“Jace?” Henry chucked his chin. “What about you?”
“Where you headed, bro?” Jace asked as he bobbed along in the water with Rhea on his back, pretending to choke-hold him.
“Thought about heading out to check out that little tavern we saw the other night. Getting bored of this place’s BLTs and overcooked fries for lunch.”
“Nah. I’m not ready for food yet, but let us know how it is, yeah?”
Henry gave him a curt nod before he looked at me. “What about you?”
I lowered my book, making a point of looking at him like he had three heads. “What about me?”
He nodded in the general direction of the exit, as though the very effort of asking me his next question pained him. “Well, you know, since you’re sitting there on your own like another third wheel… wanna join me?”
I sat up immediately, letting my legs drop to each side of my lounger as I pressed a hand to my chest. “Henry Cohen. Are you asking me to dinner?”
“Stop it?—"
“You are, aren’t you? People will start talking. They’ll start thinking you’re a nice guy. Next thing you know, you’ll be smiling freely forallthe world to see.” I spread my arms out wide, making a spectacle of this—of us.
“Forget it. I’ll go on my own,” he grumbled and started to walk away.
“Hold your horses, grumpy one,” I said on a laugh. “Since you askedsonicely, I’ll join you for a walk. Can’t promise to eat dinner with you though. You know how nauseous we make each other if we spend too much time together.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught Andy laughing, while Jace and Rhea were already lost to their own play fighting again, so I slipped on my denim cut off shorts, grabbed my bag, and I followed Henry through the complex, making sure to keep my distance. To the others, it no doubt looked like Henry already regretted inviting me.
But the moment the two of us made it around the corner out of sight, I barely had time to draw in a breath before Henry spun me around and slammed me up against the nearest wall, making my bag slip off my shoulder and fall to the ground with a thud.
He pushed his hands into my hair with urgency before he crashed his lips against mine and kissed me like I held the oxygen he needed to keep himself alive.
We were dangerously close to being caught, which only added to the thrill as I hitched my leg over his hip and moaned into his kiss. He grabbed my thigh with one hand, then began circling his hips against me so I could feel just how hard he was for me already.
“I would fuck you right here if I could,” he panted between kisses, making it almost impossible for me to breathe.
His hand slid to my arse cheek, and he pushed it under my denim shorts to squeeze the flesh there, causing a twinge of satisfying pain to jolt through me before his fingers delved in deeper, brushing through my wet heat.
“Goddamn it,” he groaned against my mouth. “Is this for me?”
“Yes,” I gasped, ready to lose myself in whatever he felt ready to offer.
“Not that Reed guy?”
“You. Only… you. Oh, shit. Yes. Oh. Keep doing that.”
His fingers dominated my clit, commanding my body, making it bow to his every touch. I would have let him fuck me against that wall, too, but when I heard the sound of flip flops drawing closer, we were brought back to reality far too quickly, and I somehow pushed him off me enough to catch a breath.
“Henry, stop, someone’s coming.”
“Shit.”
It took him less than a second to step back and put some distance between us, but he turned away from the sound of whoever drew closer, no doubt to try hide his erection that stood proudly in his shorts now. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, knowing that I, the woman he’d hated at the very start of all this, had been the one to cause such arousal.
He wiped his hand over his mouth—the one that had just been playing me like an instrument—while I stayed slumped against the wall, trying desperately to catch my breath. But then the sound of flip flops disappeared around another corner away from us, and when Henry and I locked eyes again, it took just another second for both of us to start laughing.
“What the hell are you doing to me, woman?” he asked, still panting.
I bent down to retrieve my bag and threw it on my shoulder. “It isn’t me, Henry. It’s the forbidden. You’re a sucker for it.”
He looked at me like I was stupid.
