27. Anything For You
Tatum
“That’s my fault actually,” I find myself saying, since I can feel Skye shutting down beside me. “I took the ring to get cleaned yesterday and I forgot to give it back to her afterward.”
I’m not an expert on how often engagement rings are supposed to be cleaned, but that seems like a pretty realistic excuse…right?
“Yeah, he did forget.” Skye gives me a faux-stern look. “And now my finger has never felt more naked or lonely.”
I try not to seem fazed by her casual usage of “naked” as I take hold of her left hand and place a lingering kiss to her bare ring finger. “I’m sorry, baby.”
And there’s that blush I’ve been loving so much.
Is she flustered by the kiss? Or because I called her “baby” again?
“Awwww,” Zoya coos, pressing a hand to her heart, “you guys are just too precious! I could watch you together for hours .”
Well, that’s not creepy at all.
“I should get going though,” she continues to speak. “I can’t wait to see the location pics!”
She wiggles her fingers at us, and then goes back to the peppers section.
“Let’s move!” Skye hisses, tugging on the cart. “We can start at the other side of the store instead.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Don’t you think that’s going to be a little obvious?”
She doesn’t acknowledge what I said.
Instead, she starts marching out of the produce area. Her hair swishes back and forth with each step and my fingers are aching to get lost in those soft, pink waves. Preferably while I’m getting lost in our next kiss. Whenever that might be…
I catch up with Skye just as she passes the meat and deli section. “You good, Pink Stuff?”
“I guess.” She proceeds to cross her arms. “I just—I wasn’t expecting to run into Zoya like that. Thanks for thinking of a quick excuse for the ring. And for telling her about location-hunting. I was panicking big time.”
“Yeah, of course.” I bump my shoulder against hers. “I told you that I always got your back.”
She peeks at me out of the corner of her eye as she drums a few fingers against the shopping cart handle. “You called me baby again.”
“I did.”
“So…” she trails off, tilting her head to the side. “Does this mean you would call me that if we were in an actual relationship?”
“Hmm,” I hum as we continue to walk, “it would honestly depend on you. If you didn’t like it, then no , I wouldn’t call you that.”
“Would you still call me Pink Stuff too?”
“Always.”
Even if she decided to stop dying her hair pink, I don’t think I could ever part with the nickname.
“Oh, well, I think baby would be okay then.”
I decide to tease her. “Just okay?”
She doesn’t answer me.
Heck, she’s not even looking at me.
Her gaze is focused on…the pasta aisle?
“Did you need to grab some pasta?”
“What?” she asks with wide eyes. “No! Why would you ask that? I mean, no, I don’t need to grab some pasta.”
I stop pushing the cart and raise an eyebrow at her. “Why are you acting weird about pasta?”
“It’s Anna’s fault!” she blurts out. “She was talking about you and me making out in the pasta aisle!”
If I were still pushing the cart, I’d probably run into someone with it. “She said what ?”
“I’d rather not get into details,” Skye grumbles. “Act like I didn’t say anything, but let’s just avoid the pasta aisle, okay?”
Crap, does that mean she doesn’t even want to think about us kissing again?
She seemed so sure about the idea last night. What changed?
“No pasta aisle,” I drawl as we start to walk again. “Got it. Are there any other aisles we should be avoiding?”
She shoves my arm. “It’s not funny, Tatum! She was totally unhinged about the whole thing, and it was embarrassing!”
“All right, all right.” I attempt to calm her down. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to make a joke out of it. Don’t let Anna get to you though, yeah?”
“I should only get ice cream for myself,” she mutters, looking pouty and adorable. “That’ll teach her to say outlandish things!”
“If we’re going location-hunting, I should probably swing by my house to drop the groceries off and grab my camera,” I say, turning the car on after we’re both in our seats. “Sound okay?”
Skye gives me a sassy look. “Yes, as long as you feed me at some point.”
My mind drifts to the other day when we were taste-testing cakes and I fed her a forkful of the vanilla almond one. That’s obviously not the kind of “feed me” she’s currently talking about, but my blood heats anyway as I also think about the way she licked me.
And the way she quivered when I dragged my thumb across her bottom lip.
“It was weird for me because I think I liked it. Maybe.”
“Tatester? Did you hear me?” Skye waves a hand in front of my face. “I’m being so for real right now. I’ll need substance to manage location-hunting.”
“Easy, Carson. We’ll get something to eat, I promise.”
I hold my pinky out to her, anxious for an excuse to touch her, even if it’s just because of a pinky promise.
She pretends to glare at me, but then she wraps her pinky around mine with a dramatic sigh. “Ya know, most adults don’t make pinky promises.”
“You’re right.” I proceed to kiss the inside of her wrist. “But we’re not most adults. We’re us…and I love us.”
She blinks as we unlatch pinkies and I swallow, worried about that last part coming off the wrong way. “Skye—”
“I love us too,” she interrupts quietly. “That’s why this is so scary. Like, what if we’re only supposed to be friends and we mess things up?”
I try not to wince. I really, really try not to.
Her words hit hard though.
I would never force Skye to be more than friends with me, but could I handle just being her best friend? After that kiss? After all those intimate moments between us? After telling her the truth about how I feel?
“Tatum, I think you should kiss me now.”
I stare at her like she just asked me to help her commit murder. “Wait, what?”
“I need to know if it’s going to be the same as before,” she says, turning in her seat. “I need to know if it’s real for me too. I need you to kiss me, Tate.”
