Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
SOPHIE
Tyler is kissing me.
Holy shit, Tyler is kissing me. Tyler Hansley is kissing me and it’s the best fucking kiss of my entire life.
It’s the kiss of my dreams. The kiss I’ve watched in a million rom-coms over the years but always thought only existed on the screen and in my very vivid imagination.
Except I was wrong because the second Tyler’s lips touch mine, sparks race under my skin and fireworks explode overhead and this is better than any kiss in any movie because this kiss is real and it’s mine.
The low din of voices filters back from the bar, but I don’t hear anything at all because Tyler is kissing me the way I always hoped he would and my brain only has one track right now and that track is screaming OHMYGOD YES THIS.
Three-years-ago me is belting out “This Kiss” into a hairbrush. Fuck, even yesterday me is wearing a grin so huge it cracks my face.
Nothing is ever going to be the same again, and thank fucking god.
Tyler licks along my bottom lip, and as if he commanded me with words, I open for him instantly.
The second he licks inside my mouth, he groans.
The sound is hungry and fierce and arrows straight between my legs as he tangles one hand in my hair and slides his free hand around my back, tugging me to him and erasing every inch of space between us.
I wrap my arms around his waist as he devours me so perfectly, so thoroughly, I marvel at the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever done this.
This kiss isn’t even over yet and I already want to do it a million more times.
Tyler presses me more firmly between him and the wall, sliding one of his legs in between mine as our mouths move together, and we’re all moans and sighs. Groans and tongues and roving hands and heat searing my veins, and nothing on earth has ever felt as good as this.
A tiny part of my brain that isn’t blissed out on the way Tyler’s lips feel pressed against mine is wondering what’s happening right now, but I tell that synapse to shut the fuck up because Tyler tastes like the beer he must have been drinking earlier, and his big hands are holding onto me like he never wants to let go, and it’s so damn sexy I almost expire.
When he eases back, still holding me tightly, we stare at each other for a beat.
His lips are wet and his breath comes in soft pants and his eyes are dark with heat as they rove my face, almost as if he’s seeing me for the very first time.
Without the benefit of his mouth on mine, that tiny part of my brain sparks to life, questions and questions and questions tumbling to the forefront.
But then Tyler leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead, lingering there, breathing me in like he’s trying to memorize this moment, and all the questions vanish, replaced by butterflies in my stomach and electricity sparking under my skin and, when his eyes meet mine again, the bone deep certainty that I’m standing out on a precipice that will change me forever.
That I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life.
“Hey, pretty friend,” Tyler murmurs, running the back of his fingers over my cheek, gliding his thumb along my bottom lip before dipping his head and taking my mouth again, his hands cupping my face as he kisses me long and slow, and everything inside me dissolves into a puddle of lust. It’s not the frenzied heat of before.
It’s quieter. Deeper. Reverent almost. It’s two people who have known each other for their entire lives, realizing that, amazingly, they still have things to learn.
God, I want to learn them all.
I want to know everything about this man.
But right now, I want him to keep kissing me and to never, ever stop.
“Fuck, Sophie,” Tyler mutters, skating his lips over my jaw, pressing a line of kisses down my neck and following the path back up with his tongue. He flicks it over my pulse point and lets out a satisfied hum when I gasp. “I want to kiss you for fucking ever.”
I give a strangled laugh when he sucks lightly behind my ear because even though we’re in the process of turning our friendship into…whatever this is, it’s comforting, somehow, to know our brains still exist on the same wavelength.
“Same,” I manage, when he sucks on my bottom lip before covering my mouth with his and kissing me so thoroughly, I almost lift a hand to the top of my head to make sure it’s there and hasn’t blown clear off.
I’m still struggling to make sense of the fact that, at least for this moment, Tyler seems to want me as much as I want him, and that knowledge is scrambling my brain.
In the good way.
The best way.
The way that makes me want to drag him upstairs to the loft where Jack lives because Tyler’s house seems way, way too far away and we shouldn’t be driving when we could be kissing.
And doing so many other things. People criticize men for thinking with their dicks.
Well, right now I’m thinking with my vagina, and that bitch wants this man on a flat surface as soon as possible. Or a non-flat surface. I’m not picky.
“I want you,” he groans against my lips, mirroring my thoughts again and grinding his hot, hard cock against my stomach.
And then this man, this giant, gorgeous, goofy, football playing man I have known my entire life, shivers.
He shivers against me, and the thrill that runs through me is otherworldly.
The fact that I can do that to Tyler a dream I never want to wake up from.
“I want you so fucking badly. Only you. I want you to want only me too. Delete the app, Soph, so it can be just you and me because we could be so good together. I swear. Let me show you how good we can be. Delete the app and I’ll show you what it could be like. Please.”
Tyler with a plea in his voice is a heady thing, which is the only reason it takes so long for the words Delete the app to register, but when they do, it’s like a proverbial bucket of cold water dumped directly onto my head. With ice.
“What did you just say?” I ask sharply, planting both hands on his chest and shoving him back a step.
“Huh?” he asks, his eyes hazy and a little unfocused, pupils blown wide.
We stare at each other, chests rising and falling in sync, and my heartbeat thunders in my ears as my brain races to figure out how he knew I was on a dating app.
He has to be talking about VibeCheck, right?
But I haven’t told anyone except the girls that I’m on there, and I know none of them would say anything, so the only way he would know is if…
No way. My brain immediately rejects it as impossible.
“You said delete the app, Tyler. What does that mean?”
I can tell the second he realizes what he said, his eyes sharpening and his throat bobbing as he swallows hard, his eyes bouncing between mine.
