Page 34 of Thank you, Next

“Thanks,” Alex said when Will did not even turn to acknowledge him leaving. “It was great to catch up.”

James walked out of the room, and Alex stalked toward Will until her eyes were level with his mouth. Bad idea.

“Why don’t you just piss on my leg?”

“That wouldn’t have gotten him to leave you alone.” He leaned over so that he could look her in the eye.

Alex fought the urge to step back. “What if I didn’t want him to leave me alone?”

“You wanted to kiss him?” Before she knew what exactly was happening, his lips ghosted against her ear. “You wanted to fuck Major Maximus like some groupie?”

“I’m not a groupie, Will. He’s my ex-boyfriend. We shared milestones.” Alex didn’t know why she was taunting Will with this, placing an emphasis on the last word so he would remember that James had taken advantage of what Will himself had turned down. His posture was so tense, it seemed as though he would break in half if she made any sudden movements. “Why are you suddenly all up in my business?”

“He’s not a good guy, Alex.” Will still didn’t pull away. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was smelling her hair. Like a fucking werewolf in a YA book. He didn’t have the right to do that. He hadn’t earned it, and as far as she knew, he didn’t want it. “He’s not good enough for you.”

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Alex was done with this overprotective, jealous-seeming bullshit. It was childish and toxic. She put her hand on his chest, intending to pull away, until Will kept her hand there with his. The heat of his skin seeped through his T-shirt and into her palm. The way he smelled permeated her nostrils. His lemongrass and sage smell—intoxicating, like a strong martini on a summer day. He was dessert, and she was starting to forget why she didn’t indulge. But it didn’t change the facts on the ground. “You don’t want me, but you don’t think anyone else is good enough for me.”

She dared a look into his face. It was almost impossible to tell what he was thinking; he didn’t wear his feelings like a lot of people. Part of what had initially attracted her to him was the fact that he was the only person she knew who wasn’t constantly spilling his emotions all over the place, regardless of whether she was in a place to receive them. He was a calm anchor in a storm. But not right now. There was a firefight behind his dark gaze. He was fighting something within himself.

His hand clenched on hers. She gasped, not because it hurt, but because she wanted to feel him grasping her other places that way. If either of them shifted a few centimeters, their lips would touch. But both of them were frozen. They both knew that they could lie about having impure thoughts about each other all they wanted; they could deny that they’d each thought about ripping each other’s clothes off at times that didn’t quite coincide. But if they kissed, there would be no going back. Both of them would know it had happened, and it would sit between them like a boulder in the middle of the road.

“Do you want that guy?” Will asked.

Alex sighed, and the movement from her breath ruffled the collar of his shirt. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she felt him shiver. “No.”

“Do you want me?” That question made Alex’s breath catch. He knew that she’d wanted him as a teen, but he thought she might have gotten over it. She could hardly blame him, but she’d thought she’d gotten over it until quite recently.

Alex never lied. Apparently, with her exes, that was her brand. But she was tempted to lie this time, because the stakes were so high. If she told him the truth—that she felt as though she was on fire right now—there would be no denying it later. If he rejected her again, she didn’t know how she’d deal with it. That kind of hurt as an adult was completely foreign to her.

She wanted him—of course she did—but she didn’t want to be the one to say it first. Not this time.

“Do you want me?” Alex’s voice was raspy. She hoped it made Will think of sin and sex.

Will didn’t answer with his words, but he used his mouth. His lips ghosted over her forehead, and she thought he was going to pull away at that. But then he kissed her cheekbone, nibbled at her earlobe, ran his nose up and down her neck. He shifted and put his hands on each side of her head when it lolled over to the side.

Alex clutched his T-shirt for a long moment, until Will buried one hand in the hair at the nape of her neck. Then she let go of his clothes and ran one hand around his neck. She loved the texture of him, his warm skin, the silk of the close-shaved hair.

He lifted her head so that she looked at him. He stared down at her for a long moment, giving her time to tell him to slow down or stop. She wouldn’t do that now unless the house started coming down around their ears. And she might not even stop him then.

A slow smile spread over his face. “You want me.”

This time, it was Alex who didn’t answer. Instead, she pulled him close with the hand at the back of his neck and tugged on the short hair of his beard with the other until their lips were aligned. She’d probably remember the instant she tasted champagne on Will Harkness’s breath for the rest of her life. Even when all this ended in disaster and they were fighting over who got to see Lexi on which holidays because they could not stand to be in the same room together, she would remember the earthy taste of his mouth, the way he took over the kiss, the heat of his body against hers.

She would let the way she opened to him like an unlocked door remind her that she wasn’t incapable of letting go, of being hungry for another human being. His kisses didn’t slake her thirst, not when he delved into her mouth with his tongue or when his hands drifted down her body, ever so slowly, until he cupped her ass. She wished she could see how his long, skillful fingers shifted and moved her flesh the way his mouth against hers was altering her insides.

The only relief she felt was that he hadn’t let her kiss him the night she’d told him that she loved him—before she knew that what she felt for him was a lie people told themselves so that they didn’t feel so alone. If he’d kissed her before, she would have never left her room at Lexi’s house again.

They pressed their lower bodies together, and Alex got her answer to the question of whether he truly wanted her. He was hard. She gasped when he pulled her off her feet so that the center of her was aligned with his hard-on. Through her silk slip dress, there was so little fabric between them that she could have been naked, rubbing herself all over his jeans.

A swarm of possession raged through her, and she wanted to leave her scent on him. She’d never felt that way before. When other boyfriends had flirted with other people—when a couple of them had cheated—she’d felt jealous. But she realized now that it was about how bad it made her look when her lover flirted with someone else—not because she felt some sort of claim over that other person.

But this was different. Will was hers. Even though that wasn’t the truth, and he probably wouldn’t agree to belonging to her, her body didn’t care.

Their kiss seemed to go on and on. It was frankly sexual. She put her hand under his T-shirt and ran her fingers over the muscles on his abdomen and chest, teasing him. He hiked her dress up and grabbed her thighs.

They were still upright, but that was not going to last.

Or it wouldn’t have lasted if the door to the study hadn’t opened.