Even though this is what I’ve been wanting and hoping for, there’s a part of me that feels hesitant to meet her request. What if she’s not actually ready? Or worse, what if it’s not real enough for her?
“I don’t know if we should.” My voice is low and even as I stare out the front window. “There’s no rush for you to decide how you feel about me, remember? It’s okay.”
“Do you…do you not want to kiss me anymore?”
My heart twists at how vulnerable she sounds, and I curse under my breath as I lock eyes with her. “Carson, I want to kiss you so much it hurts. You have no idea how much it freaking hurts.”
She swallows, her hooded gaze dipping to my mouth. “Then you should do it. You should kiss me. Right now.”
Skye
Is he going to try and convince me again that we should wait? I hope not. Otherwise, I’ll have to take matters into my own hands and just kiss Tatum first. We can’t leave here until I know for sure. Until I’ve tasted him one more time. Until I—
My breath catches when he grips the side of my seat and leans forward. “Skye, you’ve gotta be 100% sure about this, because I’m not going to act like it shouldn’t have happened afterward. Not this time. Do you understand me?”
Heat and intensity are radiating off him as he looks deep into my eyes, and every single one of my nerves are throbbing with anticipation.
I nod, or at least I think I do. “Y-yeah, I understand.”
“Good.”
And then his mouth slants over mine with a searing kiss that consumes me completely.
If I’m being honest, I was expecting him to be gentle like the first time he kissed me, but there’s only hunger behind this kiss. A desperate kind of hunger that’s impossible to ignore.
Or that’s impossible to resist.
So, I kiss him back.
I press my eager lips harder against his as I lift my hand to cup the side of his face, and he immediately leans into my touch while scooting closer to me. It’s freaking adorable.
But all thoughts of cuteness die when he coaxes my lips apart and deepens our kiss, causing my whole body to hum with approval. There’s no way for me to even describe how good it feels to be kissed like this by him.
We just started and I’m already greedy for more.
Which is why I’m frustrated as heck when Tatum pulls away from me.
His beautiful mouth leaves mine and I am not okay with that.
At. All.
“W-what are you doing?” I pant, looking at him expectantly. “Why did you stop?”
“You made a weird noise,” he explains, sounding breathless himself, “and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.”
“A weird noise?” I echo with creased eyebrows. “Like what?”
“Well…” He clicks his tongue and chuckles a little bit. “It sounded like a sigh—”
Oh, that’s not too bad.
I mean, I wouldn’t describe a sigh as “weird.”
“—but it also sounded like a whimper ?”
I almost choke. “WHAT? That’s the noise I made?”
I’m going to die in this car from a very high dosage of humiliation.
“Dang, I love it when you blush like that,” he murmurs, brushing his knuckles against my cheek. “So freaking pretty.”
Anddddd I’m blushing even more. “I-I’m sorry about the weird noise. I didn’t mean to.”
“Don’t be sorry.” His voice becomes husky as he moves his hand to the back of my neck. “To be real with you, I thought it was kind of hot, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t because you were uncomfortable—”
“It wasn’t,” I cut him short. “I wasn’t uncomfortable. I guess it was because I just…I really liked how you were kissing me.”
His hazy eyes are practically black now, and when he licks his lips, I can feel a delicious shiver working its way down my spine. “Does that mean I should keep kissing you, Skye?”
My heart flutters with impatience. “Yes, please.”
“Anything for you, baby.”
His fingers weave through my hair as he tugs me forward, and I go willingly.
More than willingly.
I don’t think there’s anything that could keep me away from him.
Away from those soft lips.
Our mouths collide in a heady rush, and every touch is laced with an overwhelming sense of want . But this is more than only lust or desire. Kissing Tatum just feels right. It feels real.
It is real. It’s so freaking real.
I know I wasn’t sure before, but all my doubts have melted away with the fire that’s been burning between us, and I’m convinced we should’ve kissed again wayyyy sooner.
My hands grab at the front of Tatum’s shirt as he captures my bottom lip, and when his teeth graze against the sensitive skin there, I can feel my eyes rolling back from the sensation.
Oh frickkkk.
“Mmm,” he mumbles, sucking lightly on my lip, “you did it again.”
Despite my current foggy state of complete and total ecstasy, somehow, I’m able to register his words. “Did what?”
“You made that little noise again.” He proceeds to kiss along my jawline, leaving a warm trail of tingles behind. “I swear it’s my new favorite sound.”
His breath caresses my ear as he says the last part, and I’m pretty sure every inch of me must be covered in goosebumps now.
“So,” he exhales, pulling away to study my face, “what do you think, Pink Stuff? Is it real?”
“Yeah,” I whisper as he plays with my hair, “I think it’s real.”
“That’s good news,” he says with an exaggerated sigh of relief, “because it would’ve been really awkward if you had friend-zoned me after the way we were just kissing.”
I laugh in agreement, but then the gravity of our situation hits me. We’re best friends who just made out. Where do we go from here? Are we automatically dating now? Can we kiss each other at any given time? And what about—
“Hey,” Tatum drawls, gently tugging on a strand of my hair, “I can see it all over your face that you’re trying to figure this out in your head when you should be figuring it out right here with me.”
“Sorry,” I apologize, sliding my hands to the back of his neck, “I’m just wondering about the specifics. Like, what’s the proper procedure after your best friend becomes more than just your best friend?”
“The proper procedure, huh?” he asks, the corner of his mouth tilting up. “Well, that’s totally up to us. We get to decide how we want this to play out.” He leans in and kisses my forehead. “But first, we’re getting you some food.”