With Every Heartbeat(99)

Quinn groaned and abandoned my hip to catch my face in his large, warm palms. His mouth moved over mine, and the tips of his fingers felt abrasive and hard and delicious as they skimmed through my hair.

I arched up, needing to get closer. My heart beat wonkily in my chest as he tugged me in until I was straddling him and pressing my throbbing core to his straining erection. I felt everything, the hard plane of his chest, the strength of muscle in his powerful thighs, the steel bulge of his arousal pressing into me. His mouth attacked mine as he kissed me hard and ruthlessly.

And I wasn’t freaked out. That might’ve been the craziest part of it all. I trusted Quinn implicitly. He could do anything, absolutely anything, because I knew I’d want it and I’d like it. I was already that far gone. So when he began to rub little circles over the hinges of my jaw with his thumbs, I followed his lead and let my lips part for him.

His tongue swooped in, and he claimed me in a whole new way. Mine slid against his, eager but hesitant. He made a sound of approval that hummed from his throat. Then he wrapped his tongue around mine and showed me how to make them dance. Even with the hint of alcohol, I loved the way he tasted, all fresh and crisp and completely Quinn. Hungry for more, I clamped my thighs around his hips and ground against him.

He groaned and pressed right back against me.

Yes! That was it. Right there.

I broke free of the brutally hot kiss and gasped for breath. Quinn tucked his face into my throat and panted as he continued to ride his hips hard against me. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to wrap my legs around him and imagine him deep inside me.

“What’s the next step after kissing?” he rasped breathlessly.

“Wha...what?” I shook my head, my brows puckering in confusion.

“Steps of intimacy,” he repeated. “You know...arm to shoulder, mouth to mouth. What’s next?”

How he could remember something like that at a time like this, I’ll never know. I couldn’t even remember my own name.

I shook my head, only wanting his mouth back on mine. “No idea.”

“That’s okay.” He stood, picking me up by the butt, my legs still anchored around his waist, and he started to carry me down the hall. “We’ll just figure it out as we go.”

I couldn’t believe this was happening, not even as he paused at a doorway where the door was three-quarters shut and he nudged me inside a dark room. I buried my face in his neck and hugged the solid expanse of his shoulders, seeking comfort from his familiar smell. My excited, overeager senses buzzed with anticipation, even as they jerked with worry.

What the heck was I doing? This was my best friend’s boyfriend. Or at least he had been up until two hours ago. That marked him as strictly forbidden. I shouldn’t be touching him the way I was touching him, wanting him the way I craved every inch of him, or licking my way up his neck the way my tongue was licking without my permission.

But he tightened his arms around me and groaned out another one of his approving hums, telling me he wanted this just as much as I did.

He was drunk though, which probably meant I was taking advantage. It was up to me to stop this.

Oh God. How was I going to find the will to stop this?

Quinn set me on the mattress once he found the bed. There was a moment in the dark that we were separated, when I knew I had to act, had to say no. But then he flicked on the bedside lamp, and I looked up at him. I opened my mouth to say…something, but the hungry need in his eyes fried my resistance. No way could I tell him no, not after he was finally looking at me the way I’d been dreaming he would for weeks.

His crystalline blue eyes glittered with a predatory awareness as he set a knee on the bed and began to crawl toward me. I had no idea why I went on retreat, maybe because he looked as if he wanted to devour me whole. I wasn’t graceful with my crablike crawl away from him while he was more than supple in his stealthy prowl forward. By the time he climbed on top of me, I had stumbled back into a supine sprawl with the back of my head flattening into one of his pillows.

Triumph flooded his smile as he gazed at me. My lips trembled when I tried to smile back. I didn’t know what was about to happen, I didn’t know how it’d feel, or how it’d affect us afterward, I just knew I wanted it anyway. Desperately.

Quinn must’ve sensed my nerves. He studied me with his glassy, inebriated gaze before catching a piece of my hair and whispering, “Are you scared?”

I shook my head, though I’m sure I probably looked like a liar from how wide my eyes were and how badly my lips trembled.

But scared? Of him? Never.

Nervous? Yes. Definitely.