She shrugs. “It would only hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him.”
I nod, ignoring the knot in my stomach. “It’s our secret,” I promise.
“I should get dressed.”
I’m not ready for her to shut me out. I’m not ready for this time together to end. I’m trying to come up with an excuse—any excuse—to get her to stay.
And for that reason, more than any, I say, “I’ll walk you to your room.”
CANDLES. MUSIC. Rose petals.
Am I in the wrong house? But my key hanging from the door confirms I’m at the right place. Maybe I’m interrupting some romantic evening of Lizzy’s—she’s overdue for one of those. But then Max is walking toward me, his face serious, his eyes soft.
From the living room speakers, Jason Mraz croons about not giving up.
“What is this?” I ask stupidly. Maggie just dropped me off. I’m still buzzed on another man’s kisses, can still feel the beard burn between my thighs when I walk, and here’s Max setting this romantic scene.
He drops to one knee and—