Page 57 of This Spells Love
He holds up his phone again. “Did you mean this?”
I nod. “It’s arguably the bluntest and most honest text message I’ve ever sent.”
“You’re going to have to elaborate for me a little,” he says softly. “I’m suffering from a bit of emotional whiplash tonight.”
I take a deep breath and push away all of the excuses that have kept me from saying this to Dax before now.
“I think you and I might be very good together.”
He swallows. “Why am I sensing abuton the end of that sentence?”
Because there is one. A big one. I think it’s what’s always held me back from even considering the idea of Dax and me before.
“What if we don’t work out? What if we wake up one morning and one of us decides that they aren’t happy? I don’t think we’ll ever be able to go back to being friends.”
This time it’s Dax who takes a shaky breath. “I don’t know about you, but to me, we’ve never just been friends. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but we click. And I think things will go really good before they go bad—if they ever go bad. So you’re right. If we do this, it’s going to go one of two ways.”
I feel like I’m standing on a cliff. My toes are curled over the edge, and I want so badly to jump, but I can’t see what’s at the bottom.
“Could you be?” I ask him. “If we stop this here. Could you be only my friend?”
Dax closes his eyes, and for a very long moment, I’m worried he’s going to say no. Finally, he opens them. “Yes, I can. But to be very transparent, I don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to either.” The words leave my mouth, and they are so achingly true that I hold out my arms, close my eyes, and I jump.
Chapter 15
He reaches forme at the same time I reach for him. My hands find his face. His hands find my waist, and our lips crash somewhere in the middle.
Half of me expected this kiss to be soft and sweet, like Dax. The other half was expecting something otherworldly, like the night at my condo where the whole room fell away for a moment.
This kiss is something entirely different. It’s hungry, and it’s heated. As if days, weeks, or even years of unsaid words and dormant feelings are exploding. Full-blown warfare of lips and tongues and groping hands making up for lost time.
My fingers curl around the hair at the nape of his neck as he backs me against the kitchen countertop. His mouth traces a line of kisses from my jaw to my collarbone, then back to my mouth again.
My hands itch to touch him, to explore the hard planes of his chest, to find the places where he’s ticklish or that make him draw breath a little quicker. At the same time, I want to memorize how his hands feel on my skin, the confident way they travel down my back and cup my ass as if he already knows how I like to be touched. He squeezes. I laugh because Dax McGuire just touchedmy ass. He squeezes again. This time both of us laugh, and we have to pause our kitchen make-out to catch our breaths.
My entire body begs for more—more touching, more stroking, more tongue—while my mind works out how we can do with less: less clothing, less waiting.
We should get naked.
Our telepathy works its magic once again. Dax slides his hands up under my shirt, kissing my neck while his thumbs graze the skin below my bra. He presses his hips into mine, and I can feel him hard and thick beneath his jeans.
We should definitely get naked.
I grab a handful of his shirt with one fist and slide my other hand underneath, feeling the warmth of his skin and the firmness of his stomach. I’ve seen Dax shirtless too many times to count, but never with the idea in my head that I could touch him or even taste him. And with the thought ofHow does Dax McGuire taste?I run my tongue along the nape of his neck, then playfully nip on his earlobe.
“What was that?” he asks between kisses.
“I’m not really sure.”
“Do it again.” His voice is so low and husky. I like this. Commanding, sexy, knows-what-he-wants Dax. This time when I do it, he’s the one moaning and pressing his hips to mine. Pressing his erection exactly where I’m aching.
For a moment, my brain dwells on the meaning of this moment. I think I’m about to have sex with Dax. And although I’ve thought about doing a million things with Dax, sex didn’t really enter the realm of possibility until tonight. I haven’t mentally prepared for it, and because now I’m certain Dax and I have telepathic powers, he stops mid-kiss.
“Are you still into this, Gems?”
My body votes a clear yes to this question, and my heart is onboard as well, but my brain is still asking questions likeWhat does this mean?AndHave we thought through all of the implications?AndDo I even have condoms?