Kevin told himself for the tenth time that watching out the bedroom window to see if Holly had gotten home didn’t make him a stalker.
“I’m just being a concerned friend,” he told Whiskers, who looked up at him like he wasn’t buying it for a minute.
Of course, it was early for Holly to be home from a date. She could be gone for hours. Or she might not come back at all. She hadn’t told him she was on a date, but Kevin had seen the guy Tony from the grocery store pick her up. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. He didn’t like the burning in his gut at the thought, but he reminded himself that he couldn’t make her choose him. Maybe she’d rather be with the shit head from the grocery store.
But that didn’t mean he had to like it.
He didn’t blame her for leaving him at the grocery store. He’d been an ass, which Megan had been eager to point out multiple times the night before, after he’d caved and asked het to pick him up. He’d started to go to Holly last night, but he’d decided to apologize tonight and maybe try again to make her dinner.
Of course, she came up with other plans.
It occurred to him that he’d told her what he wanted for them, but he’d never asked her what she wanted.
He was looking out the window for the third time in ten minutes when he saw the guy’s car in the driveway.
She’d been gone an hour and twenty minutes, which included drive time. The date must not have gone very well.
He bolted down the stairs, making sure the front door was closed behind him, and stopped on his porch, his chest squeezing when he saw the two in an embrace, Tony’s face lowered to hers.
Was he kissing her good night?
Kevin might have to move in with his mother after all, because he wasn’t sure he could handle watching Holly with another man.
Tony walked back to his car and Kevin warred with himself. Should he go to her, making it obvious he’d been watching for her? Or should he wait for her to come over like she’d asked before her date?
His feet decided for him.
He was halfway across the yard when she started down her porch steps, stopping short when she saw him.
God, she was so beautiful. She was wearing a peach dress that made her skin glow and her blonde hair was down, loose and wavy. She wore a pair of white sandals with a small heel that made her calves look incredible. He was blown away that Tony had brought her home so soon when she looked this amazing.
“You went on a date.” It wasn’t a question.
She hesitated. “We went to dinner and caught up.”
“Do you like this guy?” He struggled to get the words out. “You want to see him again?”
“Yeah, I plan to see him again,” she said quietly, looking into his eyes.
A vise tightened around his chest, cutting off his oxygen.
She paused. “We’re friends.”
“Friends.” He climbed the steps and stood in front of her, his voice husky. “Friends like you and me?”
She backed up a step, the front door stopping her as she looked up at him with so much emotion in her eyes he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
She shook her head slowly. “No, Kevin. Nothing like you and me. I’ve never had anything like you and me.”
He reached for her and pulled her to his chest, kissing her with a raw hunger that caught him by surprise. He started to pull back, worried that he’d scared her with his intensity, but her fingers threaded through his hair, holding him firmly against her mouth.
He cupped her cheek and tilted her head back, his tongue searching for hers, which made her cling tighter. She slid a hand down to his chest, grabbing his T-shirt in her fist.
Encouraged by her response, he had run his hands over her ass, then down to her outer thigh, and he started to bring her leg up to his waist when he realized what he was doing. On her front porch.
“God, Holly. I’m sorry.” He dropped her leg and tried to step back, but her hold on him tightened.
Her eyes blazed with passion and defiance. “I’m not.”
He wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.
She took a breath. “I like you. I really like you.” Her voice trailed off as she reached for his face, then trailed her fingers along his jaw.
He searched her eyes. “I told you I would wait for you until your big wedding, and then we can be open about being together. But it occurred to me that I never asked if that was what you wanted.”
She studied him, her expression giving nothing away. “Are you asking me if I agree with your proposition—that we wait two weeks before we announce to the world that we’re together? And we only kiss until then?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
She slowly shook her head. “No. I’m not okay with that.”
He struggled to deal with the disappointment cascading through him, and he took a step back. He had to be okay with this.
Her hands fisted the material of his T-shirt, and she tugged him back to her. “I’m not finished.”
Kevin rolled his head back, releasing a defeated groan. “Holly.”
“I don’t want to be with you for two weeks with the rule that we kiss.”
His hope latched on to her words. He could work with this. “We don’t have to kiss. We can—”
But she cut him off as she placed a small kiss at the corner of his mouth, then left a trail of kisses as she moved to the center of his mouth. “I want to kiss.”
His erection throbbed against the tight confines of his jeans. “I’m confused about your opposition.”
She held his face between her hands, their mouths inches apart. “Let me tell you what I do want.”
Her voice was so sultry that a wave of desire surged through him, and he fought the urge to press himself against her. Which was definitely against the rules he’d proposed yesterday. “I am dying to hear what you want.”
“I agree to your two weeks together before the wedding.” She kissed him again, covering his mouth with hers.