“So, funny story,” he says with a smirk that is a direct contrast to the light wash of guilt in his gaze.
“I’m kind of…I mean I know…I mean I am… Fuck,” he mutters.
I roll my eyes because this man literally never shuts up, so it figures the one time I need him to make words, he doesn’t seem to know any. “Get your shit together, Harry. Are you talking about VibeCheck? How did you know I was on a dating app? I never told you that.”
Tyler blows out a breath, shoving a hand through his messy waves, and fuck me, why do I find that so devastatingly sexy? I’m so distracted by the way his hair falls over his forehead, it takes me a second to see he’s holding out a hand to me like we’re at a business meeting or something.
“What are you doing?” I ask warily.
“Shake my hand, Sal,” he says, his lips tipping up on one side in the crooked smile of his that only comes out to play when he’s done something wrong and thinks he needs absolution.
I cross my arms over my chest, and even though I think I’m about to be furious with him, I still feel a rush of power when Tyler’s eyes drop to my chest and I know—I just fucking know—he’s seeing my naked boobs in his head.
At least they’re good boobs.
Figuring I should get the angry portion of the night over with, I put my hand in his, feeling the little snap of electricity when his skin slides against mine.
“Pleasure to meet you, ChaosQueen. I’m RenegadeRush.”
“You’re…you…huh?” is all I can manage as my brain tries to make sense of the words reverberating through the hallway where we stand.
Tyler curls his fingers around mine when I try to pull my hand away, holding tight and laying his other hand on top of our joined ones, his eyes steady on mine. “I’m the one you’ve been talking to for the last five weeks. It’s me.”
I stare at him as I flip frantically through the last five weeks of conversations with RenegadeRush.
The questions. The banter. The ease that suddenly makes complete sense because I wasn’t talking to a stranger.
I was talking to the person in my life who is the farthest possible thing from a stranger.
Little snippets of our texts flash through my brain.
I grew up with sisters, and I’ve been known to paint my nails a time or two.
I have anxiety. Not all the time, but sometimes, and sometimes it gets pretty bad.
She’s home for me. She has been since we were kids.
I think it would be easy for someone in my position to feel inadequate with a dad who has accomplished what mine has, but I’ve never felt that.
Can a garden-variety football fan recite the stats of every offensive player on every team, in every game for the last five years?
Pretty friend.
And then I almost laugh, the fact that I’m supposed to be angry right now kind of forgotten, because he was dropping breadcrumbs this whole time and fuck me, it suddenly seems insane I didn’t figure this out sooner.
Actually, I should have figured it out sooner, because he should have told me. So, actually, fuck him.
Okay maybe I am still a little angry.
Except not really because god, I really want to fuck him.
And I want to know how he found out. When he found out.
Why best friend Tyler suddenly became possessive Tyler and touch me all the time Tyler and why we were making out against a wall in the back hallway of our best friend’s bar two minutes ago.
Why he didn’t tell me it was him because Tyler doesn’t have a devious bone in his body, so if he was keeping it from me, he has a reason.
All I have to do is ask and he’ll tell me everything. I’m sure of it.
But he needs to suffer for a minute first.
The curtain rises and I take the stage.
I narrow my eyes at Tyler, yanking my hand away from him and crossing my arms over my chest again, feeling a streak of heat when, once again, his eyes dip to my tits. “You knew it was me and you didn’t tell me?”
I use my lowest, scariest voice, and the flash of fear that crosses Tyler’s face as his eyes snap up to mine, the way his throat bobs as he swallows hard, has satisfaction buzzing through me.
He looks so terrified I have to bite my cheek to keep from laughing.
Goddammit I want to kiss his face off, and now that I know he wants to kiss me too, it’s awfully hard to resist throwing myself at him.
But I’m in the middle of a show, and I always commit to the role.
“Not exactly. I only…”
I hold up a hand, cutting him off. “You know what? Save it, Tyler. I don’t want to know right now. I need to take a fucking beat.”
“No,” he says sharply, before squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.
When he opens his eyes, there’s a plea in them, and he lifts his hand, reaching out for me before seeming to think better of it, raking that hand through his hair instead.
Holy shitballs he’s so hot. “I mean, please don’t go, Soph.
Stay here and talk to me. I’ll explain everything, I swear. ”
I shake my head. “Save it, Ty. Just fucking save it. I need to process this information, and you need to let me. I’m going home.
Don’t follow me,” I order when I see him open his mouth, knowing he’s going to offer to come with me.
Maybe even beg, I think with glee. “I don’t have time for manchildren now.
Stay here and play with your friends. I’ll deal with you later. ”
I consider I may be overselling it a bit when I let out a big, dramatic huff and push off the wall, shoving Tyler back the rest of the way.
But the look on his face is giving sad puppy dog, so I’m sure he’s buying it.
I love him so fucking much I almost cave because fuck me, sad puppy dogs are irresistible.
But I’ve come this far, and he needs to be taught a teeny tiny lesson about keeping important secrets from important people.
So instead of throwing my arms around him and telling him not to be sad and to just kiss me again for the love of god, I sweep past him with a flourish and an epic hair toss. I hope my hair tinsel sparkles under the lights because that’s exactly the kind of extra I want to bring to this moment.
I don’t have to look behind me to know Tyler is curling his hands into fists at his sides, willing himself to stay still and not chase after me the way I know he wants to.
And as I sweep through the bar and straight out the front door with the ghost of his kiss still on my lips and the memory of the way his hands felt burned into my skin, I grin, full of excitement and anticipation for what the rest of this night holds.