“How’d you handle that?”
Grady’s gaze bounces between my eyes before they drop to my mouth. His tongue pokes out as he wets his lips, his gaze raising to meet mine again. The movement was so quick, if I hadn’t been paying such close attention, I would’ve missed it.
Clearing his throat, he murmurs, “I tend to lean into things I want, even if they make me uncomfortable.”
“Who said anything about me wanting it?” I ask, my voice suddenly coming out raspy.
His lip tips up on one side. “Do you?” he counters. “Want it, that is?”
Fuck,it’s now fifty degrees hotter out here than it was a moment ago. Sweat lines the back of my neck, and it feels like I can’t breathe. Grady is definitely closer, I can practically count his eyelashes if I tried. Count the freckles on his face. I can seethe way his jaw flexes as he waits for my answer. Feel his breath brush against my lips.
Lips that suddenly tingle.
That ache to know how his would feel covering mine.
My mind is hazy. It’s filled with fog that I’m beginning to think has nothing to do with the Jameson.
Remembering he asked me a question, I swallow and nod. “Maybe I do.”
The vein in Grady’s neck pulses, and there’s an electric current seeming to flow from me to him. It’s charging the air around us, making it feel different… Suffocating.
“I dare you to do it,” he husks, and the air is sucked from my lungs.
All my rational thinking leaves my mind like smoke clearing, and my body moves of its own volition. First my hand, coming up to grip the back of Grady’s neck. His breath hitches as his eyes drop to my lips again. Then my body, as I push off the brick wall, bringing me flush with his. And finally, my head as it leans in until my lips fuse with Grady’s.
This feels like an out-of-body experience. Like I’m watching myself do it from above. From the way my nails bite into the flesh of his neck, to the way I part our lips and thrust my tongue into his hot, wet mouth. The way Grady brings both of his hands to my hips. The way he’s so responsive. It’s like he doesn’t need a single moment to catch up, his brain and his mouth and his body knowing exactly what to do. Like they were made for this moment. His tongue rolls against mine, and he groans into my mouth. I swallow it down, relishing the taste of him.
The sweet taste of temptation and bad decisions.
Our movements quickly grow fevered, and before I know it, his body is pushing mine back into the wall. Crowding me. Pressing up against me. I canfeelhim. Feel the way this kiss—the way I’m—making him feel. And I know he can feel me too.Teeth clank together, they nip, our tongues devour. Every single breath is stolen by Grady. Except the longer this goes on, the more I think it’s not stolen…but given. I didn’t realize how truly I needed this—how deeply and viscerally I wanted this—until I felt his mouth move in synchrony with mine. How goddamnrighthis lips feel brushing against mine.
But then… Well, then my fucked-up mind gets in the way, and the reality of what’s happening hits me like a Mack truck. Shoving him away, my fingers find my spit-slick lips, brushing them as if that could replace the ecstasy I just felt having his mouth on me. My chest heaves as I look at him, his eyes dark and wild.
“Fuck,” I breathe. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Grady takes a step back, his hands going to his head, and he looks about as freaked out as I feel. “Shit.”
“I…” Fuck. What the hell was that? “I’m so sorry.” The words tumble out of my mouth. “That shouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s okay,” he whispers.
“It’snotokay, Grady,” I growl. “It’s not okay at all. I gotta go.”
I’m surprised my feet don’t break out into a sprint as I leave the alley, not bothering going back in the bar. In a fog, I walk down a few blocks before I come to my senses and pull out my phone to order an Uber.
I can’t believe I fucking did that.
20
Grady Wilde
Ididn’t think it was possible for things to get any more uncomfortable, but here we are. Gathered around the table, like one big happy family, eating breakfast. Suzy is sitting right beside me, and Jade is at the head of the table, with Boone directly in front of his daughter. I can tell he didn’t even want to eat at the table, but Suzy insisted. We haven’t made eye contact once this morning.
After he left me standing in the alley, the taste of his mouth still fresh on my lips, I went back into the bar, and did my best acting, pretending like everything was A-okay, and that I wasn’t just sucking face with my ex-brother-in-law moments before. Thankfully, nobody thought anything was up. I’m assuming Boone ended up going home because I didn’t see him for the rest of the night, and by the time I got home, the house was silent.
I still can’t believe that happened. And out of nowhere. He’d been acting a little weird all night since I got to the bar. He kept eyeing me, but every time I’d glance his way, he’d look away. Then when I was on stage doing karaoke with Xander and Colt,he was watching me again, but much more intently. After he stormed out of the bar once we were finished with the song, I spent all of three and a half seconds doing a half-ass job talking myself out of following him. In my gut, I knew it was a bad idea. I knew that nothing good would come out of it. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did…and I was right.
That kiss…fuck me, was it good. It’s something I’ve fantasized about for longer than I care to admit, and it was every bit as good as the fantasy. Better, in fact. The way his lips overpowered mine. The way they took what they wanted. The way his body felt against mine. How his hands felt on me. I didn’t want it to end…but then it did. Panic and regret were immediate on his face.