“Okay.”
“I agree to go public if the wedding goes well.”
“It will.”
“But I want more than first base during our two weeks. I want it all.”
He leaned back, taking in her hooded eyes and her swollen lips, her words making him ache to be inside her. “You want it all?”
“Everything.”
He pushed her against the door, kissing her as his hands roamed her body, but then he stopped. “Inside. Now.”
“Yes.”
He opened the door and nudged her backward into the living room, then shut the door. He grabbed her ass and tugged her flush against him as he kissed her. She pulled his shirt up and over his head, leaving him bare chested. She let out a tiny breath as her palms covered his pecs.
“I love your chest,” she said, pressing her lips over his sternum. Then she placed open-mouthed kisses down to his left nipple and drew it into her mouth.
“Holly.”
Her mouth moved across his skin to his other nipple.
Her hands found the button to his jeans, unfastening, then unzipping. Then she pushed the fabric over his hips and down, pulling his briefs with them. When she got to midthigh he tried to take over, but she pushed his hands away, bending to pull them down the rest of the way, then dropping to her knees. He’d kicked off his shoes and had just stepped out of his jeans when she reached for him and ran her tongue along his tip.
“Oh, God.” He grunted, he hands sinking into her hair.
She sucked his tip into her mouth, licking, then taking him deeper.
His grip on her hair tightened, and he forced himself to be gentler—easier said than done when she was driving him out of his mind.
It didn’t take her long to bring him to the brink. He grabbed her upper arms and hauled her up, his mouth searching hers. He reached behind her, finding the zipper of her dress. He had it down to her waist within seconds, before he came to his senses. “Your cousin?”
It took her a second to understand what he meant. “She’s at work.”
Her words set him free. Her dress was at her feet, her bra quickly following it, leaving her in only her lacy panties.
His palm pressed flat against her abdomen, sliding down to her mound as he lowered his face to the nape of her neck. He backed her up to the sofa and pushed her down. “You’re so beautiful, Holly.”
She gave him a shy smile.
“I want you.”
She pushed out a breath, her breasts rising and falling. He wanted to kiss every inch of her body. He hooked his fingers on the top of her panties and tugged them over her hips and down her legs, leaving them on the floor. He knelt between her knees, spreading her legs apart, then lowering his mouth to her breast, finding her nipple and drawing it into his mouth. Sliding his hand down between her folds, he found her slick and wet. Her hips lifted up as she released a tiny moan.
He smiled as his mouth glided over her abdomen, his tongue leaving a trail to her mound. He pressed her legs wider, his hands firm against her inner thighs as he lowered his mouth between her folds, his tongue finding her sensitive spot.
Leaving a hand on her thigh, his other hand moved to her core, then he pressed two fingers inside her as his tongue brought her higher.
He looked up at her, the peaks of her breasts rising and falling with her rapid breath, her mouth parted. Her hands held on to his head, then pulled him up.
“I want you,” she said breathlessly as she looked at him. “I want you in me now.”
He loved her confidence, his erection twitching with the ache to be inside her. “I need to get a condom.”
Her eyes found his. “I’m on the pill.”
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she was lying on the sofa, then he climbed between her open legs. “Are you sure?”
She grinned. “That I’m on the pill?”
He grinned, too. “I trust you on that. I meant are you sure you trust me?”
She looked deep into his eyes. “I trust that you would never hurt me.”
He sucked in a breath at the significance of her gift. Her trust was everything.
Hooking his hand around her thigh, he lifted her leg around his waist and entered her slowly, losing himself in the sensation.
She lifted up to him, taking him deeper as he buried himself inside her in slow, deep strokes.
Writhing beneath him, she pressed herself to him and he increased the pace, holding her hips to steady himself. She tightened even more around him as she climbed higher, releasing soft moans that drove him mad.
He leaned over her, then gave in to his desire, thrusting fast and hard, so close he had to grit his teeth until she cried out beneath him, calling out his name.
And that was when he came, burying himself deep inside her, his name on her lips. He slowed his pace until he rolled to his side, pulling her to his chest, still inside her.
He brushed her hair from her sweaty face, searching her eyes. This was too good to be true. His fingertips softly stroked the side of her cheek. He’d never felt this tenderness before, and it caught him by surprise. “What made you change your mind?”
She smiled at him. “My grandmother.”
He laughed. “She told you to have sex with me?”
“No.” She grinned. “She told me once I found a love that I felt all the way to my toes to never let it go.”
His breath caught on the L word.
She released a soft chuckle. “I don’t know what this is between us, but I’ve only felt it with you. I’d be crazy to let you go, Kevin. I want you. I want this. We’ll make it work.”
He kissed her, still in disbelief that she was his, but now that she was, he would do everything in his power to keep her.